I’ve gotten a lot of good comments on the cover for Political Dirty Trick.  Last week, one reader asked me how I came up with the cover. In all honesty, I had to say I had a cover designer who came up with it.

But as I thought about it, I realized there was much more to it than that. In fact, there were more than a dozen designs that came and went before we settled on this final cove. Most of these were not from Adrijus, who created the final cover.

Before he ever got involved, I worked with some designers and we tried including some of the key items in the plot.  For instance, some special boots, Eight Second Angel, red fringed, short boots are important in the book.  So, we tried incorporating them into the cover.

It was a nice cover, but didn’t really capture the tone of the book.

                                                                                                                           
                                          

The antagonist liked to use a knife, particularly when attacking the protagonist, Crystal Moore.  So we tried working a knife into the cover. Here was one of the proposed covers.  But again, it didn’t really capture the tone of the book.  Yes, a knife figures into the book prominently. But, it was an instrument.  It didn’t speak to the theme of the book.

An expensive piece of Mondrian art was involved. So why not try all of the above.  The art is important. The red Eight Second Angel boots are important. And certainly Crystal would think the knife is important. (Actually, she might like to see it “cut” from the book.) 

Let’s get all the elements in.

This produced a colorful cover that certainly had a lot to do with the book.  But it also produced a cluttered cover. At one point, we even had a “VOTE” sign in it. But finally I had to admit a cluttered cover was not the answer. The cover did not have to include every element of the story. I mean, where is the sheriff’s badge?

We decided this is, after all, a plot set during a political election. And in fact, it is an election for the governor’s office in Texas.  Why not incorporate an image of the state capital building? We could even get the knife in as one of the letters in “Trick.”  And while it is not really a dark book, there is murder. So we could make it a dark scene.

Crystal Moore is the antagonist.  It is, after all, a Crystal Moore Suspense.  So, it made sense to get a woman’s image in with the capital.  This produced the following cover.  And we managed to get the knife and the red boots in.  Wow!  If only we could manage to get in …  No. Let’s not get any more stuff in. Adrijus thought it was too dark. And he agreed the boots and knife had to go.  Not out of the plot, certainly.  But off the cover.

And with that, we moved (in stages, of course)  to the final cover.

There were probably six or eight other designs considered – some considered for seconds, some for minutes, and some for days.  I presented the last two pictured here to a number of friends and followers and ask them to vote on the cover they thought best. There was considerable support for each of these, but in the end, the one on the right, the final cover I am presenting, captured the most votes.

So, getting a good cover was not – and perhaps never is – a simple thing. But I am very happy with this one and it has received a number of comments as a great cover.

My thanks to all who participated in this process.