Out With the Old

So it’s been awhile since I gave much thought to The Dreamer’s Thread, but with the launching of the spiffy new podiobooks.com site, along with a slew of email updates on the topic, I got to thinking about my old TDT cover. In particular, how much my design work has changed since I first put it together. This thinking was prompted by an email about covers from Podiobooks Godfather Evo Terra. I sent out a reply email explaining about my design stuff, when I realized that the one cover folks probably identify most with me is my absolute oldest work and not my best. I can see those other podiobook authors reading my email, checking me out on Podiobooks, and then promptly scoffing at my hubris.

That absolutely does not fly with me.

So, I set to myself to the task, worked my Photoshop mojo, and gave my first novel a make over. Because everyone knows a badly dressed book is far worse than a naked one.

The end result? Well, I’ll let you decide for yourself.

The original cover:

This one was okay, but very amateurish and not at all representative of what I can really do. It’s too overt in the background imagery, not to mention sort of a hack job in GIMP. The text has problems also, which I addressed in an updated version next.

The second, slightly tweaked version:

This is only marginally better. I don’t care for the green glow around the text and by altering the main figure I completely lost that those were pictures of the sky in various states comprising the fill. It does look more like the stained glass everyone thought it was, but I still wasn’t happy with much of anything here.

So now I show you the all new redesign. It’s completely different. It reflects how much I’ve learned since building that first cover in 2009 and is much more current in style. I’ll talk about the creation of the new cover over on my design blog if you want to learn more about the lovely image below…

 

 

Thanks to Laura Spencer and Scott Huchton for their input on this one. I made some tweaks based on their comments and it really put the final polish on the new image. I went to outside points of view before going live with this as it’s extremely hard for me to judge if the covers I build for my own books are representative of what readers will find within. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten and my own gut feelings, I think this change is the right one. I’ve talked about the why’s and how’s over at my other site if you want to learn more. I’m gradually rolling this one out in all the necessary places, but since it’s an old project, getting the ebook & print covers updated are not my first priorities. It is live on the podcast already, however.

So what do you think? Does it fit with your expectations of The Dreamer’s Thread? Would you pick it up if you saw it sitting on a shelf? Pretty sure I would, but I’m sort of biased. ;)

x