Publishing wisdom says an author should never design their own book cover, for the same reason a surgeon shouldn’t remove their own appendix. You’re too close to it. You’ll bleed everywhere and insist it’s fine.
So I’ve decided to outsource the decision to replace the sad placeholder above to the only people I trust: strangers on the internet who subscribe to a newsletter about marijuana suppositories and my dog’s weight.
For the uninitiated, Elliot Nessie is a noir detective novel about a cryptid working cases in Dubuque, Iowa, which is exactly the sentence you want to hand a cover designer. Fog? Trench coat? Something lurking in the Mississippi? A tasteful serif font implying literary merit I may or may not possess? These are the questions I’ve been staring at for weeks, and the result is five finalists, because I’ve reached the stage of the process where all the options look identical and also terrible and also perfect, sometimes within the same minute.
Yes, five. This is no longer a vote. These are the Iowa caucuses, which feel thematically appropriate for a book set in Dubuque. Somewhere around cover three, you’ll start to lose faith in the process. Push through. Democracy demands it.
Karie looked at all five for eleven seconds, pointed at one, and went back to what she was doing. This is probably the correct approach, but I refuse to accept a decision that efficient, so now it’s your problem.
The contenders are below, followed by a survey where you’ll cast your ballot. Vote for the one you’d actually pick up in a bookstore, not the one you think I want to win. I will honor the results of this election, which is more than most people running elections can say lately.
The polls are open. Dubuque is counting on you.
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