Hi Friends, I come from a family of artists, including my mom, Dorothy Swain, and my grandfather, Ed Brown. When I was young, my mom put a paintbrush in my hand and encouraged me to use my creativity. I don’t paint or draw often now, instead I channel my creativity into writing, flower arranging, and creating a peaceful and pretty home. But I do use some of my artistic skills to create images for book promotion, to share my faith, and to offer encouragement. When it’s time to create a new cover for one of my books, I enjoy putting on my artist’s hat.
It Takes a Team
There are several people who are involved in creating my book covers. I’m grateful my publishing team invites me to be involved in the process. The first step is for me to share information about the story and characters and give design suggestions. I send those, along with images from my Pinterest book board, to my editor, and she shares them with the design team.
No Journey Too Far is the sequel to No Ocean Too Wide. We wanted to the covers to be similar, but to also look unique. The designer was able to accomplish that by choosing the same basic layout, with two people and a mode of transportation, as well as using the same font for the title. The designer made it different than No Ocean Too Wide by using an opposite color scheme and showing the couple as adults rather than children, and showing the train instead of the ship.
Take a Closer Look
These are the preliminary designs that were considered. They used the working title, A Promise to Keep, which was eventually changed to No Journey Too Far.
My editor liked the first design on the left, but I thought the man and woman looked older than my characters, and I didn’t sense much of an emotional connection between them. I liked the next cover, but the couple looked like a brother and sister, and I wanted to show the idea of romance with the couple.
Love the new cover, Carrie, and am impressed that art is another of your talents. The soft colors are beautiful and I’m eagerly awaiting my copy!
Thanks so much! I’m glad you’ll be reading No Journey Too Far!
Hi Carrie,
You mentioned your Mother’s name is Dorothy Swain. We are members of Hawthorne Gospel Church in Hawthorne, NJ. Lee and Esther Swain were missionaries from our church and I was wondering if you were related to them. I enjoy your books so much!
Ermetta
Q
Hi Ermetta, I don’t think we are related to Lee and Esther Swain, but perhaps distantly. My Dad, Bob Swain grew up in Oregon. His dad, Guy Swain came west from Missouri in the late 1800s. That’s as much as I know.
Oh Carrie,
I absolutely love everything about this new cover design..the colors, the couple, the train, the font..and how well it ties in with the previous book’s cover! A+++ for sure! I can’t wait to read the story! Will be pre-ordering from Baker Book House!
Have a wonderful holiday weekend
Diane Housel
Thank you, Diane! I’m so happy to hear you like the cover. I like to shop at Baker Book House too. Unfortunately, they’ve had trouble listing this book on their website, but you can give them a call and order it that way. I hope you can take advantage of the preorder offer and read the short story about Garth and Emma!
The covers are lovely on both books, and I love reading the inside story on the evolution of the cover for No Journey Too Far. Thank you for sharing that process.
You are welcome, Suzanne! I’m so grateful I get to give input on my covers. They are important to me and I think they are to readers as well. Happy reading!
Loved the journey of your cover design, Carrie! Thanks for sharing with us. And even more important, thanks for sharing your creative gifts in writing these beautiful stories.
Hi Terri! Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words!
Thanks for sharing the story behind the cover. I look forward to reading “No Journey Too Far”! I enjoy all of your books and nice to see “Along Came Love” mentioned. One of my favorites!
Hi Ellie, it was fun to see your comment pop up! Thanks for stopping by. I’m excited to share this new story with you!