Blood & Spirits – Reveal – A Cover To Judge By.

It's time to finally spill the beans and let you all know what's going on. 

Some of you may have seen the cover Blood & Spirits had in its original release. Those of you who did... might have been kind about it – you might have smiled, or typed a smiley face, or even told me things to not hurt my feelings – but the fact of the matter is... it just didn't work. The idea was solid. The idea, however, was not well thought out by someone who knew cover design, or anything at all about trying to market a book. Thus... not so great. 


(Don’t believe me? See for yourself)

Krystal Chan (who I could go on and on about... and I will, but that’s another post) said I should post "your realization about the first cover and how, looking at it now, you understand how it could be done better or differently."

I asked her what she meant by "realization" there. Then I looked at the cover again and asked, “Do you mean the realization that the original cover totally sucked?”

She replied in the affirmative... and do you know what? She should have. It really wasn't the best face for the story. I didn't represent the book well, and was not at all the “first impression” I needed to make on behalf of my work to all of you... my readers.

Well, guess what? All of that changes now!

Look at this beauty, designed by Shari Ryan!

(Who, I must say, is simply amazing).

Now, here’s the really awesome part... hold on to your hats. This new cover comes wrapped around pages with an entirely new (and pretty spiffy) layout. Those pages contain a new edit of the text, that contain an additional 2,350 words. Best of all... the book is being released by my new publishing house, Booktrope. (Release date - January 20th, 2015)

Booktrope will also be releasing the next two books in the series, as well (book two should be coming fairly soon, in fact). Shari Ryan, who you can also find over at Author Needs Creative Design Services, has agreed to create the covers for those as well.

How's that for some exciting news? I have to admit, it excites me to no end. These first three volumes in V’s story - The Coming Storm Trilogy - couldn't, in my opinion, have a better home than they've found at Booktrope.

I have a lot more news, and a lot more to reveal... but I think I've done enough for one post. Don’t you?

As always, please feel free to let me know what you think, or any questions you might have, in the comments.

As always, thanks for being the best readers a writer could ask for!

-Dennis