New Cover, Coming Soon

As you guys know already, my debut novel Redemption came out back in December 2024. I went through an independent press to publish, and I purchased a publishing package from them, mostly because I wanted someone to hold my hand through this initial process. And they did help me quite a bit! 

One of the major points is that they got me set up on Amazon and the Barnes & Noble website, set up my ISBN numbers and even a Library of Congress number. They took care of all the metadata intricacies.

But what I’m talking about today is my cover art. My cover art was done for me by a designer through Gatekeeper Press and I found out recently that he used AI to generate it. 

Given the “ick” sentiment that surrounds AI use in the creative sphere, I had taken it on good faith that they wouldn’t AI generate my cover art without my knowledge, but as my suspicion grew, I emailed my publisher to say “hey, I just want it in writing that you guys didn’t use AI, so I can have some peace of mind about it.” 

They confirmed it was AI generated and, not going to lie, it felt like a punch in the gut. 

If you know me in real life, you know how against AI I am, especially in our creative spaces.

I have partnered with my good friend Daniella, also known as @nimbusfalling on Instagram, and we are working on a new cover for Redemption! 

I want to keep AI as far away from my writing career as possible. Hindsight is always crystal clear and looking back, I feel like I should have clocked it at the beginning, but what’s done is done now. And I am making this right as best I can while also giving myself some grace due to knowing (now) that I wasn’t in the head space I should have been to take on a project like this when I did. 

That’s a story for another day.

As a disclaimer, I was informed that Gatekeeper Press now asks their incoming authors if they are okay with AI use in their publication process, but that didn’t go into affect until long after I had signed with them. I was told that before then, they had left it to the designer’s discretion. 

They have been very patient and professional with me during this post-publication process of trying to make changes now that reflect my values as an author.

In conclusion!

I feel like I’ve learned a lot of lessons about this industry the hard way, but I also feel like I have a clearer path going forward.

I’ll keep everyone as updated as I can on this process. I don’t know how long it will take to get everything changed over entirely. Thank you guys for sticking around in the meantime.