HERE ARE THREE DIFFERENT COVER concepts I have for my next short story, ‘The House on Dunning Drive. As previously mentioned, the story was originally called ‘The House on L_cy Dr_ve’, and I discussed the name change in the last blog post. The top left would be a dark grey background, silhouettes of trees, and then the image of the house in the book, with one single light on. The second would be of an old, rusty mailbox, signifying to the reader that wherever this house is on Dunning Drive, it’s old, and not much really goes on there, unless it’s of a visitor. The third is the one that is the most visually appealing to me…a light image of the house, and a noose where the ‘O’ will be. I’m thinking of going with the bottom left, as it really kind of signifies an event in the story that is really important.
This week, I have an art vending booth at the Chesterfield County Fair, and don’t have a lot of time to work on the cover, but I kind of knew this was the direction I wanted to go. So last week, I pulled out a canvas and painted it black to prep it for the cover.
I’m looking forward to putting this book out there, and moving on to the next.
USUALLY, WHEN I WRITE A new story or book, I post the proposed cover with the blog. Unfortunately, I won’t be doing that this time because not only has the title changed, but the overall design is too similar to my last cover. Though they were written years ago, when I was designing the cover, the cover concept was similar. The title of the book was ‘The House on L_cy Dr_ve’ but is now ‘The House on Dunning Drive’. If you’ll notice, there are missing letters in the first title. The reason for the missing letters in the first title was because the letters on the mailbox in the story are missing. I changed ‘Lucy’ because when I wrote it there used to be a Lucy Drive in the area where the story takes place. That drive was a dead end that honestly led to nowhere. I don’t even know if it was an official road, but when I looked it up to at least describe the area accurately, it no longer exists. As developers have started to build the area up, some roads that used to be there have been wiped off.
So why Dunning Drive? Dunning is my father’s middle name and I thought, ‘what the hell, why not?’ The name ‘Dunning’ isn’t significant to the story. I just needed a street name to put the house in the book on. Anyway, the story is being edited and my proposed release date for the book will be on Tuesday, September 19.
Why Tuesday? That’s a good question. Most new books, movies, music, etc., are released on Tuesdays. The reason for this goes back to the year 1866, the very year ‘The House on Dunning Drive’ takes place. Just kidding, nobody really seems to know why. There are several theories, but it’s not clear why that day was chosen, but there are some theories. One theory is for ease of distribution. If all the bookstores got their book on Tuesday and the book was popular enough, they could put in another order and have it delivered to the store by the weekend. Another theory is that it creates a level playing field for booksellers. If, for example, a popular book is ready to drop and only one store is carrying them, that store has the advantage in sales. Amazon has not played by this rule, and it has pissed some of the smaller bookstores off. Remember, before Amazon was dominating the market with Prime Day and having employees work in ungodly conditions, it was a bookstore. There are other theories out there, but those are the two that kind of stuck out to me.
That said, once the cover for ‘The House on Dunning Drive’ is complete, I will release it. As before, this cover will be traditionally painted/designed, and as the release date grows closer, I will also promote the stories that precede this one.
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