Comments on: Guest Author: April Martinez

by: April

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:22:09 +0000

Rae and L.E., thanks!!!

Teddy, I wouldn’t mind seeing that myself.

by: Teddy Pig

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:09:25 +0000

Oh man, that would be SWEET all the authors share their rejected covers pile here on the site. Oh the few I have had the chance to see were priceless.

One rule… you cannot name the artist but… oh how I would love to know.

by: L.E. Bryce

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:03:53 +0000

Man, even your rejects are nice! You should see some of the rejects for my covers. They’re scary.

by: Rae

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:02:40 +0000

April –

When I asked for a maze for Treading the Labyrinth you didn’t even choke, just sent me the most beautiful cover ever. You are da bomb, sweetie.

Rae

by: April

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:17:14 +0000

Darr, I usually don’t feel that I have enough authority on the book to contradict the author/editor/publisher on the suggested concepts or to even offer up an alternative. In rare cases I’ve been known to read the book first and come up with a completely different cover concept that in the end turned out to be a better one, but I’d go nuts if I had to read every book at the rate that I cover them. So I have to trust the author’s vision.

by: Darragha

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:32:30 +0000

You are an artist, April. I’d say that pretty much anything you cover-wise, is damned good. It may not be what the vision of the author is, but sometimes we should listen more to our cover artists, huh?

Darr

by: April

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:42:43 +0000

May, good thing they’re the final draft, then! As for your question, that depends on the author. I think most authors do take a scene from their book. Others try to capture the mood or the theme of the book, which is better for making movie poster type book covers.

Shuzluva, if I ever get the opportunity, I will definitely try to reuse all of my rejects — that’s time and money I don’t want to waste!

by: shuzluva

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:27:08 +0000

I haven’t read Vixen Virgins, but that first cover should definitely go in the re-use pile. It’s sexy, sweet and hot at the same time.

by: May

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:20:22 +0000

I preferred the second version for all three covers.

Would you say that a significant portion of the concepts you are given come from scenes in the book??

by: April

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:56:42 +0000

SweetNSourGirl, that cover is a composite of at least three photos — one shot is from inside an actual Egyptian temple, another is of a loving couple bathed in golden light, and still another is of Egyptian hieroglyphics, which I used for the texturing of the entire thing. I put the whole image together with a combination of gradient masks and color washes, the goal being to make it match the cover of the first book in the series, which also has that rusted gold color scheme to it.

Bam, lol, those are the ones!

Anne, I’m glad to hear I got the people right in the first draft at least. You might have described them that way in the cover request because I don’t see myself inserting specifically those two guys at random and without good reason. But what really helped me most with the cover was that you suggested more than one concept, which gave me some wiggle room. Some authors can be too restrictive in their cover suggestions and provide only one unbendable concept.