The latest episode in the saga of writing and publishing Brightstar has been by far the most stressful, though the ending was more than satisfactory. (You have to read, or at least scroll, to the end to see the final cover!)
Part of that stress came from communication issues with an editor, bringing me right up against a deadline I couldn’t afford to miss (now resolved). Part of it came from the headache of getting together a book cover I liked (which is the subject of this post).
The initial plan
The cover design process started back in June when I had my all-important meeting with the folks from Morgan James and they assured me their design team would be able to create something satisfactory even though they don’t employ (or generally contract with) an illustrator. That should have been a warning sign for me, but I’m an optimist and I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Weeks passed after that call, during which I was told I should be getting cover proofs any time. They never appeared.
With the third week (in which we were supposed to be completing the cover) drawing to a close, I mentioned the situation to my friend Greg (who has always had an artistic bent).
Eleventh-hour art
Greg immediately offered to work on a cover for me, and what he came up with was truly impressive.
Starting with the AI-generated concept art I showed in Midjourney Magic, he created this:
Frankly, I was more than happy with the art. It’s better than anything I could have done myself.
The discussion at this point was complicated by the current legal status of AI-generated images. The folks at Morgan James were understandably concerned that I might have a problem with commercial rights because the original image (and some small parts of this version) were AI-generated.
I have commercial rights to every image I generate with Midjourney because I’m a paid subscriber. Their Terms of Service is legally binding, and it grants me full commercial rights, but there is still some concern. AI-generated images are subject to litigation right now that may threaten the companies responsible for the algorithms with bankruptcy (because the images they used to train their machine learning models are subject to intellectual property rights).
As an end-user, I should be protected from that litigation, especially with the image above being so drastically different from the original, AI-generated concept. This is still a legal gray area, though (even if barely).
The Morgan James team agreed that this art was better than anything they could have provided, and we made the decision to move forward. Two weeks later, I started getting final cover concepts from Morgan James. (Keep in mind, we were already behind the hoped-for schedule, though my contact there assures me it’s only a guideline.)
Of all the concepts we came up with, I think my favorite was this one:
I was pretty happy with our progress. I had only one minor adjustment I wanted to make.
Then, when I thought I was finally reaching a conclusion, the plot twisted yet again!
Eleventh-And-A-Half-Hour Art
While I was waiting for a final proof, my family was visiting my cousin Ben and his wife Sarah for the weekend. I showed her the proposed cover (along with giving vent to some stress-induced grumbling about the delays).
Sarah is a professional graphic designer and artist, so her opinion on the subject carries significant weight. After a thoughtful pause, she asked if she could take a stab at it, a proposal I was only too happy to agree to.
Barely a day after we got home, Sarah proved she was both a professional and something of a miracle worker, asking for my opinion on a cover she’d made from scratch in the intervening day. The next morning, after a bit of detail work, I sent her counter-proposal to Morgan James and it was quickly approved as the final cover.
My Thoughts
I know, I shouldn’t have been stressing over it. God’s got me in the palm of His hand. He’s proven it over and over.
I also have some truly amazing folks around me. Both Greg and Sarah showed up at a level that leaves me forever grateful.
I can only imagine how much I’ve already irritated the people working with me on the project (at Morgan James and elsewhere) but what we’re coming up with is going to be truly excellent, and the stress and frustration is totally worth it.
Thank you, God. Thank you, friends. Thank you, future readers!
