The Fake Cover
I have this thing I do. I make covers for things. Sometimes real covers, but mostly fake covers. When I’m writing a story live on Twitch or posting new stories on Patreon, I’ll create thumbnail images. These go on the Twitch videos or YouTube. I make them like little mini covers for the short stories. You see them each week when I share a story with these newsletters. Sometimes, the pictures help inform the stories. I also store all my stories in an archive on Trello. Here’s an instructional video I made on how to create a story archive on Trello, if you are interested. The pictures help liven things up and make it a little easier for me to find what I’m looking for.
I’ve started making fake covers for works in progress, usually novels or novellas. Often these do NOT become the final covers. In rare cases, I’ll make my own covers for certain things. Most times, I hire a professional to make my work look as professional as possible or the publisher handles the cover. It is helpful sometimes for me to have a visual of what I’m creating and to make it faster to find in the archive when I’m uploading the latest version after a day’s writing.
Thought it might be fun to share some of those fake covers.
This one is for Stone Wicked. It’s a bloody supernatural western I’ve had on the back burner for a while. I have a couple folks interested in it, but nothing firm yet. I should finish it up in the next month or so.
This one is for Old Southern Gods book 2. This one probably isn’t so great. This is part of a six book deal. How far behind am I? Pretty far. It’s only going to be novella/ short novel length. I’m over halfway done. I used the heart attack excuse already to buy me more time. As soon as I finish and turn in book 2, I’ll need to go right into book 3.
Yard Full of Bones is a book I cowrote with Armand Rosamilia. I’m in the process of reediting it for rerelease. I’ve made a few covers for this one. Most aren’t great. As this may be rereleased self-published and on godless.com, I might end up doing the cover myself. This is the best of the fakes, maybe soon to be real.
I don’t necessarily recommend this process with your writing. You shouldn’t be thinking about covers while you’re still writing the book. Just get the thing done and then start thinking about everything that isn’t the story itself afterward. I’m trying to get better at graphics and sometimes visuals help me with story creation.
Here are some things you might be interested in:
On Writing #StephenKingRevisited
by Jay Wilburn
Come at it any way you like, but don’t come to the blank page lightly.
I could spend this entire post just listing off my favorite lines and pieces of advice from On Writing by Stephen King. I’m doing a little of that, but I’ll try to restrain myself. I should revisit this work regularly. He says the book is short because writing books are full of bullshit …
“Pound Foolish”
by Jay Wilburn
David screamed all the way up the hall to his mother Maggie’s room. It was blood curdling as usual, and Maggie hoped not for first time that the neighbors would sleep through it and not call the cops …
Available for preorder in ebook or for the first time in paperback. It drops June 25. Order it now though!
Thanks, Everybody
Find past newsletters here.