My Cover Designers 1 – Anthony and Rebecca

In my 16-year publishing journey, I’ve been privileged to work with some phenomenally talented people, and it’s time to give credit where credit’s due to the handful of artists who have paired my scribings with gorgeous front covers. And that’s not all – Anthony Askew, a friend of my son’s, designed my very own white horse – Blaise, used as a trademark symbol in all the Hengist books.

Back in 2009 when I looked into getting my first book published, I came across an outfit called AuthorHouse, and drove down to Milton Keynes for a presentation, which resulted in my signing up for a publishing package costing a humungous £675.
Not my finest hour – suffice to say I learnt a very expensive lesson.
Only good thing to come out of the publication of Subterfuge on 22 May 2009 was the cover. They took my mockup and made it look amazing.

Anthony Askew

The following year, I discovered I could create books with Lulu at no cost, and I’d taken some photos I wanted to use for the covers of the first 3 hengist books, so I got Anthony to turn them into covers. Unfortunately, I had little idea of the young adult market, and my daughter reckoned they looked more like the covers on text books. She was so right.

But I did have fun getting a lad in my tutor group to come in and pose as Reagan at my kitchen table with a bunch of witchy artefacts.
Turns out he was a proper drama brat (son of an actor) and he and Steph ended up in the school production of Dracula Spectacular.

For the book tour of Archer and Rory, Anthony also created these fabulous posters (above), the third one of which resulted in the second set of Hengist book covers (below).

And he also created the most amazing book trailer for Archer.
But then he set off on his travels so I needed to find someone new.

Rebecca Stirling

One of my author buddies put me in touch with the amazing Rebecca, and she created fabulous covers for my 1st two standalones as Ro Green, followed by the re-release of Subterfuge as Fox Among Wolves, which turned into a trilogy – due to reader demand!!!

Then she came up with a fabulous concept to re-brand the Hengist stories, which turned into 5-book series.

And she also created the most amazing book trailer for New Kid in Town - the Bryant Rockwell first book. You'll need to unmute it to hear the soundtrack.
Oh, and did I mention she's also a brilliant author? Writing beautifully-crafted fantasy, (mostly shifters) as Keri Armstrong. Check out her books here.
Unfortunately, as often happens with us creative types, Rebecca took on too much, so she had to give up the cover designs, but I still count her among my friends - she's the one who came up with my nickname JRo!

Thankfully, another fabulous female stepped in to fill the breech. More next week.