Tweaked the Cover Design

It's been a couple months or more since Caroline at Melange designed the cover to KILLER OF KILLERS, and I loved it so much there hasn't been a day go by without me looking at it. And over the course of that time there were two things that didn't seem right about it.

First the e's in the title text. When she came up with the design, I asked Caroline to boldface the text of the title. When she did that, the hole in the e's disappeared. I didn't think much of it at the time, but over the past couple months, it bothered me.

And second, the title was too low. That put it off center. It did have one good effect: the "of" was placed at the same level as the nose hole in that skull. But it still didn't overcome the bottom-heavy look to me. So I asked Caroline to raise the text a bit.

And she did. She fixed the e's, too. And with the text raised to the vertical center of the cover page, it looks balanced now. And as an unexpected, but added benefit, the central part of the web now has a centered position in the space it's in, which is also a better effect.

This really is an example of how a publisher can be accommodating and cooperative. It's also another example of a publisher being communicative.

No need to rehash the problems I had with another publisher who was not so communicative. It's refreshing to know that my current publisher is willing to abide by the wishes of its authors. And on that note, here's to my anticipation of the first edits. They should be coming in any day now. But like I said, the top person, Nancy, had already told me she believed it wouldn't need much editing at all. And that's a testament to the five years I spent polishing up that manuscript. I'm curious as to what kind of edits it might need. But I can tell you this: there are no more typos at this point. Of that, I'm sure. Stay tuned.