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11.07.2013

99 Problems But A Baby Ain't One - The Evolution of the Cover

Things have been getting exciting with my book lately. Last week I spoke at Facebook in Austin which was amazing! Just touring Facebook's campus was cool (so much free food for their employees!!!!!) and the woman's group I spoke for was so sweet. (I posted some pics here on Facebook! Ha! I just heard that....I posted pictures of me at Facebook.....on Facebook!)

Also fun? It looks like as of next week I'll also have a confirmed publicist for my book which makes me feel cool and something I can tell people at parties. Quick - someone invite me to a party.

And lastly, the point that brings me to today's subject matter, is that next week I'm speaking for an Independent Reading Class taught at my alma matter Franklin High School located in Franklin, Wisconsin. GOOO SABERS!

What I'll be telling these Independent Readers is that the part of the publishing process that I enjoyed most was working with my cover artist, Omar. The process began with me sending Omar a photo (more like an iphone pic) that I wanted as the inspiration for the cover, along with a mock-up I designed to help convey this respective vision.

I knew I wanted a fashion illustration drawn based on this hospital pic. And in lieu of shopping bags, I told Omar to draw a baby.


From there, Omar sent me three "directions" that we could go in. Here were those respective directions;

It was an easy choice. I had told Omar that maybe I should be dancing in the cover to incorporate the "JayZ-ness" of my title, which is what you're seeing in the left and right mock-ups.


After choosing the center "inspiration", Omar fine tuned it from there, while receiving my annoying 2 cents along the way.


And of course, we ended up with this bad boy;
 
And, here comes the plug, this amazing cover/book is available on Amazon for the very affordable price of $12.48.
 
I want say the process was fun - but the truth is that I was a walking panic attack from start to finish. It's nerve-racking to have to rely on someone else to execute your vision. But all in all, I like my cover, especially what Omar did with the title art.
 
At that concludes the evolution of my book cover. Come back tomorrow when I'll be talking about the non-controversial topic of evolution, just in general, where I'm sure to offend all of you. (JK!)
 

3 comments:

  1. The cover looks great, as I'm sure the book is

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  2. So I'm one of those people that tends to read blogs religiously and then rarely comments (lurker!).. but I thought you would fully appreciate that when I went to purchase your book, it suggested that I buy it in a package deal w/ the game 'cards against humanity'. Shenanigans all around.

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  3. Wow, this was a really interesting post! I love seeing the evolution of the cover and what you ultimately chose looks so great!

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