New print or packaging design wanted for Richard Brown

Richard Brown

Author of Suspense/Thriller/Horror books.

I'm looking to get a re-designed front cover for a book called, The Gift of Illusion. The book came out back in May of last year, and the original cover can be viewed on my website at http://www.richardbrownbooks.com. It was just a basic background with some smoke effects. For the new cover I want something entirely different and more eye-catching.

Here is a brief description.

"An ancient evil has returned to continue the study it began over a century ago, and it’s looking for volunteers. Isaac Winters is the perfect test subject. He’s a detective with a damaged past, and something to prove.

On the night of his wife’s murder sixteen years ago, which left him a single father, Isaac thought he had seen the worst mankind had to offer.

Until now.

It moves like a virus from person to person, carefully selecting its next host, and leaving a trail of incinerated bodies in its wake. There are no witnesses and no evidence except for a small statue of some unknown figure.

Accompanied by a partner short on experience, Isaac must uncover and defeat this faceless villain before it takes from him the greatest reminder of his dead wife. Their daughter."

The villain in the book is the spirit of an illusionist from the 19th Century, who over a hundred years later, has managed to return via a grave statue and is now taking over peoples bodies. He moves from person to person simply by touching them, and when he does the previous host burns to death similar to Spontaneous Human Combustion. When he was alive, he used to perform shows in his mansion and had a homemade prison built in the cellar where he would lock people up, only to use them as part of the show. Now the Illusionist had no actual magical powers, he was simply able to make people believe what he was doing was an illusion due to the extreme depravity of the show itself. He was basically a master manipulator.

The cover doesn't need to represent exactly what's in the book, it just needs to be visually stimulating. Since the book is about dark Illusions, incorporating any kind of optical illusion into the art or text would be a nice touch as well. Whatever you do, just make it better than my original design. :P

I need the cover to be 5.5 x 8, with at least a .25 inch bleed around the edges. I will need a PSD file and any fonts used in the design. Any questions just ask. Thanks.