Forestium
Christopher D. Morgan
(Portallas #1)
Publication date: February 28th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Joshua’s life is on the line, as he attempts to navigate through the magical world of Forestium to find the truth about his father. He and his companions will need to use all their cunning to stay alive and avoid the dark forces of the Goat. Will he find the magical orbs and open the Portallas, a magical gateway to other worlds, before he’s killed?
Joshua sets out to learn the truth about his father. Along the way, he finds friends, enemies, adventure, romance and himself.
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The making of a book cover
Many authors turn the creation of their book covers over to a book cover artist and, well, hope for the best. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll get something that’s not really good. Book cover artists are very good at…well, making book covers. Conversely, however, you could specify exactly what you want, get exactly what you want, and still end up with something that’s not particularly great. Authors are really good at writing but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be very good at other things, like book cover design. The key thing here is to see in your mind’s eye about how you want the book cover to turn out and to know ahead of time whether that’s going to be a good book cover or not – something that’s a bit trickier to get right.
Creating book covers is as much an art as it is a science and it’s usually one of those things that gets most authors in a bit of a twist. It’s no wonder either, since there are plenty of people that really will judge a book by its cover. Getting the cover right can really make or break a book as far as sales is concerned. You could have a terrific work of art but it still doesn’t woo people. Similarly, you could have something that’s really very basic but just springs off the page at you. In life, it’s often said that the only people you should never shy away from paying are the taxman and your doctor. In writing, your money needs to be in the editing and the book cover. If you have to choose where to spend your money, that’s where it needs to be spent.
For Forestium: The Mirror Never Lies, I had a very specific idea in my mind for exactly how I wanted the book cover to look – right down to the very last exquisite detail. Once I had that image formed, it was then a matter of translating that into the appropriate instructions for a good cover artist. Luckily, I found one and she was incredibly pleased that I had provided her with so many detailed instructions. In my brief, I had described what I wanted in 44 separate bulleted items, covering general details, technical details, description, text and more. It was a 3-page document with 1,700 words and included 17 example URLs that each illustrated the sort of thing I wanted for each of the separate elements needed for the design.
During the process of putting the book cover together, I worked very closely with Mihaela on getting the details right. She provided me with samples at various stages of construction and we had an open dialogue between us. We couldn’t find the right stock image for the character in the pose I wanted so she contacted a re-enactment club local to where she lives and arranged a photo shoot – again, based on my description of what I wanted. This added a few days to the overall process but it was worth it, as anything else would have been a compromise.
I’m extremely pleased with the results of the book cover for Forestium: The Mirror Never Lies and, fortunately, feedback has been universally positive. Is it a really good book cover? You be the judge!
Author Bio:
Christopher Morgan is an author, blogger, IT Manager, graphics artist, businessman, volunteer and family man living in Melbourne, Australia. Much of his time is spent volunteering for his local community. He creates visual learning resources for primary school children, which are marketed through his company Bounce Learning Kids. He is also involved in local civics and sits on various community & council committees.
Christopher was born in the UK and grew up in England’s South East. At age 20, he moved to The Netherlands, where he married Sandy, his wife of 28 years. Christopher quickly learned Dutch and the couple spent 8 years living in the far South of that country before they moved to Florida in 1996. After spending 7 years in Florida, Christopher and Sandy sold their home and spent the next 2 years backpacking around the world. Christopher has visited around 40 countries to date.
Whilst circumnavigating the globe, Christopher wrote extensively, churning out travel journals. He and Sandy settled back in the UK at the end of their world tour, where their two children were both born. In 2009, the family moved to Melbourne, Australia, where they now live.
FORESTIUM is Christopher’s debut novel and is the first in the PORTALLAS series.
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