The First Time ~ by Darlene Kuncytes

     You finally get that email you’ve been waiting and waiting for…Here are a few ideas I came up with for your cover…Your heart is pounding so fast that you can barely breathe.  This is it. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for like a child waits for Santa on Christmas Eve. You open the attachments, your hand shaking slightly as you tremble with excitement.Click…And…there it is! You know it immediately, and with every ounce of your being. Your very first book cover ever!     You practically squeal with delight, trying hard to contain your jubilation. (But who are we kidding?! You’re pretty sure the neighbors think the tornado sirens just went off because of the sound emitting from your lungs, and you couldn’t care less.)
     This is your moment.
     It’s perfect! It’s exactly how you imagined it, only a thousand times better! You want to put that cover on everything you can get your grubby little hands on—pins, key chains, mugs, bookmarks…the list goes on and on.
     It’s really your book! Your story. Your sleepless nights and hours spent editing, and it’s all really coming together with this one amazing piece of art designed especially for you!
     That’s your name and title staring back at you!
     This gorgeous, perfect cover just seals the deal on the dream you’ve waited a lifetime for. 

You are an author! 

     This first moment can never be duplicated. And…it’s marvelous! Then, some years, and many books later, the cover model does something reckless and irresponsible, something that tarnishes his/her reputation. And your precious first book is collateral damage, wreckage in the storm. You can’t help but feel a little betrayed. This person has tainted that beautiful memory, ruined the experience, and maybe even soured your outlook on the whole industry.
     The cover is the image that helps to bring your words to life in the most amazing way. They go hand in hand. But now you’ve found out that the person whose hand you thought you were holding was only an illusion.
     This happens more than I’d like to imagine in the book world. And it’s not just cover models. It can also be editors, artists, publishers, other authors—all are capable of sabotaging your optimism and your memories. 

     You’re dealing with people and people can disappoint. And this new world of social media can just compound the problem. It’s much too easy for someone to get a bug up their bum and voice their opinions in the nastiest of ways.
     I will never understand it. It makes me sad that someone would alienate themselves from the people who made them who they are, but it is done every day.
     Professionalism means a lot in this industry. ANY industry, for that matter. You need to think before you type because, no matter what you think, once it’s been seen, it’s been seen. And you can never predict just how far the destruction will reach and who you will hurt.
   

      Luckily, I have been blessed with the most amazing cover artist imaginable, and she was quick to redo not one, but two of my covers. And I really do love the new ones so much. Probably even a little bit more than the originals with He Who Shall Not Be Named adorning them.

     Now, over eleven books later, I still get those butterflies in my tummy each and every time I see that email from my cover artist sitting in my in-box. Mostly it’s because I know what is waiting for me there will be gorgeous, and amazing, and exactly how I imagine my characters to be. 

But, do we ever truly forget our first time?Not really. 

     So, while I’ll never again feel that flush from seeing my very first cover, I will treasure the memory of it. It does get a bit easier every day to look at that canvas hanging above my sofa, because no matter what, I still do love it so much. As I love ALL of my babies. 

     But, it’s really the stories inside that count. They are the little bits of your heart and soul that you put into each and every one that makes them come alive when a reader opens the cover. 

     No. I will never get that first time feeling again, but with experience and all the friendships I’ve made along the way, the excitement I feel each time someone tells me they love my books and they love my covers is just as good... 

     If not better.