The Return of The Midnight Files

​(This article was originally posted in Deborah’s blog and is used here with permission.)
 
Two years after the end of Amazon’s Kindle Vella serial novel format, The Midnight Files is finally being published by Thinklings Books as e-book, paperback, and hardback. Book one, The Last Partner, will be coming this October and the other two books in Octobers 2027 and 2028. 

​It’s been a boatload of work reediting these, of course, but that’s not what I want to talk about. Instead, I’m very excited to say that I’m having custom art done for the covers.
 
Now, not all covers need custom art. For many, in fact, stock images do as well or better. However, The Midnight Files really needed its protagonists on the covers but those protagonists also have some extremely specific characteristics that it’s frankly impossible to find in a stock photo. Namely: Nebekah Lawrence’s hatchets and Daisy Allen’s gloves.
 
Thinklings Books has an excellent cover designer, but we don’t have a dedicated artist, so we turned (where else?) to Fiverr. After several hours of searching, we found Gaurav. 
 
It’s always a risk, hiring on a new artist, but we thought, based on his previous work, that he might be well-suited to creating art for The Midnight Files. I reached out to him and arranged a custom gig, sent him the files, and he sent me back his first sketch.
 
The sketch was good, but not quite right. I’d given him a description of Agent Lawrence for the cover, and she ended up a bit too superhero-looking. I gave him a few notes. Now, professionally, for my books and other Thinklings books and books from clients back in my editing days, I’ve dealt with a lot of graphic designers, and my experience has generally been a difficulty communicating well with them.  
 
Not so with Gaurav. He took my notes and ran, not only adjusting everything I’d mentioned but somehow practically reading my mind and getting back to me a sketch that was astonishingly good.
 
But I hadn’t hired him just for his sketch work. I’d hired him for his brilliant use of light and color, and he didn’t disappoint.
 
This is what he got back to me. Just look at that back glow . . . and the gleam on those hatchets . . .

​Now: is this always how I pictured Agent Lawrence to look? No, and it’s still not. But it also is, because he captured the essence of her. He even somehow captured something deep and complex in her expression . . . because from a distance, it looks tough, even angry, but if you zoom in close, it looks somewhat sad. And that is not only an astonishing combination and achievement from the artist, but also about the truest possible representation you could have of her as a character. . . .
 
Overall, it’s been an interesting and nerve-racking experience. But I’m extremely happy with the result, and I hope you like it too!
 
I’ll continue to update you on the book as time approaches. At the moment, a proof copy just arrived, and so I’m editing it. Again.
 
 
UPDATE: The covers for the other two Midnight Files books are also done (by Gaurav), and we are excited to show you them sometime in the future, so stay tuned!
 
The cover for another one of our books (by a different author) is also in the works, with our usual designer, and that one will be revealed sometime in the nearer future. Hooray!

Deborah J. Natelson

Deborah lives in Montana with two pretty black kitties. She is the author of Bargaining Power, a smart, twisty fantasy thriller; and various other books. Her author website is www.deborahjnatelson.com.