Cover Reveal: Earths End by Elise Kova

IT’S FINALLY HERE. I am so happy to share this another gorgeous cover of the third book of the Air Awakens Series by Elise Kova, which will be published February 2016. Merilliza Chan never fails to live up to my expectations for this series book covers, they’re breathtakingly beautiful you couldn’t help but to admire and stare at them for a moment. Be sure to read up to the end because you could win an Air Awakens swag!

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Tadaaaaaaa

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And here it is!!!

Isn’t it a beauty?! *stares* *cries* *sigh*

Earth’s End Synopsis:
A woman awoken in air, a soldier forged by fire, a weapon risen from blood.

Vhalla Yarl has made it to the warfront in the North. Forged by blood and fire, she has steeled her heart for the final battle of the Solaris Empire’s conquest. The choices before Vhalla are no longer servitude or freedom, they are servitude or death. The stakes have never been higher as the Emperor maintains his iron grip on her fate, holding everything Vhalla still has left to lose in the balance.

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If you guys haven’t read Air Awakens I’m going to leave the links where you could by it below and be sure to add it on your goodreads.

And as for Fire Falling which will be published a few days from now (November 19th, 2015) you could pre-order it through the links below.

How did you come to work with zwxArt (Meril Chan)?
— Well, when I decided to self-publish I knew the cover art would be one of the most important things about my book, and I also knew I wanted drawn artwork over photography. I, personally, feel like it’s “iconic high-fantasy” to have a painted cover and so that’s what I began searching for. Also, as an indie author, I wanted to work with someone else who wasn’t a big cover art company and perhaps was just getting their start also. So I was thumbing through DeviantArt for illustrators I liked and I found Meril.

It was the image below that made me know I needed to work with her. It was like she’d already created something that I thought captured the essence of Air Awakens, even if the visuals I wanted were completely different.

Can you explain the process from the author’s perspective? How are covers made?
— Well, I can only explain in my limited experience. It’s my understanding that traditional authors get little to no control over what their covers look like. For me, I started by sending Meril what had been my query letter and a handful of scenes I pulled out from the story. I also sent her the draft manuscript in case she wanted to find how a particular scene I’d chosen to pull out fit in. I’d been told that cover artists are too busy to read their client’s work in its entirety, so I wasn’t offended by the notion of just handing her some scenes.

To my surprise, Meril read it all. Talk about knowing you made the right choice as an author! I seriously count my blessings every day for this.

So, Meril reads my draft manuscripts (she’s usually among the very first to read them before my editor) and then she begins drafting thumbnails. These are very rough, quick sketches to give me an idea of the layout. She explains a bit of each, what she sees as the inspiration and story for each cover. From there we tweak them.

Tweaking can be everything from, “What if she’s holding…” to “I like the third and fifth sketch, can you try to merge them?”

This process can take anywhere from two days to a week, depending on how long I need to stare at them and how many changes are being made.

Following that, Meril moves onto the final sketch with a bit more detail. Once we’re certain we’re on the same page with the final direction she starts rendering. As an author this stage of the process is basically magic to me. Because she transforms (granted, an already amazing rough) into an even more amazing final illustration.

When she’s close to the final she sends it to me (by this point I’ve already poked her for updates because I’m way too excited not to) and we do any last-minute editing like color changes, softening lines, or adding small details.

Once all that is done she sends me the final illustration and I do the text layout on it. And, that’s how the Air Awakens covers come to life!

What’s your favorite cover so far?
— I like them all… They each have something that I think is perfect for the book they’re representing about them… I suppose, it’s a toss-up between Earth’s End and Fire Falling. Earth’s End just wows me with the background Meril created, it’s going to be a gorgeous hardcover book. There’s also a lot of teasers in there. But, Fire Falling has Aldrik on the cover, and that’s never a bad thing!

And because Elise is generous as ever, she will be raffling off an Air Awakens Swag Bag! Which will include:
– Air Awakens “Shatter the Sky” Canvas Bag
– Silver Wing Earrings
– Signed Paperback of Air Awakens OR Fire Falling
– Signed Air Awakens Postcard
– Signed Air Awakens, Fire Falling, and Earth’s End Bookmark Set