Back some years ago, when Tor published the first edition of my Star Rigger novel Eternity’s End, they commissioned cover art from Stephen Youll, one of the leading artists in the SF field. Stephen had a great vision for the book, and the Tor cover looked like this:
Later, when I brought out my own ebook edition, I had a much smaller budget. I bought some stock art I liked and enlisted writer/artist Pat Ryan to put it all together for me. I was quite pleased with the result, which looked like this:
I used that cover for many years, and it served me well. But I never forgot the original, which I loved for the way it popped off the page, and also actually reflected the story inside. As I started to think about a new paper edition of the book, I also thought about that painting. I got in touch with the artist, and Stephen was excited at the chance to have the art used again. He cut me a deal, and I proudly took a high-res jpg of the art to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, who’s been doing my cover layouts. She outdid herself in the type design and gave me this new ebook and print book cover, and this week I have released it into world! (Click on it to see it full size.)
And if you’d like to see the full, glorious, wraparound art, without any text, here it is (click image to biggify).
Sometimes I really love my job.
William Brown
Greatly appreciate the full wraparound pic. There are so many beautiful covers that probably don’t get fully appreciated due to the noise.
Jeffrey A. Carver
So true. I have often, at convention art shows, come across the full paintings that were used for book covers (once or twice, my own!), and just stood and gazed at them, taking in all the detail I hadn’t seen before.