I thought I’d take a stab at sorting out Slip and Slide’s cover design while taking a breather from writing the first draft.

I settled early on the colour scheme and the bath theme (which may or may not have relevance to the story, no spoilers here!). I’ve kept key elements of the layout consistent with Duck and Dive i.e. the position, size and font of the author name and book title. For the title I’ve used the same yellow as Duck and Dive’s background, and introduced a new blue for this book’s background.

I’ve swapped out the tag line at the bottom for the series title, Rise and Shine. This is something I’ve had to come up with, now that Duck and Dive isn’t a standalone! I’ve incorporated a small pride flag emoji too, as a nod to the gay storyline. To be consistent, I’ve pulled these changes through to the first book cover as well.

There were about ten variations I came up with which I narrowed down to a final four. Then I decided it was time for other opinions. I asked my partner, one of our flatmates, the neighbour’s cat, and then I put it out on Facebook and Twitter:

Which (if any) of the book covers make you want to click and find out more?

Option 2 absolutely dominated. There were a few calls for elements from the other options to be incorporated as well, but Option 2 was the primary focus for most votes. Some were keen to see the bubbles of Option 1 brought in, and there was even some love for the little rubber ducky.

I’ve roughly plotted the results, giving a full vote to options that were chosen without further comment. In cases where people picked two options, I gave each ½ a vote. And where people voted primarily for one option, but with some element of another suggested, I gave them ¾ and ¼ of a vote respectively. The results:

It looks like everyone wants a bath with Arthur and Gabriel! Option 2 is the go. I’m going to play with it though, based on the feedback, see if incorporating some bubbles or the little rubber ducky improves or muddles the design. Or maybe those elements can be added to the back cover instead? We’ll see.

One last thing, let’s see how Slip and Slide (Option 2 in its current state) looks sitting next to Duck and Dive (with its updated series title):

If you have any thoughts or comments, do drop me a message on Facebook or Twitter, or use the contact form on my website.

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