The Evolution of a Cover: The Farmhouse at Peace & Plenty

As you may recall, the inspiration for my ghost story–The Farmhouse–was the abandoned 1830’s farmhouse just north of where I live. It was built by Colonel Funsten and was witness to skirmishes during the U.S. Civil War with wounded soldiers and the dead laying upon its lands.

The book's first edition features the home, with the frozen ground in the foreground (from a photo I took on a frosty morning). I loved the original cover, although I decided to update it a couple of years ago. I may prefer the newer cover, but I’ll never get tired of looking at all of the images I’ve taken of the house over the years.

The original title of the book was “The Farmhouse.” However, once I uploaded the final book and prepared to hit the publish button, I got a message from A-zon that my title was too close to another book. Well, this book is by one of the “big” publishers and is a nice cozy book. I was told I needed to prove my book was vastly different and that a customer wouldn’t be confused in their purchase. I emailed them the cover, which clearly is not “cozy.” I lost the battle. Therefore, I added the tagline “at Peace & Plenty” because that was the original name of the land where the farmhouse sits.