The importance of a good book cover

Great cover art can make or break a book. All you have to do is spend ten minutes browsing through a used bookstore or on Amazon to see where some publishers and authors have gone hilariously wrong with their choices.

I made a decision when I decided to publish Nightfall Gardens that I wouldn’t release the books with anything less than a stellar artwork to convey the dark fairytale tone of the series.

Anthony Roberts did a masterful job of transmitting the medieval woodblock-style tone that I envisioned for that series and I couldn’t be happier with the results. You can see more of his eye-popping work on his site, Black Mind's Eye.

For my new series though, I wanted to go with a more contemporary feel, befitting the fact that the novels are set in current New York Cities across multiple alternate universes. From the beginning, I envisioned the artist Colleen Stiles, as the one who could visually bring the books to life. Colleen has a deft touch with portraying both the realistic and fantastical that sums up the effect I was going for in my new urban fantasy series. You can check out her drawings, sculptures and writing from Colleen at her own online home.

Over the next week, I’ll be unveiling the amazing cover that she did for The Shadow of All Things as well as the illustrations for inside the book.

You can sign up to be one of the first to see the new cover and to get an exclusive look at the drawings by signing up to my email blast.

So what about you? Have any favorite book covers that you’d care to share?

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