The Importance of Cover Art by Jet Mykles

I’ll admit it, I’m a whore for pretty cover art. And I have been terribly spoiled. PL Nunn and Anne Cain especially have spoiled me with ridiculously gorgeous covers (for which I bless them over and over and over and over…)

Someone who shall remain nameless and who runs a pub (think, um, MLR Press hehe) played on that weakness just recently. She’s actually convinced me to write a story using the lure of cover art alone! I feel so easy! No, I don’t. It’s flippin’ GORGEOUS. Now I just need to come up with a story.

The Heaven Sent series would not be what it is without those line art covers. Of this, I am positive. I know for a fact that PL Nunn’s distinctive artwork caught many an eye. Readers in the know took one look at them and knew exactly what type of story they were in for. Before I even finished Heaven, I’d had many a talk/email with Morgan Hawke and we both agreed that line art covers were essential for the type of story I was writing. I was already a fan of PL Nunn, she who, through her fan fiction and gorgeous artwork, got me obsessed with the Weiss Kruez anime series. I took the chance and suggested we contact her for the covers. Bless Loose Id and bless PL for falling prey to my wicked scheme muahahahahahahaha! For those who have not seen it, I strongly suggest visiting Bishonenworks, PL Nunn’s site, to peruse the artwork. If you like my Heaven Sent series, you will NOT be sorry.

Anne Cain is simply lovely, a gorgeous person inside and out. I count myself lucky to have encountered her in my life. And her artwork… What can I say? Gorgeous doesn’t cover it. When she did the Leashed 2 cover for me, I was absolutely floored. Then, when it was time to do the Dark Elves in print, I’d already agreed with TPTB at LI that we needed something different than the ebook covers. So I showed them this fan pic Anne did for me of my two favorite elves. Of course LI was sold. How could they not be? OMG, they’re my characters and I was captivated.

I’ve worked with other lovely cover artists, of course, just not as much. I love Celia Kyle‘s Devon Cream and I’m ticked with Christine Griffin’s One For The Team. So much lovely artistic talent has been graced my way.

Some of you may ask why I don’t do cover art any more. It’s simple. I love the artwork that I do and I think that marvelous things can be done with the programs I use, but I know I’m not a master. I also know that there are many readers out there who will see a Poser cover and will not buy the book, no matter the content. Sad, but true. Now, having seen some covers done with Poser that were… less than fantastic, I can’t say that I can entirely blame them. The cover is meant to entice and some of those… didn’t. I do not wish to hamper a fellow author’s sales with a look that just turns a large group of readers off. I’m rather proud of the ebook covers I’ve done, especially those for the elves, but I have no problems with Anne taking over for the series. It’s no big deal to me. Besides, it’s not the part of the creative process that I love. I like doing my artwork and I like writing my stories. Occassionally, I’ll match up the two, but I do like to do it on my terms.

So, am I alone in this cover art thing? What do you guys think?

Written by Jet Mykles

Jet is a writer of sexual fantasy with a firm belief that all men are at least partially gay, that vampires are just people with a liquid diet and shapeshifters live on every block.
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Tags: artwork, cover art