Come April 2023, I’ll be running a Kickstarter, celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the publication of my first novel, Paper Mage.
As I no longer have a copy of the original book—got rid of all my copies when I downsized—I can’t tell you who the original cover artist is. The cover was nominated for a Chesley that year, though, which is the big SF/F art award. As I was at Worldcon that year, I had the chance to meet the artist. The cover didn’t win the prize, but I was still thrilled that it was nominated.
When I got the rights back, I republished it with this cover:
Why yes, that font is Papyrus. I didn’t sell a lot of copies but I did sell steadily a few every month.
I liked the image. It tells the reader that it’s Asian. The word “Mage” and the tagline let the reader know that it’s fantasy. Not really historic fantasy, but at least headed in the right direction.
Then, I took a cover class and I changed the cover to this.
Almost immediately, the book stopped selling. While it’s a beautiful cover and pretty and like that, I believe the new cover didn’t give the reader enough information about the book. It’s too generic of a cover.
So I went back to the other picture, though with a few changes.
Changed the font. Changed my name. But other than that, kept a lot of what I already had.
I’ve used this cover for quite a few years. And the book still continues to chug along.
For the new edition, I decided to recover the book again. It was time.
However, it’s been really difficult to get a new cover.
I adore GetCovers.com. I think they do marvelous work. I tried them for the initial design. It was my fault. I chose the wrong pictures. It ended up looking more like a horror cover. I’m not even going to show that one because I’m so disappointed. Not in them, but because I wasn’t able to supply them with a solid enough direction for the cover.
Right about that time, I started playing around with Midjourney. I wasn’t about to use the art from Midjourney. I was using it strictly for inspiration, trying to get the AI to come up with a design that I could then recreate on my own, using stock art.
I couldn’t find the gorgeous robes that the AI kept using. And I don’t have the skill to draw that.
I kept trying origami pictures. Tried this:
It isn’t right. There isn’t enough magic, enough sparkle. Maybe I could have fixed this one, but I moved in a different direction.
The watercolor images produced by the AI gave me an idea. I’d watched a video tutorial with someone showing how to do a very similar technique.
The next step was to find the perfect picture.
Nice, but not right. The model isn’t in the correct pose.
I found this picture:
I manipulated the heck out of this photo. Isolated it first. Made it into a cartoon.
Changed the color levels. Transformed it. Added the watercolors and brushes and everything.
Manipulated it some more. Composed a cover.
And so, ta-dah! The cover reveal of the close-to-final version of the new edition of Paper Mage.
I still need to add the text about it being the 20-year anniversary edition. Plus, there will be a special Kickstarter edition, and I’ll need to make that cover. But I’m finally pleased with it. And I don’t intend to change this cover for quite a few years.
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