I have been going back and forth about this with my fellow writers over at Skulldust Circle and have come to this conclusion:
I don’t know!
I am including all of our cover art (from the authors at Skulldust Circle) for you all to peruse.
Sometimes I think that a more realistic cover (like the ones on Jeremy Laszlo’s books) would be a better approach. And then I think, nah, I want to pay homage to the artwork that I grew to love when I was swept away reading tales of the Forgotten Realms, Elric of Melnibone, Conan of Cimmeria, and The Sword of Shannara! Please don't get me wrong: I love Jeremy's covers! Truly!
I am personally moving forward with these, embracing the style of the past and have found William Kenney’s artwork to suit me perfectly. As a fellow author and fellow Skulldust’er as well, he has similar ideas and interpretations as I do envisioning my characters, etc. I always love to see what artists come up with when interpreting what I write and how they see it in their mind’s eye.
Either way, none of this is wrong. It is just opinion. I would love to see what you all think moving forward on what you think an epic fantasy cover should look like! I will take all of this information here into consideration moving forward. Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic rest of the weekend!
Oh, and if you stuck around this long, here is a possible choice for the cover of my next release. It will include a FREE short story as well. What do you think?
Join me @ Skulldust Circle where we have formed a new Writer's Circle that must be seen--a collection of brilliant, up & coming independently published fantasy authors with much to give both now and in the future!
All of my work can be found on AMAZON -- Kindle versions here
See you in Wothlondia! Cheers!
Artwork by William Kenney, Ceri Clark and Ronnell Porter
Please visit MY HOME PAGE to enjoy an extended reading experience, see direct links to purchase my full length novel, Covenant of the Faceless Knights, the short stories: Wothlondia Rising, and to see what else Ashenclaw Studios, LLC has in store in the future!
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Another fabulous cover there, Gary. I like all the four from the Skulldust Circle. Each is unique, each is good. As you say, it's important that you feel comfy with an artitst's work. That's another advantage of self-publishing. I was never really happy with the covers my publishers came up with back in my traditionally published days but there wasn't a lot I could do about it. Now, however, I have the final say. Much better that way.
ReplyDeleteLove the new cover for your anthology, Gary, especially how the color highlights each character or group of characters. I'm a huge fan of artwork for fantasy covers rather than photos, and that's one of the reasons I'm doing some indie publishing now. Writing fantasy romance, which is far more fantasy than romance, I was always in a tangle with the cover artist who wanted a sappy naked romance scene done in modified stock art photos--not what fantasy is about in my opinion. Pass along my compliments to William--very nice artwork!
ReplyDelete@Steph, thanks for the comment and you bring up an excellent point about self-publishing that I had been thinking about just today. We control everything! Good or bad, that's the situation. And covers are the only thing that poeple see when they got to purchase your book. It is certainly better!
ReplyDelete@Marsha, thanks for sharing and commenting! Thanks for the kind words about the cover, too. I also think that William is really talented and should be doing this professionally! And yes, the sappy naked romance scene is probably done to death. Is it fantasy, o is it romance? I suppose the cover will tell--more or less--which genre is the main one! Please feel free to join us over @ http://skulldustcircle.blogspot.com/ for more info about the writer's circle.
All the best! and thanks again for commenting!