Here is the first choice in book covers for my ghost story Cranford Lodge. The story deals with a tale that was told to me by a dear friend of mine. She had moved into a house and started having assault dreams. The dreams got worse until she found herself waking up on her living room carpet, rug burned and hurting down there (her actual words). When she broke her lease to move out, the landlord admitted the disturbed male tenant before her committed suicide. It remains one of the scariest things anyone has ever told me, and the story is completely true. It’s OK to tell the story in words, but a cover like this is not accepted by Amazon terms of service, so I had to move on.
The next cover would simply be the demon’s face. No graphic depiction of spiritual sexual assault, just a screaming angry vision of pure hell on earth. Luckily, this is the cover that was accepted and is found on Amazon. I like it because it is bold and catches the eye. For a customer looking for a spooky ghost story to read, this should get their attention. Sure I still like choice number one, but what can you do? Being an illustrator I find that I enjoy making the cover as much as telling the story. I always make several so I can choose the best, or at least second best.
This cover was the most conservative of the three, and therefore my last choice. I do like it for several reasons. One, this is a photo of the actual old 1850 Cranford Lodge farmhouse located in Camden, Maine where the story is set. Second, one can almost make out the spirit of Sarah Cranford looming over the house in all her gloom. This cover fits the story well, but I didn’t feel that it grabbed attention quite like number 1 and 2. No matter what anyone says, everyone judges a book by its cover. Which one would you choose?
So check out my ghost story set in Maine titled Cranford Lodge available now as a Kindle download on Amazon.
