Fallow versions of my cover. (early versions had a "the" in the title)
I wrote Chorus of Crows many years ago, and the story grew from my dad’s spooky and surreal battle with Parkinson’s. Without his ordeal, I wouldn’t have started writing at all. And after the literary fireworks, I created a cover. I’m an illustrator. What else would I do? Like my dad, Oren Walton, the main character, is a corn farmer. I painted the gnarly roots of a cornstalk that reminded me of a skeletal hand reaching beneath the soil, added crows growing from its twisted tips, and set it against a luminous orange background. I loved it. For years, while I queried agents and publishers, accumulated rejections, edited, rewrote, and finally published another novel entirely, I envisaged Chorus of Crows with that glowing silhouette on my Amazon page. As soon as I signed a contract with Dreamsphere Books, however, they told me my cover was chicken $#%t, and tossed it into the tree line behind the farm where old tractors go to die. I was heartbroken.
Above, you'll find the cover that never was. I assumed the publisher would love it. And the art department would add their own dramatic title type or font. I thought the glowing color and simple imagery would make it stand out against other covers when it was a small icon. I like to create imagery that is curious and different. Artsy.
Dreamsphere Books created a new cover. I felt this version should be fed to the dogs and in the spring, mown over. I called this version stock photography and sorrow.
This update is better, but I still hated it, and they didn't want to do any more tweaking. I persevered, telling them readers wouldn’t see the tiny crows when the book was a small icon on Amazon. The sky was so dark, I said, that it made the title hard to read. Wheat? Whatever. My main character, Oren Walton, is a corn farmer. And please, why not put a crow in an “O” instead of tacked onto the side of the field like a stock photography mistake? Do you know what they said?
"Okay. We'll give it another go."
Unholy crows! Now, I love it. The trail leads the eye through the corn to the creepy barn and glowing window. I'll always be sad about my unharvested version, but I hope this cover leads future readers straight to Amazon to buy a copy! Chorus of Crows launches on March 13, so look to social media for book mayhem, fun, and freebies.
"The cover of a book is the beginning of a conversation between the author and the reader." ~ David Pearson
