Dive Log

The Chauncey Simpson Press

Summer 2010

Maryglenn McCombs is a world-class book publicist and dear friend. When her husband, Tim Warnock, wrote this highly entertaining memoir she called me to design the cover. It just went to press and I am eager to see the full-color book. It should be gorgeous inside and out.

The cover features a beautiful blend of blues and greens which allows the red in that diving flag to really pop. Anyone who is a diver will recognize the flag. The title and subtitle also use color blends, in two different directions, suggestive of currents. The box of bubbles in the lower right corner implies a diver deep below, beyond the cover, with their air tank bubbles rising up. Why put the bubbles in a box? It helps emphasize the human aspect of this scene and creates a collage which is a bit more interesting than just one big photo. Also, it visually connects to the other box (of sorts) in the upper left to create an up-to-down — diving — direction.

Personally, I love how the fish dive downward, or at least appear to be doing so.

Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads

Coming this June from

Oceanview Publishing

100 definitive commentaries on the 100 greatest thrillers of all time make this an important book, but each commentary is written by one of today's best thriller writers including David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds, Katherine Neville, Michael Palmer, James Rollins, and R. L. Stine so this new book is expected to be a big hit this summer.

I had to put 100 names on this front cover and there is no way they could be anything but small so I used them to create a screen through which you see a lurking killer outside your window. You could call it retro. I like the word "classic" but the effect certainly says THRILLER and you can see it from across the room.

Neon Dragon

To be published March 2010

Oceanview Publishing

First published in the UK in 2007, the book was acquired by Oceanview Publishing in 2009 and I got to design the new cover.

But not right away. Susan Hayes, the interior layout designer, did it instead. I visited the Oceanview website one day and saw it there and was surprised. I've designed the cover for each of their books, all 37 of them, and this was pretty strange. I totally respect Susan. She is very skilled, talented and professional. I love what she adds to Oceanview's books (all 37) with her choices for binding and endpaper colors, in addition to her fine layout and typesetting, not to mention proofreading. But this cover must be mine, that's all. So I offered to improve it at no charge. They happily accepted and told me that acquiring this tradepaper book required a tight production budget so Susan handled it along with the interior. She did a decent job, but I needed to take it the rest of the way.

She kindly gave me her photoshop file and I reworked it. The two versions will be joining the before-and-after examples on my website very soon.

Reviews from its previous publication:

“This debut novel by law professor Dobbyn marks the first long-form appearance of legal eagles Michael Knight and Lex Devlin, who’ve starred in several of the author’s short stories. Dobbyn, who knows his characters like the back of his hand, is an engaging writer, and readers who have followed the adventures of Knight and Devlin in short stories will give a small cheer that they’ve finally made the leap to the hardcover novel.”

— Booklist

“Readers of early John Grisham and Jeremiah Healy will enjoy Dobbyn’s debut for his insider knowledge of the legal system and the defense strategy his protagonists use in court.”

— Library Journal

“Fans of the film True Believer will best appreciate law professor Dobbyn’s debut.”

— Publishers Weekly

Dobbyn also has a new thriller to be released in March, Frame-Up.

Enjoy.

iPhone Life

Since the magazine started, I've designed every cover. It's been satisfying, and now we're a 2009 Eddie Award Winner (Consumer, Technology/Computing, Full Issue). The winter issue (shown above) is getting new preference at newsstands, placed up front so the entire cover is visible.

The cover above has a twist to help people distinguish this issue from the previous one. All issues until now had a black title. This one is red. Black is very Apple, making it the perfect visual choice for us, but red is a very good alternate. The next issue will return to black, the issue after will be red, and so on.

Critical Conditions

Published by Lemon Grove Press

BRONZE WINNER: Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year

FINALIST: National Indie Excellence Awards

WINNER: San Francisco Book Festival Awards

WINNER: Allbooks Review Editor's Choice Awards

BEST HEALTH BOOK OF THE YEAR: Book & Authors.net

WINNER: DIY Book Festival Awards

HONORABLE MENTION: Reader Views Readers Choice Awards

WINNER: Pinnacle Book Achievement Award

FINALIST: Next Generation Indie Book Awards

If you've ever lost a loved one due to hospital error or negligence, as I have, this topic hits home. The author hits it home so well that many awards came fast. With the information and advice in this book, you can be an effective advocate for someone in the hospital and get better care. More than 150 interviews with nurses, doctors, social workers and families are included.

For the cover, I chose a hospital room for the background, then blurred it and added shadows to make the title easy to read, but also to give it a greater sense of distance. The monitor, to the right, is sharply focused and obviously in the foreground. Combining these gives a strong sense of depth which pulls you into the room. it's a powerful subtitle so it has the strongest color.

Click the cover to see it enlarged, as with all my posts.

Stealing Trinity

Oceanview Publishing

FOREWORD MAGAZINE'S BOOK OF THE YEAR

Gold Winner

NATIONAL IPPY AWARDS

Silver Winner

NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Winner

On July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb is tested — code named Trinity. In the days that follow, four people: a tenacious British investigator, a determined young woman, a killer, and the German spy who could compromise America's greatest scientific endeavor, will have a fateful rendezvous, all vying for control of the secret that will shape the world.

Brisk and expansive, this solid spy story inspired New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds to endorse it by saying, "Richly characterized and beautifully written, Stealing Trinity by Ward Larsen is a compelling tale of hot adventure and cool spies in the nail-biting weeks before the close of World War II. If you enjoyed Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett, you'll love this book."

Did the cover need the swastika? Oceanview Publishing thought so, and I agreed because combining it with the atom makes such a clear and compelling image. The swastika is foggy, fading around the edges, enveloped in the white light of the nucleus, in control of immense atomic power. This scary concept is a new approach for using that old nazi insignia. Blue makes it cool (and not to be mistaken for the sun) which allows the hot-colored title to compete successfully for attention underneath. The power of the atom invades the title, shown by the white glow in "Stealing".

8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

FOREWORD MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Silver Winner

NAUTILUS BOOK AWARD

Gold Winner

NATIONAL IPPY AWARD

Bronze Winner

Esther Gokhale is the ultimate authority on simply and naturally curing back pain without drugs or surgery. Her approach is based upon how some cultures in the world do not experience back pain. What do they do differently than our nation's millions who suffer so much? She researched it, learned why, and shows very clearly how you can do like they do. Standing, sitting, sleeping, walking, carrying, lifting, everything. These are cultures in which people routinely carry a very heavy load on their head for miles, or bend over all day in the fields, with no back pain. They must be doing something right. Esther shows ow you can do the same. She gets astounding results with her techniques, and her book is THE  must-read for back pain.

Esther wanted a unique cover because her book is so different and superior. The Mayo Clinic strongly endorses this book so I put that on the front cover. That was the easy part. After that, I explored photos of naked backs in various poses and lighting, and it soon became clear to me that we needed something totally NOT a human back. So I went for the feeling instead. How does it feel to no longer have back pain, and what could symbolize that? The freedom of a floating feather came to mind. 

I found a feather with a nice curving quality. It can imply either a healthy spine's shape or a relaxing nap in a hammock. Its graceful, carefree lightness, combined with the title, make a very unique cover for this book.

The red title could have been almost any color. In the end, I chose red because it's so visible. The author's name in gold lends authority and prestige. The centered type above and below allows the feather to suspend in space. Is it floating upward or downward?