My cover designer ghosted me. I can’t blame him. He has had enough of my pet peeves. The last cover we worked on took long to get finished based on my special requests. Little did the designer know that this book and its cover had history. It was the debutante novel of a novice novelista. And as such, having been through many hoops, I took a critical approach.

Now I hope I haven’t lost a valuable artist and designer. Especially since one of my next books (Cowboy story) could be an interesting series, which all would need a cover. I should have known better. When I worked in the textbook production business, we had a “team.” In various status meetings, the acquisitions editor, developmental editor, the permissions people, the production editor, and the art department checked through the timeline and brought production challenges to the fore. And sometimes these meetings didn’t go without a spat.

After one such meeting, I stepped into the cave of an especially irate art director. What happened? In our process, the cover design thumbnails were circulated through the various departments to have everyone sign off on the draft. In my position, I would have to screen for any and all typos, regardless whether it was just an initial blurb. No problem with that. However, with this one design I had a bone to pick. It was for a modern language textbook and showed the arches of a gothic church window. What was modern about that? I wrote that on the comment sheet.

Boy, was I in trouble. I did get the evil eye and a sermon from this female art director that we are a “team” and we don’t publicly criticize each others jobs. And also, she said, I overstepped. The esthetics were her domain. All right. She had a point. I deferred and we became friends again.

Why did I overstep? Because I am a photographer with a good visual sense and because I have a brain with a good common sense. And I later put together one or the other cover myself, for better or worse. Yes, I now realize, I can mess too much with other people’s work. Because I am a little pedantic.

Now I don’t know whether my wonderful cover designer will ever pick up any of my jobs again. Apologies—I mean it. That last book and I had too much history. I will behave myself next time.

Yes, the same book with three different covers. The difference is clear. Maybe I can put aside my nit picking attitude and go with the flow of the art.

NOW AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH: The Celtic Stallion Twilight Rendezvous now available on Amazon.

The Celtic Stallion now chases across the Wild West.