I entered the cover for Campbell's Boy to be critiqued during a recent Jane Friedman session with professional book designer, Damon Freeman of Damonza, an industry favorite. I was excited to be selected as one of the ones critiqued in the session.

Before being published, I was hyperaware that a book cover could potentially make or break a book project. To paraphrase Damon, you need a cover that screams "best seller" from the get-go---no less will do. 

Campbell's Boy is my favorite cover out of my four published novels. It started with a germ of an idea that I then hired a professional to retool. (I wrote about the experience in this blog post: https://www.marykendallauthor.com/blog/archives/25-july-2022)

 Design aesthetics and rules can change according to the taste of the town. Damon really honed in on what currently works and does not work with this cover. I especially appreciated seeing it in a line-up with others of its genre (coming of age historical fiction) to compare and contrast. 

My snippet runs about a minute and is included here. The entire session can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia21rG1uDHU

Thank you to Jane Friedman and Damon Freeman for this great opportunity.