As many of you know, almost exactly a year ago as part of NaNoWriMo 2012, I wrote a silly story about Super Heroes with terrible powers. I called it The Other Eight. Once it was done, I revised it, polished it, and even had it edited. What I didn’t do was release it. I do that sometimes, write, polish, then forget about the book. Ever since I started talking about what I am writing at any given time, this has become a bit of a let down for my fans that follow me, since I’ll blather about something for a few months and then it will vanish into the mists. Well, it’s time to remedy at least one instance of that. But to do it, not surprisingly, I’m going to seek your help.
The Other Eight needs a cover. Now because of my rather liberal policy regarding the details of my books, despite its lack of a release there’s no shortage of artwork for The Other Eight. Many of these people got descriptions of the characters directly from me. Others went by what could be seen in the sneak peeks I gave. Some have even read the first draft.
My initial intention was to have my usual cover artist (Nick Deligaris) do the cover for this book as well, but slowly my feelings on it began to change. He’s done a tremendous job on my fantasy and sci-fi stuff, but this book is set in our modern world, and has a drastically different tone than the other books I’ve written. It might be a good idea to give someone else a shot at the cover.
In order to make an informed decision, you’ll have to get a look at some of the art the book has already produced. We’ll start with the fan art. They are by two prolific fan arts, ArieieTheWatcher and CatseaTheDevil
These below are a first and second version of a set of commissions of character artwork from Adam J. Hall.
Now for the questions. The way I see it, there are two big decisions to make.
Question 1: Style
Do you think The Other Eight should have the same style of cover as the other books? (High detail digital painting) Or do you think it should be something more comic book styled? Or maybe something more cartoony (like the art by Adam J. Hall)? Something else?
Question 2: Design
Do you think I should do a single character? A group of characters? Just a logo? Something else?
To help you decide, I asked two long time fans and prolific fan artists to do their own mock-up of what they think might be a good cover might be. Here they are.
To gather up your answers, here’s another one of my handy dandy survey links! Let me know what you think.