Kristen Brand

Last week I posted the cover reveal for the Dark and Otherworldly omnibus, and I’m super happy with how the cover turned out. But designing it was a process, and I made a few less-than-stellar book covers along the way. Here’s a glimpse at some that didn’t make the cut.

This is my first attempt, and you can tell I was thinking of glowing blue flowers from the beginning (taking inspiration from the scene with the star blossoms in Book 1). I think this is a perfectly respectable book cover, but it’s not anything special. I wanted something with more of a wow factor.

I looked into using a raven on the cover because it’s the animal Dredarion shifts into. I like how this image came out, but it looks more like the cover for a dark epic fantasy than the urban fantasy/paranormal romance that is the Dark and Otherworldly series.

I was trying for a more paranormal romance vibe with this one but felt pretty “meh” about the results. Poor Dredarion never made it onto any of the covers for this series despite being one of the viewpoint characters. 😆

And here I’m getting close to the final product. I liked the mood and atmosphere but wasn’t happy with the overall arrangement of the elements, so I played around with it until I got the cover I revealed last week:

So that’s my book cover journey! I didn’t show all my failed attempts because some of them are just too ugly to post online, but hopefully this gave you some insight into my process.

You can preorder the Dark and Otherworldly omnibus now, and it’ll be available in ebook and paperback form on September 30th.