The Story Behind My Cover by B.A. Bellec

Author of Someone’s Story and co-collaborator on the music it inspired, B.A. was born in Richmond, BC and raised in Langley, BC, before settling in Winnipeg, MB. His first adventure was a career in Finance, where he spent 15 years developing his business skills. His highest achievement was the Certified Payroll Manager designation. He currently still consults with businesses on their systems and processes. Over that period of time, he also attended film school where he started to nurture his early creative abilities.

A self-starter always interested in research, he taught himself many of the aspects of storytelling through reading books, screenplays and material online. Whenever he found an inspirational piece of art, he quickly went to the source to find the story behind the artist who created the work. It took many years after attending film school for him to finally combine his creative skills with his life experience and tell that story he had been holding back. Some of his favorite creative people: Lukas Rossi, Justin Furstenfeld, Peter Jackson, Stephen Chbosky, John Green, J.K. Rowling.

Currently he is pounding away on the keyboard writing his second novel, Pulse. This project is a change of pace and more details will come in a few months!

B.A. is also an avid jogger and walker, frequently using them as a way to work on those tough spots in life and his manuscripts. If you found it this far into his material, reach out to him on Twitter and make sure to like and subscribe to get updates on all his future endeavors.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: http://www.babellec.com
Blog: https://babellec.com/b-a-bellecs-blog/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/b_bellec
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babellec/

The Story Behind My Cover

I was looking at covers that were around $400. My girlfriend and I talked about it a few times. She likes to paint but hadn’t done much in the last few years. My concern with a pricy cover is that I had a very specific moment and vision from my book, outsourcing it may not have captured exactly what I wanted: a silhouette of a tree, a colour fade in the background.

We found a cover online with a similar style:

Because I was still writing my book, my girlfriend decided to take a few attempts at painting a purple sunset galaxy and I gave her a month as a soft deadline. I am a savvy computer user and download a free photo editing program called GIMP. We took her first painting and started playing around with some of the features.

While she was working on her second attempt I started to look at licensing some images. I always wanted a moon, tree, and cloaked figure. The moon never changed. That was exactly what I was looking for, but the tree changed multiple times. I originally had something more Charlie Brown’esque. Then I went through at least a dozen trees in full bloom eventually settling on the one that we have now.

To test my foreground, I then took a few images off on Google image as sample backgrounds. I gave the moon a glow effect and created my title text.

When my girlfriend finished, we put her background into my template and we both knew it was a hit. The colour scheme here became my marketing platform colour scheme. I also made this cover into a puzzle for my editor as a gift.

The thing I like most about the cover is how meaningful it is because it has a piece of my girlfriend’s work and my work, it is a specific moment from the book, and it looks beautiful!

Covers are really important. This was my first book and as I was browsing some of the other indie authors I saw some weak covers. My goal was to make something that you couldn’t tell I had cooked up at my desk and I think the finished product looks very professional!

I LOVE MY COVER!

About the Book

In his debut endearing coming-of-age book, B.A. Bellec writes about a group of weirdos that find and save each other from the dark depths of their minds. Someone’s Story is literally Someone’s story, as in a first-person narrative of a teenager that calls himself Someone. As he struggles to find a new

footing in a new space, we encounter the many ups and downs of modern teenage life, the difficulties that adjusting to adult feelings bring, and a few tear-jerking surprises along the way.

Littered with music, mental health, friendship, loss, meditation, advice, pop culture, and even inspiring an EP, there is so much nostalgia, inspiration, and depth here it is hard to absorb it all. Cozy up somewhere warm and enjoy!

“B. A. Bellec has crafted a masterpiece of emotive and well-rounded young adult fiction.”
K.C. Finn – Author

“The variety of personages, situations, and mental illnesses represented allows all readers to relate to this book and take something away from reading! This novel is on our list of all-time favourites!”
International Girls and Books

“Someone’s Story is a beautiful novel, written in great prose, very descriptive, and filled with insights about life. The author does an incredible job with themes of family, friendship, bullying, and personal development. It felt like I was reading a portion of my emotions and myself in Someone’s Story.”
Gobi Jane – Professional Critic @ Readers’ Favourite

ORDER YOUR COPY

Amazon → https://amzn.to/3dHJU7X