Covers are the first thing a reader sees when considering the purchase or reading of a book. It’s critical to get the covers just right, because that quarter-second glance at the typography, art, style, and blurbs spells the difference between “Wow!” and “Yawn!”
Which is why I’m so fortunate to have a sensational cover on each of my four books. Let’s take a brief look at each:
THE FURY
For those who haven’t seen this yet on social media, I’m proud to introduce the cover of my new global terrorism thriller, THE FURY. The folks at Tantor Media, its publisher, really knocked themselves out blending my story with top-notch visuals, editing, and graphics. So, an authorial tip o’ the cap to Tantor graphic artist Jessica Daigle, who created the cover, interior design, detailed locator maps, and other graphical goodies. Thanks, Jess, ya done good!
BLOWN AWAY, CUT TO THE BONE, and TORN APART
These covers were custom made for the new editions of the “Detective Emily Thompson” crime trilogy originally published by Kensington Publishing. The trilogy went out of print, as all books eventually do, but with the launch of THE FURY by Tantor Media, two other publishers–Mandevilla Press for print and New Word City Publishing for eBooks–decided to re-publish the stories with jazzy new covers and the larger-sized trade paperback format that’s featured in THE FURY. Along with my agent, Bob Diforio, we all agreed the visual style of the old books should reflect that of the new, so readers can tell at a glance it’s a Shane Gericke Thriller they’re buying–in other words, Brand Shane, not Brand X. And so Donna Carpenter, publisher of New Word City, put her team to work. They created three breathtaking works of art that perfectly express the literary lightning and thunder in each of my cops-vs.-serial-killers stories. Donna generously shared the covers with Mandevilla Press so the look would stay the same across all formats, and these are the result. So a tip o’ the authorial cap to Donna and her team as well; it’s a blessing to work with high-level pros, both when I was published by Kensington and its executive editor, Michaela Hamilton, and now that I’m published by Tantor, New Word City, and and Mandevilla Press:
