Eric Shaw Quinn

Before                                          After

The Prince’s Psalm is very much a passion project for me. I spent years painstakingly researching every detail and choosing every word. So when it came time to decide on art for the cover, I wanted something that would not only capture the essence of the story inside, but be worthy of it. But my ardor for the project did not immediately translate into a clear notion of what do about the cover.

In other words, I had no idea what to do about the cover.

Clearly, we all know what David looks like. We don’t, really, but Michelangelo’s masterpiece has forever become the iconic image of David, though the statue probably more closely resembles the Tuscan model who posed for it. Still, other than the Mona Lisa, there is really no other artistic portrait of an individual that is known to more people, and for better or worse – I’d say better – it is who we all see when we discuss David. Since my novel attempts to tell small part of David’s story, the only thing I knew for sure was that Michelangelo’s David had to be on the cover.

So with pictures of the David and details from the story, I tried to write up a description that would inspire the cover artist. She designed beautiful covers. But none captured the novel for me. DSP was committed to working with me to achieve the cover I wanted, so I got back to work. I tried to explain my general vision more, and I got more beautiful covers, but the designs got farther away from the emotional terrain I was shooting for. After a couple more rounds, Paul Richmond, the head of design at DSP, suggested that I take some time to look through other book covers and see what jumped out at me.

I didn’t find anything specific, but I found inspiration.

I realized that while we all think of Michelangelo’s iconic statue when we think of David, the man, The Prince’s Psalm is about seeing David in a way that we don’t usually think of him, even though the story has been there in plain sight in 1 Samuel for thousands of years. I had it. I tried once again to describe what I thought the cover should look like. More beautiful covers arrived in my in-box, but none were what I’d tried to describe. I felt terrible. I worried that I was wasting the time of the wonderful designers who were creating beautiful cover after beautiful cover.

Then it occurred to me, words were not the way to describe what I was seeing. I got out the tape and scissors. I printed out found artwork from the internet and after a few attempts achieved the “Before” image above. Okay, now be nice. I was just trying to explain my idea in a way that the designers might finally understand.

I sent it to Paul and it worked better than I thought. He was inspired! He took on the project personally. There were a couple more drafts as we worked out the images and fonts, but it came together beautifully, I think. (See After, above) I couldn’t be happier with the results. Thanks, Paul, for your patience. Thanks, DSP, for your commitment. Thanks, Michelangelo, for pretty much every single solitary thing you ever did. But mostly, thank you David for your inspiration for The Prince’s Psalm.

Get your own copy of Paul’s beautiful cover and as a bonus my novel free with purchase!

http://thedinnerpartyshow.com/albums/the-princes-psalm/