It’s here! The cover reveal for Wick and Arrow

At long last, Wick and Arrow has a front cover! My strong opinions about what the cover (and the rest of the book design) was supposed to look like is one of the reasons I chose to independently publish my folkloric fantasy novel loosely based on “The Snow Queen.” Because the writing style of this book is a contemporary echo of the quirky, wonder-filled, often pensive storytelling of Tolkien’s immediate predecessors—Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde, and George MacDonald—I wanted the design to be a contemporary echo of the Art Nouveau fairytale collections of the 1890’s to 1920’s.

Here are some historic book covers I showed my designers to give them a feel for what I was looking for:

Chiefly inspired by the cover of The Song of Hiawatha, I made my own sketch of a cover design concept and colored it using a 24 pack of crayolas. Then I handed it off to graphic designer Hannah Reller (who also made my logo for Inscape Web Design which is now the logo for Inscape Books!) and let her work her magic. Here is my original concept and Hannah’s final sketch:

I then gave Hannah’s sketch to graphic designer Meg Pilcher, who I had gotten to know through previous brand design work for my clients. Meg digitized the sketch and added color, bringing us to what you’ve all been waiting for… the final cover of the first edition of Wick and Arrow! Here it is in all its glory!