I’ve previously mentioned in my newsletter that when I began writing The Genie Whisperer, I had high-level outlines for what I wanted to happen in Season One (books one and two) and Season Three (books seven and eight), but I wasn’t really sure what should happen in Season Two, other than that it had to lead to Season Three. 

So how did I gain inspiration for what needed to happen in Season Two? By determining what I wanted for the book covers!

Season 2 Covers   

A while ago, I heard advice that you should plan your book’s whole package before ever begin writing a word to help give you an idea of where you’re going and keep you on track. This book package includes the book’s title, blurb, summary, and, of course, the cover.

This is advice I’ve taken to heart, and I always brainstorm titles and covers for a new book before moving on to brainstorming blurbs (what I put on my website), and then summaries (what I put on the book vendor sites like Amazon and Google Play). After all that’s done, I review any tropes/themes I want in that particular book, then I finally start on the outline. I like very detailed outlines so I know exactly where the story is going, and I can (hopefully) spot any major story problems at this stage. When that’s complete, I finally tackle the first draft of the book. 

With brainstorming the book package, I knew that Season Two would include the Archives of The Society, so debated putting scrolls or books on the cover, but that came with a problem – I already knew I wanted something like that on the covers for Season Three, so that didn’t really work. My two other major brainstorm ideas included stairs, because I knew the Archives were large, so I thought maybe something would be weird with the stairs, and doorways. Me thinking more on the doorways cover concept sparked the idea for the pocket dimensions, which, of course, are a major part of Season Two. 

I think it’s funny that something so small as brainstorming the book cover led to an idea that impacted the book so heavily, but that just goes to show that preparing the novel’s book package before I write is helpful for me. Thank goodness I listened to that advice!