Help Me Pick My Book Cover

Hello! I hope you are doing well and feeling that free and playful summertime feeling. Today, I want to deviate from the typical format to ask for your help picking a cover design for my book.

As readers, you’ll understand my vision far better than these designers. First, I’ll share the brief that I’ve sent to the designers so you have a good starting point:

I want to convey the idea that we are seeing a devolution of the quality of our people and our communities. "Kids these days" has been a trope since the dawn of time, but there is something different now. Modern technologies demand that we are better than ever, but society has been swept away by forces making us less capable, resilient, and alive. I'd like the cover to convey a degree of importance to the topic, but without becoming overly negative, dreary, or sensationalist. As much as this book aims to confirm that our current trajectory is untenable, I want it to focus on the idea that we can be something greater - think Moana when she is discovering that her people were once "voyagers."

A couple potential cover ideas:

- Impressive people from throughout the ages (Spartans, Sitting Bowl or another Sioux Warrior, Honest Abe, Martin Luther King Jr., Theodore Roosevelt), all looking down at a modern smartphone entranced youth with disappointment

- A pendulum swinging symbolizing a culture that has taken the parenting imperative to provide and protect way too far. We’ve neglected other essential goals that aren’t compatible with the extremes of provide and protect, like capability, antifragility, and the inclination to live for something other than ourselves. Perhaps someone could be trying to push the extreme end of the pendulum back towards the center. The pendulum represents Newton’s law of motion. By this law, pendulums always swing back in the opposite direction, but new technologies might make it possible for the pendulum not to come down this time - at least not any time soon. 

Also, I do not want the cover to be too busy. I like the idea of simplicity and open space. The major ideas I want to convey are that we are not preparing our youth to live fulfilling lives and that parents and educators can not afford to keep going with the flow.

If you want more of an idea about what the book is about so you can better grasp what I’m looking for, please take a look at this link. It includes my book brief and all the tentative chapter titles. Chapter titles are also subject to change depending on this round of my editor’s feedback and, of course, any strong opinions you might have… Justin is doing my final copy-edit, so you can bet he’ll be challenging a few of them :)

And without further ado, here are the designs! Everything from element placements to colors can still change so please give any feedback that you think could be helpful!

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Thank you so much for your help! None of this would be possible without you.  Even if I go in a different direction from what you suggested, it is likely that your thoughts will have helped me gain more clarity. It means so much that you take the time to read these newsletters. I’ve grown so much from this process. 

Life is too short to be normal,

Shane