Hi Reader,
I didn't choose the title of my latest book. You guys did.
Noble Reckoning.
I love it and am so grateful for your input.
But the covers?
They aren't voted on. I keep that decision private.
Covers are tricky. They need to reflect the genre and the book. They need to be familiar but not derivative. Everyone has an opinion. It's just a hard thing to get right.
So there I was a few years ago—a brand-new author with my first book, getting ready to launch.
I knew I needed a great cover. I just had no idea how to get one.
Let's just say, mistakes were made.
On a rainy Christmas Day in 2023, Kath and I were camping in Florida. We talked about the cover for Fortunate Son.
How hard could it be?
So we just went ahead and did it ourselves.
Two competitive, opinionated people with amateurish talent crowded in a tiny camper in the rain striving for collaborative creativity.
It went exactly as you'd expect.
After many long hours and more than a handful of heated creative differences—where one of us took an extended, soggy walk around the campground—this is what we came up with.
Thoughts?
I know. Not awesome. Before you get all judgy, the font was supposed to look like a ransom note.
We really tried to like it but...
It was pretty obvious we needed professional help. I just didn't know where to start.
I remembered a friend, a fine artist. I asked him if he would help. This wasn't his genre. He did me a huge favor, stepping outside his comfort zone to design his first book cover.
This morning was the first time I'd looked at this cover in a long while. It's damn good. It probably could have worked but, at the time, I wasn't convinced. Just not the vibe I wanted.
Telling him I wasn't going to use it wasn't fun. But he's a great guy and understood.
I scoured shelves at the library, bookstores, and online. I made a short list of the covers I liked best, then researched who made them. Mark Swan, a professional cover designer in the U.K., impressed me the most.
I reached out and he agreed to work with me. But before designing anything, he wanted to read the book. Yeah, that kind of blew me away.
A few weeks later, he sent back five cover designs, each one different from the next. Here are the first four.
And then, I flipped to the last image and I heard Kath squeal over my shoulder. We had our winner:
Fortunate Son came out in September of 2024, and it did very well. Better than I had ever hoped.
Which, of course, puts a bit more pressure on the sophomore effort.
I knew A Noble Sin was a good book, but it needed a great cover.
To make matters more complicated, the books needed to look like they belonged together. But how do you mirror a one-off design?
Not easy.
Here is the first set of drafts Mark sent over for A Noble Sin.
I was struggling with how the letters were falling. Fortunate Son's design was causing problems for A Noble Sin. In the end, here's where we landed.
Somehow Mark made it work. Another great cover.
Which brings us to the present day.
Book 3.
You rebels chose Noble Reckoning. That's a lot of letters. It shredded any hope of continuing with the prior cover strategy.
So, in an epic creative twist, Kath and I decided to crawl back into the Airstream and DIY it.
Just kidding.
Can you imagine?
Once again, Mark Swan came to the rescue and suggested we redo the first covers and unite them into a series. That's how we landed on these beauties, revealed a few weeks ago.
Fortunate Son is a political thriller. A Noble Sin is a domestic thriller. Noble Reckoning is an international thriller.
I told Mark that it had to be the same but different. I think designers love it when clients say stuff like that. Especially when you nod on a Zoom call and end it with, "You know what I mean?"
I guess he understood the assignment.
Here are Mark's first drafts. Apparently, he knew what I wanted, even if I couldn't express it.
Seeing these, Kath and I fist-bumped. We immediately agreed on the one we loved and what it needed. Mark Swan took it from there. Brilliantly.
So for the first time and without further ado...
(drumroll please)
Noble Reckoning
This would be a great place for a pre-order link but we'll have to save that for another day. It's coming. I promise.
Happy Friday!
Andy
