“I am artiste, I cannot work in these conditions” (spoken with a heavy accent, I don’t know which one) i also do not recall the movie this quote originally came from.

But- there is also another good one: don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.  or something like that. Mostly, it means, don’t try so hard to get something perfect, that good isn’t good enough and you never stop pushing beyond the point that is necessary.

Why am I talking about movies and cliches, you ask?

Well, because it certainly applies to designing book covers. At least this one.

I think Forsaken Mage has a really nice cover (although my editor came up with a better concept idea… after we had this one complete. good timing kev:)

And the cover went through several stages of evolution.

We decided the finale scene, or something thereabouts would work best. Okay- Kadaris and Taijin defending Amonar (no spoilers here).

So far, so good. Except we went with Fern instead of Taijin because she’s more central to the main story. Was she there? shhhhh. We don’t ask these questions;)

Okay- updated artwork…

But who’s the guy in the back?  By that, I mean– who do we intend it to be… as opposed to some stranger who just happened to be walking by;)

Several conversations later- we opt for Taijin. And then comes the update

Umm… what’s up with the guy in the back? first, we still couldn’t be sure who the artist intended it to be.. and further, whoever it was– they definitely wouldn’t be looking quite so helpless

Several more conversations– and we hammer out. It’s definitely Taijin and he should be looking useful…

Now we’re cooking with gas… so off it goes to get typography. For those of you who didn’t already know, those are two very distinct skill sets. Some artists can do both, but often it is better to have an expert in each area do what they do best:)

Did it happen quite that way? probably not. Do we care? Also, probably not. lol…

Are you curious? Go grab the pre-order and find out what happens next! and- it is available on all wide retail platforms:)

https://books2read.com/u/m2g6o6