Welcome to Wattmag's very first Cover Makeover!  

Last month we asked you to nominate your stories with main characters who were either a villain or an anti-hero type figure.

  Our very lucky winner was rdiamond89 and her story Their Other Mortals.  

  Here's what Ria had to say about her anti-hero and why she wanted a cover makeover: 

 Hunter Landen is an Ancient, a Greek God, and a Roman emperor. He's done deplorable things to keep his mate under his control throughout the millennia, so much so that she's rendered mute in the present day. 

I promise, you won't get an entrant with a main character who's more of an anti-hero than this guy.

I would love for my cover to get a makeover because I feel that although the writing is good, the cover doesn't pull attention to the novel. 

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The Briefing

One of the initial steps in the design process is a 'briefing' from the client about the project; i.e. I spoke to Ria about her story and asked her a whole heap of questions. I won't detail all of that here because of story spoilers, and also because a girl's gotta have some secrets ;)

The original cover design for Their Other Mortals was this:

At a glance, the original cover reads hardcore Sci-Fi. My discussion with Ria, however, revealed that Their Other Mortals is actually a Fantasy / Alternate History / Action / Adventure mixed-genre extravaganza, with a timeline that fluctuates between Ancient Rome and present-day.

Additionally, the relationships between the main characters are a major driving force of the story, but this was not reflected in the original cover design. 

All of this being said, I actually do really like this cover design, for a number of reasons: 

• It's bold, clean, balanced and simple (particularly love the limited font styles)

• There's great contrast between the text and the background image

• The background image is beautiful

It's a great cover, just not quite right for this story.

Ria asked for something eye-catching and vibrant. She wanted a cover design that would fit in in a bookstore, something that would sell her story at a glance. (Who doesn't?!)

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The Makeover

Once I had my briefing, I set to work.

First up was casting the characters. I knew immediately that I wanted to feature the three main characters, as this story centers around their relationships. 

I decided to use a centurion-styled model for Hunter, since most of his story takes place in Ancient Rome, while the other two characters are styled as close to their profiles as I could manage. 

Fire magic and military fire-power are both featured icons in the story, so it was a no-brainer to include lots of flames, sparks and smoke.  

The warfare theme also influence the battle-worn metallic title font.  

I went with a serif/sans-serif combo for the title and author fonts, in keeping with major styling conventions of best-selling Fantasy books.

Without any further ado, here's the new cover!  

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Do you want a FREE Wattpad cover makeover???!

Each month, @lucyface will be giving a lucky Wattmag reader the chance to have one of their Wattpad book covers completely re-designed!!

This is an incredible opportunity to have YOUR Wattpad book cover polished to a professional, publishing-ready level. When she's not writing, Lucy works as a professional graphic designer with her business render / compose.

Lucy's clients are international best-selling authors, Wattpad Stars, Wattys award winners, and authors signed to big publishing houses. She works with writers to create customised book covers, kick-ass websites, and scroll-stopping social media graphics that effectively market to online readers.

For your chance to win a FREE Wattpad cover makeover, go to the next chapter in THIS BOOK >>>>> 

  If you want to learn more about designing your own book covers, then you might be interested in checking out Lucy's Wattpad book, "How to: The Basics of Book Cover Design". 

In this book, Lucy talks a lot about... the basics of book cover design (surprise!). She also provides info on where to find free, fully licensed stock images, fonts, and other design resources, as well as recommendations on the best places to spend money, and how not to spend too much (she's queen of the tight budget!).