I’m thrilled to announce that the cover for Embers at Dawn has gotten a positive mention in The Book Designer’s monthly e-book Cover Design Award. I quote: “Very atmospheric cover that I’m sure will have the desired effect.” This is what I wrote about the cover: “I designed the cover myself. I’m a professional photographer, so it was an easy choice to take that particular job myself. The book is the first in a series. The series’ caption at the bottom is meant to be reused on the upcoming books. It’s a western novel. The face on the cover is the protagonist.”

Evolution of a cover: From rough sketch – via mock-ups – to finished result.

Designing the cover for my debut novel has been a meandering journey in sketches and mock-ups. I’ve been working on the concept for the cover art for almost as long as it has taken me to complete the writing (I have a lot more sketches and mock-ups than the ones shown here). I knew early on that I wanted Lee’s face on the cover, featuring her whiskers and ever present cigarette. I dabbled with the idea of hiring someone to draw the cover, but I eventually decided that I wanted a photograph on the cover and to do the job myself.

Because Embers at Dawn is the first in a series, I wanted a style that could be easily copied onto the upcoming books. The idea is to have a different close-up image of Lee’s face on the cover of each book. Ingvild Eiring has kindly agreed to pose as Lee throughout the entire series. I’m aware of the fact that the title Embers at Dawn is somewhat cryptic, so it was important to have the series’ title in focus too. The “label” (at the bottom of the cover) will be reused on future releases in the series.

To emphasize the western genre I used fonts I bought from Walden Font Co. It’s the first time I’ve paid for fonts, but I’m very glad that I did. I made several mock-ups of the cover using whatever fonts I had at hand, but they didn’t quite “fit” the gritty western style I was looking for. Walden Font Co. have also been kind enough to feature the cover art for Embers at Dawn in their customer gallery. Thanks guys!

If you’d like to wear the gorgeous Ingvild/Lee, I’ve made a T-Shirt featuring the cover photo that can be bought here: Cafepress