June-July 2016
That is when I first settled on a name for this short story. I was into a royal vibe for the story because the main character is a God and a King. Cover inspiration was hard to come by. I spent weeks looking at photos of crowns and thrones and nothing stood out to me. I eventually came across a photo of a monarch butterfly. I've liked monarch butterflies since I was a kid and I thought I could make that work. The name stuck, but covers were faring no better.
August 2016
I still couldn't find a way to make the butterflies work for me. I was running out of ideas and it was getting a bit discouraging. I thought about putting the entire process on hold because I was far from done with the story (to be honest, I'm still not done writing the story, but covers help give me a push when I get stuck). Then one day, I found a picture of some chess pieces. The picture made me think. Though my main character is a God King, his story paints him as a pawn in a much bigger plan to outwit the one, true King.
I ran with it. I found two different photos that could work and in a matter of days. I made a cover with the least complicated of the two photos. Though the cover was satisfactory, I wasn't happy with it. I thought it could work, but it was just a little too simple. A week and a half later, I made a second cover. I just couldn't let go of crowns and butterflies to go along with the chess pieces.
Immediately, I had second thoughts. The second cover took a lot more work, but the first cover was visually the better cover. I needed some time to step away and see if I could make a final decision on a cover.
February 2017
After the winter from hell (as described here), I finally got the strength to get back into the cover game. I was looking for inspiration for my newest project, Aftermath, when I came across this really cool photo of glass chess pieces (When you're an indie author and you're capable of making even a basic cover, stock photo sites like Pexels and Pixabay are your best friend). I thought it was time to revisit my covers for Monarch.
March 2017
A few weeks and a full new laptop overhaul later, I finally had some free time to make my new cover. I knew right away that this cover was the one.
April 2017
So, here it is. The third and final draft of my cover for Monarch. I hope you guys love it.
Final Words
I may be a writer, but I'm still an artist at heart. Putting together covers is a way for me to express that art. It's constant process where I learn and grow with each new cover. Of the fifteen covers so far, I've redone half of them (a few I've redone at least twice). I'm not always able to describe my vision for my covers. Sometimes, all I need is a theme or a nice picture to jumpstart the process.
As I mentioned earlier in the post, I'm still not done with this story. I'm getting there, but I can only do what my health and writer's block will allow me to get done. For now, I'll keep working on it and I'll tell you to be on the lookout for the cover reveal for Aftermath. At least there, I'm sure that will be my next published project because I am much closer to completion with that book.
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