Like many of my cover designs, especially my designs using Daz renders, the design for The Restless Sands of Neel had a major shift from the first iteration to the final.
Sometimes the title changes, too! Originally I was going to call the novella, The Dragon in the Desert.
But, after feedback from newsletter subscribers, I was worried it might disappoint readers looking for a more typical dragon.
Ro’nor, the protagonist, might have descended from dragons, but he doesn’t have wings or any of their special powers, and he can’t shift into their form. The biggest creature we see in the story is a monstrous pit worm.
So… after a bunch of brainstorming, deliberating, and tweaking words to see what else might work, I finally settled on:
The Restless Sands of Neel
Anyhow, here’s a look at the first proof I made for the cover:
There were some changes I already planned to make: a different set of robes/shirt, maybe a different hair once I double-checked what was stated in the story, possibly a different coat pattern for the horse to make sure it’s consistent with the story, and the final touch-ups to make it look like a polished cover.
I sent this out, along with the tentative title, to the newsletter, and several readers chimed in with their thoughts and suggestions. (Much appreciated!)
As a result, I ended up making some major changes, two based on making it more accurate to the novella (the horse’s coat color and the main character’s hair style), and I did a bit of work to make it more dynamic and personal (a common problem of mine, for some reason).
And so I ended up with this for the final version of the cover:
What do you think? Did the changes work in its favor?
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Read The Restless Sands of Neel and see how a (sort-of) dragon fairs against a giant pit worm…
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Happy reading and writing! 📚
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 