Update – I noticed Barnes & Noble online is selling ‘A Rose to the Fallen’ with the new cover. Well, the new cover with the black border. That was unbelievably fast! I was told it could take up to 45 days for online stores to get updated with the new version of my book. Once I sign off on the cover again and it goes back to the printer, they should start selling the latest version of my book (without the border). I hope Amazon, Borders, and Books-A-Million wait a little longer before they start selling my book with the new cover. I don’t want anyone else selling the wrong cover.

I decided I didn’t want the black border around the cover, so I asked my designer to remove it. Something told me to go with my first instinct, and that was to NOT have it there. So now I have to wait for them to correct the cover and send me another proof. Then I’ll be able to sign off on it again and they’ll resend it to the printer. This was the final change I had, so I promise the new cover will be finished soon.

My publisher works fast! Yesterday they finished putting together the new cover for ‘A Rose to the Fallen’ and now they’re in the process of sending it to the printer. There’s a slight change with the design. There will be a black border around the entire cover, so the front looks like a poster. It was actually my designer’s idea. I like it because it’s a different look from my current cover. I won’t show a picture until the book goes live. Stay tuned!

I’m happy to announce that the newly designed cover for ‘A Rose to the Fallen’ is finished and has been sent to my publisher. I’m very happy with the final result. Once again, I want to thank Lily Seidel and Monique Zoellner for their collaboration on the redesign. They both did a wonderful job! I’ll post another update when the new book is available for purchase. It will only be available in paperback because the hardcover will be discontinued once the book is re-released with the new cover. The reason is because the hardcover isn’t selling as well as the paperback, so I don’t see a need to keep it in production. There are two reasons I decided to have the cover changed. The first reason is when I saw Monique’s photograph of Lucas Buchwald, I thought it would look better on my cover. I liked her photo more than Annett Vauteck’s stock photo of Lucas that was used for my old design. The second reason is Melissa Petersen designed my old cover and we’re no longer friends. Last year, she abruptly and cowardly ended our friendship with no explanation or reason. Her behavior turned me off, so I decided for the remaining time ‘A Rose to the Fallen’ is in print, I don’t want my first book to have her design. I wanted to keep the cover relatively the same so people can still recognize it. I definitely think it’s an improvement from what it looks like now and I can’t wait until it’s released.

I’m still in the process of having the cover for A Rose to the Fallen redesigned. As I mentioned in a previous post, the front cover is finished. It was designed by the amazing photographer/graphic designer Monique Zoellner from Germany. She used her photo of the beautiful and “perfect-as-Tristan” model Lucas Buchwald, who is also from Germany. I’ve hired another talented photographer/graphic designer named Lily Seidel to redesign the back cover. And guess what? She’s from Germany too! My entire book cover is going to be German-made! If Tristan was German instead of British, this would be really ironic, don’t you think? But seriously, it wasn’t intentional. I admired Lily’s work and contacted her about the commission. It wasn’t until after I sent her a message and checked her profile, that I saw where she was from and laughed at the coincidence. Anyway, she does magical things with roses (check out her gallery and see for yourself), and I wanted Bridget’s symbol—a red rose—on the back cover. If anyone could create a unique rose design for Bridget… it’s Lily. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with. As you can see, the new cover is coming along. Stay tuned!

Tiffany is still working on the book trailer for A Rose to the Fallen. I spoke to her a few weeks ago and it seems to be going well. It’s challenging for her to find the right videos so she can put the clips together. I think she’s going to use the love poem on my MySpace to tell Tristan & Bridget’s story in the trailer. She said she really liked it, and I think that would be really cool if she used it. I’m not sure when she’ll be finished, but I hope it’s very soon. I’ll let everyone know when the trailer is up. She said, “I want to have something that your readers and even new-comers to the book will watch and then say..’I would LOVE to see that film’.” Me too! I can’t wait, I’m so excited! She enjoyed my book so much, she said she’s reading it again. I believe she’ll be hosting the trailer on her YouTube channel. We both agreed that she should put a rating on it because my book is for adults. Her underage viewers shouldn’t read it, so they probably won’t see the video. I think that’s how ratings work on YouTube. I’ve never uploaded a video there in my life, so I’m not sure. Read more »