I’m working on a book cover now (surprise). It’s the follow up YA novel from Blythe Woolston. Blythe’s first novel The Freak Observer won her a really nice award, hence the gold emblem on the front cover below. I’ve met Blythe, she’s a fantastic author, quirky awesome fun, full of random knowledge, from Montana (as am I), loved the cover for her book, and was very appreciative of what I did for the design.

Which brings me to the nerves part of the post: I have eight cover ideas for Blythe’s next book ready to show to our cover committee for approval/discussion. This is not accounting one bit for the nerves. What I’m nervous about is Blythe seeing the options and none of them to her living up to The Freak Observer cover. Perhaps what this means is I should never meet awesome authors (especially if they live in the homeland I miss) and add another level of importance to an already high-profile project? When you have a client you like, you really want to do awesome work for their awesome project, so you add that extra pressure and it can all get a tad overwhelming.

Sadly there are no body parts on the new book cover (yet). But there is a big hole on one of them. Should be a nice companion cover to the first. Crossing fingers.

Maybe after this, if they let me do her third book cover, that one won’t be as hard…

ADDENDUM 8.12.11
Blythe liked the cover. And the interior layout.