BLOOD PRICE Cover Behind-The-Scenes

Last Updated on July 2, 2024 by ThoughtsStained

ICYMI, my debut novel, BLOOD PRICE, will be releasing October 1st, 2024! Read more about the announcement here. Check out my Patreon on Wednesday for more thoughts about publishing, while my newsletter on Friday will feature why this book means so much to me.

Today, I am so, so honored that The Fantasy Hive hosted the cover reveal! Please, go and give their post some love. They are great people who do amazing work in the SFF space and are a cornerstone of the SFF community. I’m so honored to know them and so beyond humbled that they were willing to help me by revealing BLOOD PRICE’s cover! Especially as it takes part in their summer annual “Women in SFF” series, which is my favorite of theirs. To say I’m overjoyed is an understatement. 😭

To complement the reveal, I wanted to share a bit more behind-the-scenes about the artist, the cover and just hype it again because I’m so in love with it!!! Plus, preorder links are now live!

Blood Price Cover Design

After making the decision to self-publish, I won’t lie. The thing I was most excited about was working on the cover design. Books live or die by their covers (at least, I’m the type of reader who definitely judges a book by its cover). In trad-pub, an author has input but not always (and it’s not always adhered to). I knew that one of the many blessing of self-pub was getting the chance to have input!

So, with the design, I knew I wanted it to feature Ashilde, my protagonist. I knew I wanted it to have an element of settling involved (forests are heavy incorporated in all of my works). I wanted it to give a feel of the vibe, which can be dark and threatening. For the color scheme, I wanted to make it match the important colors of the book (red and black, the Slátra’s–Ashilde’s clan–colors). My good friend Beth gave me an idea to make it more of a white and red scheme. Colors that reflect the contract between dark red period blood and the stark white of an unused sanitary pad. This idea was fantastic and actually worked great with incorporating the snow to reflect the season the book takes place.

With the design roughly in mind, it was time to find the right cover artist for BLOOD PRICE.

Choosing the Artist

This was one of my favorite parts of working on BLOOD PRICE and preparing it for publication the past seven months. I had a list saved of independent artists I’d love to commission one day. So, I reached out to a dozen of them, explaining my project, goals and budget. I got responses from about half, but it was clear that Zoe Badini was the artist I had to go with.

Zoe’s artwork first got on my radar from her artwork on this piece, ‘The Alchemy of Sorrow’. I loved the colors and it looked absolutely stunning. I could picture it being a book cover (which, after I looked at it more, realized that is actually is!). Then, when I looked at her portfolio and saw the stunning ‘Ravenous Swarm’, I knew if I could work with Zoe, I would be in amazing hands.

So, when she responded and was enthusiastic about the project, professional, prompt and kind, I knew this was going to be a dream.

And it was.

Working With Zoe

Zoe was incredible to work with! Her emails were always prompt. She didn’t mind that I had a gazillion questions, since so much of this is so new to me. I described my initial thoughts and desires an she came up with three incredible directions. It was so hard to chose between the designs!

I loved all of them so much. But, in the end, I picked the first sketch (which, I was blown away that these were just sketches, hello??). I loved the forward momentum of the piece, like we could feel Ashilde running. And the gripping vines of the trees, with the prominence of my two favorite side characters, it all just felt right.

So, when the final image was sent mere weeks later, I was positively blown away.

Like, HELLO??? The details? The clarity? The blood dripping from the spear (it’s so fucking realistic and gorgeous, I still can’t get over it months later).

The Final Product

Zoe’s expertise is not in typography, so I worked with Norman from Stardust Book Services to add the text! As the Fantasy Hive revealed, you can see BLOOD PRICE’s cover came together fully beautifully.

I am so, so in love. While I know the book will ultimately be judged by the contents of the story, I think those who judge covers like I do have very little to critique here. SHE’S GORGEOUS.

I wanted Zoe to be able to continue to earn money through her amazing artwork, so you can actually buy prints of the art used on her shop! You can purchase your very own print here in the coming week! I highly, highly recommend working with and hiring Zoe for any artistic project you might have. I certainly cannot wait to work with her on the cover for book two…👀

In Sum

Thank you so much again to The Fantasy Hive for hosting the exclusive cover reveal! To Zoe for creating a cover I can’t stop screaming about. To everyone for their hype and excitement about this book!

BLOOD PRICE comes to life on Oct. 1st, 2024! You can check out my newly updated website, with author pages, preorder links, credits pages, content warnings and more!

Let the countdown begin! 🩸

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