[Blog Tour] Guest Post with Michael Chulsky

The Great Cover Debacle

by Michael Chulsky 

Originally I had intended to talk about why I started writing The Descending Darkness and my aims for the series. This was before I realized that I have pretty much answered that question by accident a few times throughout my tour. That’s no fun at all. So instead, I thought a change of topic was in order. After much thought, I decided to share a little story that I think is quite funny. And I hope you readers enjoy.

I’ve received many compliments on the cover for TDD. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. I didn’t expect anybody to love the cover; in fact, I thought people were going to come at me with barbed wire and lemon juice – if you’ll forgive the dramatic visual. For the record, it’s not that I thought the cover was awful or anything. I thought the cover was really nice, but I’m the type of person who is very hard on themselves.

Now comes the story part.

Robin Tidwell, author of Reduced, Reused, and Recycled – as well as the owner of my publishing house, shot me an email telling me that the edits were done and we needed to come up with a cover. I told her my thoughts and she passed them along to the cover designer. I waited a couple of days and I was presented with a few demo covers…and they weren’t for me. I told Robin and we talked about what I liked, if anything, and what I didn’t. She passed along my thoughts once more and I waited. I received another few demo covers and, unfortunately, they too weren’t for me.

This is the point in the story where I take the time to stress that I’m not a diva or one of those girls from My Super Sweet 16. I just had a certain vision for the cover and being that this was my first novel, everything had to be absolutely perfect.

So after about a week of us going back and forth…and I’m sure, many ibuprofens on Robin’s side, we finally decided that maybe it would be best if I had my significant other try his hand at designing it. Frankly, it’s easier to explain exactly what one wants in person, rather than over the internet. And I have a strong feeling if we didn’t reach that conclusion, Robin and I would probably still be trying to work out a cover. :P

It took the fiancé a few days, but we finally created the exact cover that I had envisioned from the beginning. I was ecstatic. Since the response has been overwhelmingly positive, it makes all of the work and chaos worth it.

 

About the Author

Michael Chulsky grew up in New Jersey and has been writing ever since his fourth grade teacher let him create a class newspaper to channel his creativity. He is the author of The Descending Darkness and currently lives with his fiancé. When not writing he enjoys browsing Tumblr, listening to music, and devouring every piece of cheesecake that falls into his line of sight.
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