THE COVER IS READY (AND IT'S REAL NOW)

I'm staring at the final cover design for The Conductor's Game, and honestly? I can't believe this is happening.

After months of overthinking every design choice, second-guessing color palettes, and obsessing over whether the typography was right, I finally have a cover that feels like my book.

The Design Process Was Hard

Remember when I said I was avoiding the cover design? Yeah, that lasted longer than I'd like to admit.

The problem was that I had a specific vision in my head—a feeling, an aesthetic, a mood that I couldn't quite translate into a tangible design. I knew what I wanted the cover to evoke, but getting that vision realized was incredibly difficult.

First, I tried using AI to help generate ideas. Some results were interesting, but nothing quite captured what I was seeing in my mind. So I did what seemed logical: I hired a professional book cover designer.

I found someone who specialized in fantasy covers, someone who knew all the technical aspects I didn't—the font choices, the market expectations, cover sizes, etc. He had experience with exactly this kind of project.

But here's the thing about having a very specific vision: sometimes even the experts can't see what's in your head.

When It Didn't Work Out

The designer was talented and had experience with fantasy covers. But as we went through revisions, I realized he wasn't getting what I was explaining. I'd describe what I wanted, send references, try different approaches to communicate the vision, and the results kept missing the mark.

It became clear that we just weren't on the same wavelength. Sometimes that happens, even with professionals. The frustration of paying someone to bring your vision to life, only to feel like you're speaking different languages, was exhausting.

Eventually, I had to make a tough call: this wasn't working, and I needed to figure it out myself.

Finishing It Myself

So after hiring a professional because I didn't know how book covers worked, I ended up having to take his design and finish it myself.

I took what he'd created—the foundation was there—and started tweaking. Adjusting elements, changing what wasn't working, refining it until it matched what I'd been trying to explain all along.

Thank goodness I'm semi-good at Photoshop. Without that, I would've been completely lost. But piece by piece, I transformed his version into my vision.

The final cover is a hybrid—his professional foundation combined with my specific direction. It's not what either of us would have created alone, but it's finally what I needed it to be.

The Final Design

After all that work—here it is.

The cover for The Conductor's Game.

Looking at it makes the book feel real in a way that even finishing the manuscript didn't.

What's Next

With the cover done and proofreading wrapping up, I'm running out of tasks to hide behind. The book is almost ready. Actually ready.

Soon, I'll be ready to self-publish it on Amazon.

For now, I'm just sitting with the reality that my book—the one that started as fragments during a meditation eight years ago, the one I wrote through plot holes and dead ends and twin babies—has a polished manuscript, a professional cover, and a title that feels right.

It's real. And it's almost time to share it with the world.

Stay tuned.