Anatomy of a Book Cover

My new book cover is here for “The Solitary Apocalypse,” as you may be aware. It’s not exactly a secret at this point. I’m really happy with what I ended up with. Since I just got the proof copy of the print version, I wanted to dive into it a bit and look at why I made the decisions with it that I did.

Here’s the front cover. There are lots of things going on here. First, there’s the tagline: “Live Alone, or Die Together.” I didn’t initially have a tagline, but my cover designer suggested it to go with this cover, so I brainstormed for a bit and came up with this. I like the way it flips expectations on their head a bit, and goes along with the “Solitary” theme of the book.

The sans-serif font on the title brings a bit of weight to the story. Notice the winter tree on the right, tucking behind “Apocalypse” and then obscuring “Solitary” a bit. I like the creepiness of it, along with the symbolism of something living that’s dormant, much like the people of the town … and the town itself, to a large extent.

Moving down, you’ll see in the back of the image the wall that surrounds the town, off in the distance. This is a key part of the book. Then you’ll see some blurry parts of the town, along with a fogginess that suggests a shroud of mystery and darkness that hangs over the town.

The focal point of the cover is the courthouse, which sits on the town square, and has been abandoned for several years. A pivotal part of the book occurs right alongside it, and you can kind of see the path leading to the square running alongside it.

At the bottom, you’ll see my name in a serif font, with some extra spacing between the letters. At this point in my career, seeing as nobody knows who the hell I am, I tend to like to put more emphasis on the title than on my name sitting down there below everything else. This ain’t about me.

On the back, you’ll see my synopsis. One cool aspect to this is that the large capital letters, in addition to bookending the synopsis itself, they can stand alone as their own statement: “Surrounded by people, Michael is alone.” I wish I could take more credit for that, but it was mostly the work of my cover designer, who did a terrific job of wrapping the story up in a brief few paragraphs.

At the bottom, the courthouse’s dome peeks up above the wall to call back to what you see on the front cover. The blurry darkness underscores the dystopian, dark nature of the book.

So, that’s a pretty decent breakdown of what’s going on here. If you like what you see and are curious, my book designer was Monica Haynes at The Thatchery. She did a great job, and the process was really seamless. I’d highly recommend her work if you’re in the market for a cover. If you have any other questions or comments about what went into putting this cover together, don’t hesitate to ask.

And, of course, if you’d like to pre-order your digital copy of “The Solitary Apocalypse” for just 99 cents until Release Day (Oct. 21), head over to Amazon now.