It’s a new year, which means it’s time to share my top three reads of 2018 with you all. Goodreads says I’ve read 37 books in 2018. It wasn’t quite as much as last year, but it’s a solid amount, especially considering how much happened. This list was made without regard to publisher, format, or author.
How I did it: I kept track of books I liked and mentally compared one to the other. Without further delay, here’s my list. #3 Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook: You can find my review for that book here. This book was my at one point my favorite that I read this year. It had a slow start, but man are those characters awesome, and I just love the action in the story. Of the three, I’d want this made into a movie most. I think this is the first in a series, and if it is, I’ll be picking up the other books once the series is over.
#2 The Core by Peter V. Brett: My review for it is here. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again; Brett is the new master of character arc! The Core was a completely satisfying conclusion to a fantastic series. Is it on my list of top series ever? No, but I’m still glad I read it, and if you haven’t, you need to. It’s emotional. It’s full of action. It’s magic system is interesting. And those characters are amazing! I don’t know what Brett has coming next, but I’ll be in line to read it.
#1 The Bible New International Version by God: I haven’t actually posted my thoughts on finishing it just yet since I’m so backlogged with reviews to write. Is this a cheat? No, while I finished the New Testament in late 2017, I finished the Old Testament in August of 2018. I wonder what readers will think of this pick. While I will post a review, I want to make a few things clear. This book well and truly changed my life. Before I started reading it, I thought it was more of a guideline. But after reading it once (and already reading through about 12 percent again, only much more carefully and this time I’m reading the ESV), I’ve come to believe this is the honest, true history of our universe. Some may choose to disagree, and you have that human right. But this book has become what I turn to in times of sadness and stress. It has amazing stories with wonderful characters. What more would someone want from a story? When I felt I was at my lowest, this book has lifted me up, and I’ll love it forever for those reasons. Will I make it #1 every year? No, because I only put books I finished in the year up, and it’ll take me into 2020 to finish it this time around. I would encourage anyone to read this. It’s fascinating. It’s structure is amazing. The characters are brilliant studies. Even if you don’t come to believe, you’ll still have done some of the greatest reading you’ll ever do.
So that’s my top three. What are yours? Why? Do you have a review you can link it to? I’d love to reblog it for you.
(NOTE: Again, if you’re wondering where the other For A Few Credits More stories are, please remember I review all books in the order I read them. Don’t worry! You’ll get the rest of the reviews in time.)
Spoiler Free Summary: Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook is the first book in The Ghara Chronicles. Also, it was the M.L.S. Weech 2017 Book Cover of the Year! Humanity has been colonizing planets for generations. Dustin and Melody are newlywed Marines seeking to colonize one last planet so they can retire and start their life together. However, the planet Selva holds a dark, dangerous secret that will change the course of their lives and that of the human race.
Character: So, I have to be honest here, the early pages were a bit hard to stay with. We had a bunch of characters thrown at us very quickly, and it was hard to keep track. Now, I can’t complain; I did the same thing with Caught, and the rewards were similar. Once the characters were introduced, we got great action and wonderfully diverse tension. I love the characters in this story! I thought they were all fascinating and compelling. Once the story got going (and I’d say it took at least 50 pages to get there), I honestly didn’t want to put this book down. The characters were one of two reasons why.
Exposition: This didn’t bother me in the least. It probably wasn’t amazing. I remember an info dump here or there. I’d say the beginning drags a bit because of this, but then it fades, and we’re left to enjoy the action.
World building: So this is my second-favorite part of this book. The way this plot is set up and organized had to have taken meticulous planning. The way this story evolves and the relationship Selva has to the plot is something I don’t honestly like in most stories, but this story did it so well I was pleased. This story isn’t anything like Pernin terms of overall plot, but the way the planet becomes the threat felt akin to the same way Pern’s characters face challenges. Now, the characters in Pern were far more compelling, but it’s honestly unfair to compare my favorite series ever to any other series in that category. Still, the use of science fiction planets as a source of conflict is something rare. Using it in a primarily action-based story is even more unusual, and I loved it.
Image of Mr. Philbrook taken from his website for review purposes under fair use doctrine.
Dialogue: Philbrook’s characters feel so real, and the dialogue is one of the reasons why. I think service members will feel a connection to mundane conversations in intense situations. I never even saw a hint of combat, but in my work with combat fighters, I noticed a lot of conversation that was oddly common in some pretty miserable situations. This author portrayed that well. No, it’s not the wittiest, sharpest banter you’ll ever read. It might even seem cliche to some, and I don’t know that I’d argue, but I felt right at home with these characters.
Description: This book activated the IMAX high-def, 3-D movie theater in my imagination. It was perfect. If I heard this book got a green light for a movie, I’d oder advance tickets just to see some of the wonderful effects. I honestly felt more in the action than some movies I’ve been to lately. Listen, I hate description. I loath it! Philbrook knows exactly when to provide what detail to keep you interested, squirming, or enraged. It’s not in the amount of description (which is a thing most authors insist on thinking) it’s in the specificity of it. Every sense you have is activated to create a full effect without a half-page tangent on armor, skin, clothes, or whatever.
Overall: If you haven’t already figured it out by now, this book is currently (and likely will be) the best fiction book I’ve read all year! It was compelling and action packed. It has the action and intensity of Aliens, the humorous charm of Tremors, and the world building of Pern. If you like those stories, give this one a shot. I don’t think you’ll regret it. (NOTE: Might have to slog through those first 50 pages, but that’s just par for the course when dealing with scifi.)
First off congratulations on your cover wining my blog’s 2017 BookCover of the Year! How does it feel knowing people thought your book cover was the best of all the year’s winning covers?
This image and all others below were taken or created by Mr. MacRaffen and used with his permission.
It’s an unbelievable compliment. I’m so flattered and honored. I want to thank everyone who voted for supporting and appreciating all of the various artists.
When did you get in to art?
It’s been a lifelong thing. Since age three, at least. My mom was incredibly encouraging, always ready with paper, pencils and crayons to draw with any time I ever got bored. It just became my default activity, then grew from there. My mom just kept encouraging me, then my friends and teachers as well, all the way up to college at the Art Institute of Boston.
How long have you been creating covers?
I took a few cover design classes in college, but my first professional cover was actually for my own novel, Carnival of Time, in 2011.
What got you started in creating covers?
Soon after publishing my own novel, my good friend Chris Philbrook started planning his zombie apocalypse series, Adrian’s Undead Diary, and he came to me for the cover and interior design. His story was wildly successful, and I gained attention from there.
Do you prefer one medium over another?
For book covers, I prefer a graphical design done with digital art like the Colony Lost cover, or the covers I’ve done for Chris’s Reemergence series. For character and creature illustrations, I prefer starting with pencil, then finishing the lines with ink and coloring with Copic pens. If you’re not familiar with Copics, they’re really fun. Like a watercolor brush in marker form. Very vivid and blendable.
Do you have someone who inspired your own work? If so, who? Why?
I’ve been inspired by so many different artists. I could probably list hundreds, but some of my favorites are Brian Froud, Tony DiTerlizzi, Terryl Whitlatch, Mike Mignola and Gabriel Rodriguez. I love artists who have an understanding of human and animal anatomy but also how to manipulate overall shape and form to evoke different impressions. Little distortions and exaggerations, as well as careful observation and subtle detail can all radically change the way a creature or character comes across.
What makes you choose to work with an author or not?
Stylistic fit is an important issue. As in: does my style fit what this author is looking for? I feel the need to be respectful of an author’s vision, and be realistic about what my strengths and weaknesses are as an artist. If an author is willing to spend money on quality art, but needs a look or style that isn’t my strength, then I have to be honest with them, rather than wasting their time or money. Nobody wants to turn down good work, but you can’t build a reputation on disappointment. Sometimes you just have to say “Hey, this really isn’t my thing. I think you may need to look for someone with a different skill set.”
What do you look for in a great client?
The other part of the equation is that the respect has to be mutual. I always strive to respect a book’s author as the first and last authority on the way their creation is represented. But I also expect a certain amount of respect for artists as professionals as well. For example, if an author comes to me (or any other artist) looking to get a professional grade cover but then offers to pay with “exposure,” they’re not really respecting that art is real work worth paying for. The best clients are those who know what they want, or are at least able to recognize what does and doesn’t work for them, and who also respect their artists as fellow professionals.
What are some of your pet peeves about clients?
It’s important to remember that not every artist is capable of creating the kind of image you might have in mind. Artistic styles and techniques vary tremendously, so take a look at the artist’s other work. If their other covers are similar in style to what you need, then they’re probably a great fit for you. If all they do is colorful, slightly abstract paintings but what you need is a gritty black and white photo, you should probably look elsewhere. This is definitely something you want to be clear about early on–long before any money changes hands.
What would an author need to do to work with you? Do you have a link to your standard rates, or do you negotiate fees by author?
Just drop me a line! You can reach me through my website: www.MacRaffen.com
I’m always more than happy to talk to people about cover work, whether it’s to set up a new client relationship or just to help them figure out what they need to be looking for.
I do negotiate fees by author. That intimidates some people who were hoping to just see a quick price list, because not everyone knows what to expect. What it really means though, is that there are a whole lot of different approaches to designing a cover, and I want to help match up your needs to something you can afford. Authors come to me with a wide variety of budgets, and once I get a general range of what they’d be able to spend, I can suggest different approaches and find out if any of those fit their needs.
How did you come to be chosen to create the cover of Colony Lost?
As I mentioned earlier, Chris Philbrook is a great friend of mine. We’ve known each other since high school, and he kind of jump-started my cover design career by recruiting me to work on his first books. I’ve done almost all of his illustration and design work since.
Artistically, what were your goals for the cover?
I wanted to capture the spirit of the book. There’s a darkness, but also a sense of hopefulness in the middle of that. The black background and menacing mouth/guns/creature imagery are counterbalanced by the bright color scheme, which also reflects the colors of the strange auroras that shine over the planet where the action takes place.
How was Chris to work with?
Chris is always fantastic to work with. He’s very specific about what he wants and needs, but also very willing to flex and try out suggestions that I might have. He’s also very clear when something isn’t working for him, so I never have to waste any time pursuing an idea that isn’t going to work.
What inspired the idea for this cover?
I’d been talking to Chris about doing another graphical cover (flat shapes & colors, rather than photorealistic images). He actually suggested the idea of creating a scared/menacing mouth using silhouettes of story elements, and I love the idea.
Can you walk me through the whole process of that cover? From commissioning to final product? How did you feel about tit once it was finished?
We started just throwing ideas around, with me doodling on a piece of scrap paper. I was talking about silhouettes of guns and creature parts, and he had the great mouth idea. I went home later and started making various silhouette shapes to move around, and tried arranging them in a number of different ways. Colored background with blackened mouth. Black background with color inside the mouth shape. Different proportions and sizes. We kept going back and forth, with him letting me know what was working and what wasn’t, and me fiddling with whatever wasn’t quite right until we had something we were both excited about. That’s the best possible outcome–when the author and artist are both really jazzed up about the final product.
Is it your favorite cover? If so, why?
I have to admit that while I feel really good about the Colony Lost cover, it’s not my favorite. That might go to another of Chris’s books–Tesser: A Dragon Among Us. That was one of my first seriously graphical covers, and I’m still crazy about how it worked out. Plus I just love dragons. I will confess to having a tremendous dragon bias.
What do you think it was about your cover that fans liked so much?
It’s bold, it’s got stark contrast and bright color, and the image is (hopefully) arresting and elicits curiosity. Is the mouth screaming in fear or attack? What kind of strange guns are those? What sort of monsters are all of those limbs connected to? Those are just my own impressions, but whatever the case, something clearly worked and I’m very grateful for that.
What can we expect to see from you next?
It’s safe to say that I’ll be bringing you more Chris Philbrook covers soon. The guy’s crazy prolific. I’m legitimately jealous of that. He’s got more Reemergence novels coming, more Adrian’s Undead Diary stuff. There might be more Colony Lost on the way, and he’s always cooking up new stuff, too. The guy’s head is packed full of nightmares. But they’re fun nightmares.
Is there anything you’d like to say to readers?
Keep reading. Keep supporting the authors and artists that you love, whether it’s with purchases, votes, or reviews (authors LOVE reviews). Most of all, I want to say thank you. Your appreciation matters, tremendously.
Once more Alan, I just want to thank you for spending time to do this interview. Your cover was great. I look forward to seeing more from you.
Thanks so much. This is a terrific honor.
(END INTERVIEW)
It was such great fun running this competition. I’m overjoyed at the response it received in its first year, and I hope that continues to grow. Artists almost never get credit for the work they do, and I want to build something that truly recognizes them and the covers they create.
Please continue to support this award by voting, liking, and sharing it with your friends. If you’re convinced to vote because you had one friend or author you liked in one month, keep voting in other months. Try to remember that every one of these authors and artists put in a ton of effort.
I’m honored to have Mr. MacRaffen as the first recipient of the award, and I look forward to making a few more.
It was a great year filled with a lot of great covers, great authors, and some amazing books. Thanks to this idea, I got to read my favorite book of the year. I got to make some amazing connections, but this is really all about the covers.
We had 5,317 votes for this bracket. That’s actually fantastic given we had one less round. In the monthly brackets, we start with 32, and that ads 16 more votes per voter. These numbers mean we had at least 1,329 unique voters, and that’s awesome if you ask me. The winner of this contest can say more than 1,000 people looked at all 16 covers, and thought his or hers was best. (I have to TRY and keep some drama don’t I?)
There were three different leaders at different points of the contest. It was a close fight between the last two (came within ten voters, which would be one percent for those math people out there). However, I’m proud to say we have an undisputed champion.
Let’s look at the stats! Phil brook beat his other competitors by more than 40 votes in each round. Night Stalker by R.L. Weeks gave him a bit of a run for his money in the Elite Eight early on, but then he pulled away. The Door Keeper by Steen Jones also gave him a good fight up till about three days ago. It looked like The Girl Who Could See would be the only one to best him in the finals, but then he snatched the lead and didn’t let it go! He only won that championship round by ten votes, but those ten voters came in a very timely manner.
He received 542 total votes. He came into the tournament ranked fifth. He started out chasing Loveless by Marissa Howard, but then managed to climb his way to the top.
That means the Weech goes to Philbrook’s cover designer, which means he not only owes us a jig (I’m not kidding this time Chris, your fans deserve it!), but I also need him to tell me who that designer is so I can engrave The Weech and send it over to him.
I hope you all had fun this year. I really am pleased with how things turned out, but I’m hopeful this continues to grow. I hope the authors and artists who were involved spread the word so other authors and artists can get exposure. That’s the whole point of this tournament.
That said. There’s another post on my blog that just came up. The December Book Cover of the Month is up and running as we speak. I won’t be pestering people nearly as much. You all came out by the hundreds (literally), and I think it’s only fair to step it back a bit for the December and January Book Cover of the Month brackets. But it was fun this year, and I’ll do it again next year. We’ll see how things go after that. If it catches on, I’ll keep it going.
I will continue to identify and select covers for each day from Amazon’s New Release section for fantasy and science fiction. If you follow and like my Facebookpage, you can see what covers will make the bracket.
I’ve been building to this for quite some time, and I’m so excited to kick things off. This is it! Twelve Book Covers of the Month join four Wild Card Book Covers to comprise a sixteen-book tournament to determine which one will rule them all!
346 book covers. 43,724 votes. All leading to this tournament! The covers were ranked 1-16 by the number of total votes each received. That means the cover that received the most votes (Loveless) is going up against the Wild Card that received the fewest votes. (The Girl Who Could See), and so on and so forth.
You can vote all the way through the tournament, supporting the covers you like best through each round. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.
As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.
Image taken from Pixabay.
If you are the author, let’s remember to be good sports! 1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.
Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.
A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.
It’s been fun, but, as I mentioned when I announced the Wild Card Winners, I’d like to end this tournament on a high note. I’m trying to get 10,000 total votes. Please, tell everyone. Get people to vote. I want this trophy to mean something, and it’ll frankly mean more as more people vote.
Also, if you’re wondering where the 2018 December’s Book Cover of the Month bracket is, worry not. That bracket will kick off RIGHT after the BCOTY ends. So this month will be pretty full and by the time we get to Feb. 1, people might be pretty tired of it. I’m not sure what else to do about it, so I’m open to ideas, but this is what I got right now.
I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.
The August Book Cover of the Month bracket has just wrapped up. It was a slower month of voting, but I think that’s because the winner’s shock-and-awe first few days just worked for him. It’s always great to see the support these authors and artists generate. We had 3,122 votes. I want to offer my thanks to everyone who got involved.
This month was unusual in that one cover took the lead and never let it go once he had it.
The August Book Cover of the Month is…
Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook! If you’re curious about how I felt about the book, check out the Facebook post that I posted when this book first landed on the bracket, here.
Philbrook (who owes us a jig) received 325 total votes. He more than doubled anyone else’s votes in pretty much any way you can measure.
Black Ruins Forest finished second, which means she’ll have another chance to be the Book Cover of the Month for September.
That said, Philbrook is the winner this month, so let’s look at his book.
Amazon:
(START BLURB)
Seven hundred fifty years ago, human colonists left Earth and settled on the moons of the distant gas giant Ghara.
Civilization has flourished on Ghara’s fertile moons, but humanity’s drive to colonize and explore is still strong. Detecting plentiful mineral resources and a rich abundance of alien life on the nearby planet of Selva, the Gharian Colonists mount a dangerous expedition. Young newlywed marines Dustin and Melody will find themselves put to the ultimate test as they forge a way through fierce magnetic storms into an unknown and utterly alien world.
Tensions mount at home, as not all of the colonists support this mission and its high cost of resources, and many are outright hostile towards the Marines and scientists who are setting out to colonize the new world.
As the peace the four colonies have shared for almost 200 years starts to fracture, what the expedition finds on Selva might very well be the worst thing humanity has ever dealt with.
Here’s Philbrook’s Facebook page. Give it a like if you’re curious about him and his work.
I don’t know who the artist is yet, but I’ll see if Philbrook is willing to stop dancing long enough to introduce me.
The September bracket is still under development, but it looks good so far. It’ll kick of Oct. 1.
I will continue to identify and select covers for each day from Amazon’s New Release section for fantasy and science fiction. If you follow and like my Facebookpage, you can see what covers will make the bracket.
With just about seven days left in this month’s bracket, I thought this would be a good chance to update you all on how things have been progressing. Things started off fast, but we’ve slowed down a bit.
2,433 votes the support has been nice to see, but some of these covers need your help.
Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook has taken the lead an run with it.
Most Voted on so far: Philbrook has the most round wins and the most votes overall with 288 total votes.
Least Voted for: Kaiju Wars by Eric S. Brown currently has the fewest votes (31). Fans of Brown should rally to help this cover get at least a bit more credit than that.
The Sweet 16 is the closest round so far. Half of those matches are within 10, but Philbrook is the story here as he’s got a commanding lead in every round, so anyone who wants to beat him needs to summon the followers by the dozens.
A quick reminder of how the tournament works. The easiest way to win is to have the most people vote for you in every round (like Philbrook). The trick is you have to have the most people vote you through in each round, all the way to the final. As an example, 10 people (the second most) have voted Blood-Stained Heir all the way to the championship, but that’s not enough because Norman can’t get past Black Ruins Forest (though he’s only four votes away). Just remember. It’s not total votes. It’s not simple championship votes. The winning cover has to have the most votes in each round of the competition.
So let’s take a look at the three covers that have the BEST shot at upsetting Philbrook.
Blood-Stained Heir can grab victory if he gets 23 people to vote him all the way through to the championship. (That’s assuming those 23 voters aren’t answered by voters of Colony Lost or Black Ruins Forest.)
Black Ruins Forest actually needs more championship votes than Heir. While Forest has what it needs to get to the last round, the cover is actually further behind than Heir. That said, if Forest can get 26 people to vote it all the way through, it’ll take the lead.
Lucky or Not, Here I Come is actually the third-closest contender if one looks at the bracket as a whole. It’s behind Black Ruins Forest, but not by much. That said, he’d need a massive show of overall support because he only has one championship vote so far. He’d need 33 people to vote him all the way to the championship in order to take the lead.
Getting 33 people to vote anyone all the way through would be a great start, but believe it or not, the 23-vote lead Colony Lost has in the finals is actually the smallest margin of victory he has. Anyone cover not mentioned above would need more than 40 unanswered voters to push the cover all the way to the championship, and that’s not nearly enough to upset Colony Lost in that initial round (Colony has more than 100 votes in that first round.)
This will be the only update for this type of bracket. It’s been an amazing tournament to watch thus far, and I hope readers continue to support their authors by voting, liking, and sharing the bracket with as many people as possible. You can vote at this address!
August’s bracket has 31 plus The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson which is only the second book ever to get third chance at the title.
We’re doing another “vote all the way through” bracket. I think two weeks is the sweet spot. This gives people time to vote. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.
As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.
Image taken from Pixabay.
If you are the author, let’s remember to be good sports! 1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.
Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.
A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.
I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.
#3 Colony Lost by Chris Philbrook: You can find my review for that book here. This book was my at one point my favorite that I read this year. It had a slow start, but man are those characters awesome, and I just love the action in the story. Of the three, I’d want this made into a movie most. I think this is the first in a series, and if it is, I’ll be picking up the other books once the series is over.
#1 The Bible New International Version by God: I haven’t actually posted my thoughts on finishing it just yet since I’m so backlogged with reviews to write. Is this a cheat? No, while I finished the New Testament in late 2017, I finished the Old Testament in August of 2018. I wonder what readers will think of this pick. While I will post a review, I want to make a few things clear. This book well and truly changed my life. Before I started reading it, I thought it was more of a guideline. But after reading it once (and already reading through about 12 percent again, only much more carefully and this time I’m reading the ESV), I’ve come to believe this is the honest, true history of our universe. Some may choose to disagree, and you have that human right. But this book has become what I turn to in times of sadness and stress. It has amazing stories with wonderful characters. What more would someone want from a story? When I felt I was at my lowest, this book has lifted me up, and I’ll love it forever for those reasons. Will I make it #1 every year? No, because I only put books I finished in the year up, and it’ll take me into 2020 to finish it this time around. I would encourage anyone to read this. It’s fascinating. It’s structure is amazing. The characters are brilliant studies. Even if you don’t come to believe, you’ll still have done some of the greatest reading you’ll ever do.
(NOTE: Again, if you’re wondering where the other 
Greetings everyone! If you’ve followed my 
For book covers, I prefer a graphical design done with digital art like the 
What do you look for in a great client?
I’m always more than happy to talk to people about cover work, whether it’s to set up a new client relationship or just to help them figure out what they need to be looking for.
How was Chris to work with?
It’s bold, it’s got stark contrast and bright color, and the image is (hopefully) arresting and elicits curiosity. Is the mouth screaming in fear or attack? What kind of strange guns are those? What sort of monsters are all of those limbs connected to? Those are just my own impressions, but whatever the case, something clearly worked and I’m very grateful for that.
That means the Weech goes to Philbrook’s cover designer, which means he not only owes us a jig (I’m not kidding this time Chris, your fans deserve it!), but I also need him to tell me who that designer is so I can engrave The Weech and send it over to him.
Hello all and Happy New Year!
346 book covers. 43,724 votes. All leading to this tournament! The covers were ranked 1-16 by the number of total votes each received. That means the cover that received the most votes (Loveless) is going up against the Wild Card that received the fewest votes. (The Girl Who Could See), and so on and so forth.
Black Ruins Forest finished second, which means she’ll have another chance to be the Book Cover of the Month for September.
Greetings all,
So let’s take a look at the three covers that have the BEST shot at upsetting Philbrook. 
Happy first everyone! If you’re curious or new, check out the Book Covers for 
M.L.S. Weech 