For those of you who did not know about the Odeum series before the establishment of the website, ads, and additional content, let me tell you that the book covers have been evolving. The design for book one was created as early as 2018.
"E.A., you design these yourself? There are tons of free covers and cover designers out there!"
Yes, I know. I hated the look of them and didn't feel like any of the prefab cover art did good job of representing the books. I also possess the talent for digital art, so I opted to take the long road. As you can see in the images below, I struggled with elements of the theme for books 1 and 2 cover art. This soon became an impassible brick wall while trying to design the cover for book 3: Crossing of Eurydice.
As the journey continued, I added elements per critique from friends and tried to incorporate imagery on the cover because I was told that people like pictures. This didn't work and I scrapped the idea, keeping the covers abstract but symbolic. Up until recently, I struggled to find a perfect cover concoction of simple, eye-catching, and symbolic.
Book 1 of Odeum, I thought of putting a simple picture of the iconic theater on the front, but I did not like how flat the image was. The font color was also changed from grey to white to make it pop, and I was advised to add the book numbers under the title to help with confusion. The most recent cover of book 1 incorporated blood splatters and a lacing similar to corset stays. It seemed fitting due to the numerous times Kaylie would be in costume at the theater. The dark sanguine look was used because this is a book with vampires.
The Keeper, book 2, had a cover design that showed two darker pieces coming together amongst teal or blue-green paths. The connection was representative of a bond between two prevalent characters in this book. This cover later evolved and the two parts that connected were not able to be seen after edits were done. The greenish blue paths are like veins or arteries. The reason for their color? It has to do with "the bulwark." I won't spoil what "the bulwark" is for those who have not read through book 2.
Book 3, Crossing of Eurydice was, at first, a yellow and black design with the majority of the cover being white. A friend recommended keeping it more in line with other designs, since the font would need to be black and the fonts on the other covers were grey or white. Later, covers for Crossing of Eurydice had a very abstract depiction of a sun rising over a road or the road at dusk. It was messy and over time I liked it less and less. The look kind of fit the theme but was ultimately too bright, too loud, too muted, or too messy.
Book 4, a title that will not be revealed in this blog, had the best design. It's cover became the inspiration for the whole theme: chaotic cataclysmic space. There have been many times chaos, stars, and cataclysmic events stuck out to me as themes while writing the series. Why? You'll have to read the books and find out.
What does that mean for the current covers of Odeum and The Keeper? What will they look like now? The covers will be updated on Amazon soon. I will gladly show you a sneak peek of the future covers depicting the theme I described earlier:
I will be saving the reveal of the cover for Book 3: Crossing of Eurydice for when the book has been completed and is undergoing editing. Additionally, I will keep updating readers with more progress in the series. Stay tuned for more!