The Demon Cycle: Covers That Never Were
Posted by Karen
Hey everyone! Larry Rostant is the brains and talent behind all of Peat’s amazing English covers. He recently put up a Pinterest board with a bunch of his design work and it got me thinking about how much work goes into making covers. I feel like artists don’t get enough credit for the work they do, especially when some of that work doesn’t get used.
Peat already put out a series of blog posts entitled Evolution of a Cover, but I want to highlight something a little different. These are the unused masterpieces. The almosts and might-have-beens that had to be discarded for one reason or another and never had the opportunity to grace bookshelves.
Without further ado, check out these covers that never were:
The designs for Daylight War were sent back and forth for years. Peat’s publishers had a doozy of a time trying to pick from so many great choices. This is one of the photos that was nearly chosen.
Absolutely gorgeous. Despite not being chosen, I feel that it’s important to acknowledge the time and effort that goes into creating covers like these, even if they aren’t the ones that ultimately get picked. In the end, Peat got two different Rostant designs for the US and UK.
Ah, The Skull Throne. The first draft of this cover was very different than the end result.
There is a lot of power in this image, but it just wasn’t… right. It wasn’t Peat’s Renna. So they changed some things and tried again. This time, it was much better.
Now THAT’S Peat’s Renna. The final version of The Skull Throne is a variation. Without its previous incarnations, we could never have had the badass Renna cover we have now.
So cool.
These are just a few of the many, many designs that go uncelebrated in the process of choosing a perfect cover. To see more, check out Larry’s Pinterest or jump straight to his Fantasy Book Cover Art Board.
You can grab your copy of The Skull Throne in hardback or paperback here.