Meredith Mansfield, Author

I’m targeting early July (maybe 7/7/14) for the launch of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.

For the stories I choose to epublish myself, for whatever reason, I do my own cover art. Most often I use images from Dreamstime, although there are other, similar sources out there. I just usually have better luck finding the kind of images I’m looking for there. And very often, I can find one perfect or nearly perfect image, like the ones I used for FIRE AND EARTH and THE BARD’S GIFT.

Or one that needs just a little additional tweak, like the one I used for BLOOD WILL TELL. (I had to add the dragon.)

But TSC is causing me no end of trouble. It’s not a lack of images, exactly. I have any number of them filed away in my lightbox on Dreamstime. But no one of them is quite exactly right for this story. Or, there’s one that’s pretty close to a scene from my story. If this was a stand-alone novel, I’d probably use that one. But it’s not. TSC is the first book in the DUAL MAGICS series (planned to be four books).

That’s part of the problem. I need to come up with something that will tie the covers of all four books together. Not the same image, necessarily. Though a single common element could work. Or a similar feel.

For the Chimeria series (BLOOD WILL TELL, BLOOD IS THICKER, and, eventually, BLOOD STAINS) I’m using dramatic, magical skies and the same dragon silhouettes.

I haven’t come up with any inspiration quite that simple for this series. Not that will work, anyway.

Of course, I’ve gone to amazon to look at covers of somewhat similar books (sword and sorcery, more or less–although TSC is more spear and sorcery). That’s given me some templates to try to work with. If I can just muster enough skill to make any of them work. So far, that’s also been part of the challenge.

One of the many challenges I’m wrestling with is coming up with some image or combination of images that conveys something about the story while at the same time giving sufficient clues that this is a fantasy story which will involve magic. Not, for example, a western or a historical romance. (One image, which is nearly perfect otherwise, just screams that the title should be something like “How to Tame Your Highlander”.)

I’ve got to come as close to perfection as reasonably possible. The cover is perhaps the most important part of the marketing. I’ll get there eventually.