Above are the new covers for The Aledan Series. For those who couldn't tell, I had painted the old covers myself because I thought it would be cheaper than paying for a professional job. Of course it was, but I don't think it went very far to selling my books. Sales to date have been sketchy at best. Trying to get my books listed on a specific site that specified books with professional looking covers was what motivated the makeover of the covers.
Creating the lettering for ebooks using Amazon's Cover Creator is not difficult, but it was obvious from visits to royalty free stock image site that many ebook authors incorporated images from these sites into their book covers. I scoured pages of models and couples, space scenes, among others, trying to find that special illustration at a price I could afford. In my search, I discovered that many of the same images were on more than one site, and prices could vary as much as 50%.
By comparing prices, I got the four images I wanted 40% cheaper than from the original site that carried them. I had mixed feelings about the cover shot for The Aledan. The female model looks very close to how I pictured Chelle except for redder hair. The male model, while attractive, is not how I pictured Hankura. However, their pose and the way she is looking at him projects an unmistakable bond between them which is the central theme to the plot.
A professional probably could have photo edited another model into the picture. I have seen it done, but again, it would have been more money. I tried it myself with Gimp, but it was too far above my skill level. Thus I decided to go with the original.
The other three covers are similar to the original. Just better art work. For Journey of the Searching Star: Horse Clans Colony, I originally planned to find an image with horses running in the shadow of a sunset. While looking for that, I found this blue and black shadow image of a horse running under a full moon. That was too good to pass up.
For Surviving Zevus Mar and Psi Factor I kept it simple, staying closed to my original paintings. For anyone wondering about the Psi Factor cover, that is a human embryo in the throes of the fertilization process. When you read the story, you will understand the reference.
For anyone who is wondering, eventually there will be a fifth book in the series tentatively called
The Aledan Prophecy.
The Aledan Series Website
Covers and Text Copyright © 2016 by C. A. Myers
All Rights Reserved
