THE STORM BENEATH THE WORLD

COVER RE-REVEAL!

Hi Mike, it’s a pleasure to have you back! We absolutely love The Storm Beneath the World and are thrilled to see it reaching an even broader audience. Hopefully, the new cover helps! Speaking of which—what inspired this redesign (the third one)? Was it driven by fan feedback, a shift in the target audience, or something else?

Thanks for having me back!

The Storm Beneath the World has been an odd experience. My agent loved the book and shopped it to publishers. We got amazingly positive feedback but “We’re not sure how to sell this” was a recurring comment. In the end, everyone passed on the novel, and I decided to self-publish it. Right away it landed amazing reviews. Even back in August, many were saying it was going to be on their Best of the Year list. And yet the sales just weren’t there.

I saw two possible reasons for this: Either people weren’t interested in reading a book without any human characters in it (and fair enough), or the cover art (which I love) wasn’t selling the book. Short of rewriting the entire novel, there isn’t much I can do about the insect cast. So, I decided to try another cover. The book was maybe six months old at this point and hadn’t earned back the cost of art and editing and I was loathe to pour more money into it. I gathered together my colossal lack of artistic talent and created a cover myself

Unsurprisingly, the new cover had zero impact on sales.

Then came the Best of 2024 lists and The Storm Beneath the World appeared on several, including some larger sites like Polygon. Suddenly, the book was selling! It finally broke even and there was enough left over to hire a new artist. I’d previously hired Rachel St. Clair to do a pile of design work for the Black Stone Heart Insanity Edition Kickstarter. As she has been nothing but awesome, I hired her to create a new cover.

Did you have a specific vision for the cover, or did you leave it entirely to the designers? And if so, who are the talented folks behind it?

I had a very specific vision for the original cover (done by Andrew Maleski) and he absolutely nailed it. Since then, however, I’ve heard folks say it’s too dark, too metal, and not representative of the story.

This time, I had a few vague requests and otherwise left it up to Rachel.

How does it compare to the previous versions? Would you say it’s an evolution of the book’s identity or a completely fresh take?

This new cover really is a completely different take. Instead of showing a scene from the book, this is all about the feel.

Covers often shape a reader’s first impression—what kind of reaction are you hoping this one evokes?

I’m not an artist and I’ve always found covers incredibly difficult. Typically, I send an artist several scenes to choose from and then include such helpful suggestions as “Make it gratuitously cool!” I’m always looking for cover art I can put up on my wall and that kinda means it often looks like the cover art for a heavy metal album.  I think that for a lot of my books, that’s perfectly fitting. This book, however, is different. It’s not grimdark. It’s a story about youths discovering themselves and pushing against the bounds of their society. It’s about characters who are trying their best to do the right thing.

And since we have you here, I have to ask—do you have any updates on the sequel’s release date? And will the story remain a duology as you initially planned?

The River of Days is one-third written. Unfortunately, I had to set it aside for more pushing (and likely profitable) projects. During 2024 I finished The Driftland Dragons, a middle-grade fantasy novel, wrote Dust of the Dead (heroic fantasy), which is currently with my agent, and wrote Long Island Memorial (a real-world horror novel) with Clayton Snyder. There’s also going to be one last Obsidian Path novel, and I’ve got to finish that first. There’s a solid chance I’ll have The River of Days out by the end of 2025.

I’m going to wrap this story up in two books. Though the second might be a bit longer than the first.