And the winners are....

So first up, if there are any authors scouting around looking for cover art, don't be shy about leaving an inquiry or contact info for any particular cover because there is a wealth of fabulous art here -- and I know a lot of our artists are hoping for that very thing.

Choosing between so many wonderful covers and talented artists was difficult. No, let's be honest, it was insane. There were just too many great choices. As warned, I did overrule the popular vote in two cases because, well, it turns out I'm not as easy-going as I think. 

Anyway, the to-be-commissioned art and the runners up are listed in the posts below.  I truly appreciate everyone who took part in this contest, whether contributing art or taking the time to vote (seriously, your votes were very helpful) you made this a creative and entertaining endeavor.

Thank you, all!  

And the winner is...EVERYTHING I KNOW

Um...so pretty much every single cover in this category was a winner. I mean, just one perfect cover after another popped into my mailbox. From bunnies to black boards, these were all I-want-that-one! However, we can only have one cover --  and the girl with the votes is Catherine Dair (again!) for #7.

This category in particular was flooded with great submissions. It's amazing to me that there were so many inventive spins on such a simple description.

I especially liked #2 by Stuu. It's a bit too dark in tone for the story, but it's really wonderful -- as so many of you noted.

And the winner is...WHAT'S LEFT OF KISSES?

This had to be the toughest of all the projects in that the cover had to somehow convey something of each story (one of which doesn't even exist yet!). It had to be romantic AND somehow advertise "historical."

In other words, good luck with that!

But again, so many inventive and even gorgeous covers. So many covers that could work for a number of projects. But in the end I went with my favorite concept -- after speaking to the artist about the possibility of potentially tweaking it to make it more vintage/retro/aged.

Therefore the commission goes to KB Smith for #5. I love the idea of the snapshot fading out into nothing. 

But two of the overwhelming reader favorites really have to be pulled up and shared because they're so good, and I keep trying to think of other projects I might have coming up that I could use them on!

Those covers were both by Johanna: #7 & #11




 
 
 
 
 
 

And in fact, I believe that the typewriter cover could work very well for an audio book cover, though I haven't quite figured out which one. So I started out commissioning four covers and I think I'm already up to seven. :-)

And the winner is...A SHOT IN THE DARK

Again, so many wonderful submissions. If you're not all getting commissions for covers now, I don't know why not. These were terrific.

The vote was very close, and I liked both leading contenders very much. I decided that we would go with #4, KB Smith's cover for the A Shot in the Dark collection.

Congratulations, KB!



And with a title change and some tweaking of dimensions, #7 by Minu will work perfectly for the audio book cover for The Dark Farewell.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations yet again!

 

 



And the winner is....SLAY RIDE

Well, we had some interesting voting! In some cases my favorites turned out to be really, really different from the popular choices. So it's a good thing I put in that little caveat about overruling the vote when necessary because... 

SLAY RIDE

There were just so many great ideas for this cover -- which is astonishing, given that nobody had almost anything to work with in the way of direction or story hints! I honestly could have gone with any number of the submissions, but I knew the perfect cover the second I saw it. It captures the noir vibe and has an uncanny number of story details.

So the cover commission goes to Catherine Dair for #11

The popular vote, however, went to  two efforts by Minu --  #17 & 19 -- so congratulations on your talented work and thank you for those lovely covers! This is all the more impressive as Minu wrote that these are her first ever covers.

In addition, I fell in love with Johanna's adorable cover with the guy bundled up in a sweater, and I decided to commandeer it for an as yet unnamed and unknown Christmas story. Now all I have to do is write the story!

 

 

 

 

 

EVERYTHING I KNOW PART 2 (IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO VOTE)

If you already voted on the earlier large post, don't vote again -- I am collecting those votes. But if you weren't able to "see" that post, I've split it up into two smaller posts, so you may vote once each on those.

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EVERYTHING I KNOW - if you weren't able to vote

Okay! Here are the cover submissions for EVERYTHING I KNOW. They're all wonderful! Vote for your favorite in the comment section below.


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Here we go!

Here we go! The cover contest submissions are now uploaded -- I hope I didn't miss anyone (if your entry is not listed, it's because I didn't receive it).

It's very simple. Vote for your favorite cover for each project in the individual project's comment section. If you want to go so far as to explaining why you like a particular cover, that's fine too.
Ultimately I reserve the right to choose the winning cover, but I am genuinely interested in your voting choices.

The covers are anonymous to keep the voting process objective. However, once the voting is in and covers have been chosen, I will list the names of all the artists who took part (unless instructed otherwise).

Before anyone votes though, I just want to say how really impressed I was by the variety and originality of the covers. I have enjoyed opening my email every day. It's wonderful to see how creative everyone got with this -- some of you were moved to try your very first cover. Some of you are already professional, but you were kind enough to jump in and join in the fun.







I hope you all had fun. I certainly did! **PLEASE NOTE: Just vote once per project. :-)

Cover Contest WHAT'S LEFT OF KISSES

Lovely offerings for the historical collection of novellas -- this was a tough one, so I am really impressed by the submissions. Vote below in the comment section for your favorite.


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Cover Contest Submissions - A SHOT IN THE DARK

Here are the submissions -- please vote in the comments below!

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