Illegal Astronauts Cover Concepts

AKA: The challenges of adapting a design paradigm to a book cover.

Everyone has heard, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” before. And while that sounds like a great concept, it doesn’t work so well when that very cover is the first introduction a potential reader has to the book on the shelf or screen.

The book cover is the billboard. It’s your ad space for a concept and a story that’s contained within the pages beyond.

So, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on potential cover designs. In fact, it has taken a lot longer than I originally budgeted time for, but that’s the way it goes with creative works.

And while I don’t yet have one I’m content with, I can tell you this: the cover will stand out. The majority of the book market has fallen into a “safe” holding pattern of designs in the same way the car industry is hesitant to try something new. They make investments and the added risk of creativity (read as, “trying something new”) is far from minimal.

This is another reason Illegal Astronauts (Book 1) will be self—published. But, more on that soon.

For now, here’s some of the designs I’ve come up with. Let me know what stands out to you!