Design Clever Cover for Unique Group-written Mystery

A Map for Murder

A Mystery by 24 Authors

This is the third mystery in Cozy Cat Press's group-written series. Each of 24 authors write one chapter then sends the manuscript to the next author to continue the story.

When their best friend Merilee lands in jail, Janet and Molly naturally rush to her aid. But when the two girls find out that Merilee has been accused of murdering her own mother, they realize that the only way to help her is to find the real killer! The mystery takes the three friends back and forth from their artsy neighborhood in Dallas, to the Old West town of Shotgun City, to a ranch so big you could get lost in it. When the threesome find a map of nearby Packsaddle Mountain, they realize they’ve found a clue to a legendary outlaw’s treasure—a treasure worth killing for. Before all is said and done, the three friends will have to face a lot of danger and team up with some unlikely allies to discover the hidden loot and bring a murderer to justice. Written by twenty-four different authors, this is one cozy mystery you won’t want to miss!

Cozy mystery lovers and readers who like books written in unusual ways. Typically adult women, but some men. Cozy mysteries are gentler than the average mystery with little to no blood or gore.

Paperback

We’re going for a fun look with this cover. You can use photos OR illustrations but the cover should be light, fun, and exciting and tie the imagery to the title. It should not be too dark or use a lot of dark colors. It could feature one or more of the main characters and/or a map image and/or some general “ranch” or “Texas” images. It MUST include the title “A Map for Murder” and the phrase “A Mystery by 24 Authors”. The final product must be a pdf for the full cover for a 6” x 9” book of 190 pages, with the back cover showing the above blurb in the center, our Cozy Cat Press logo in the lower left hand corner and sufficient space in the lower right hand corner for a bar code. The spine should show the title, phrase, and logo. We will also need two jpg front covers—one large with the long side at least 1000 pixels for upload to KDP, and one smaller for promos with the long side 400 pixels or so. To give you some more background if you would like it although you do not need to use any of this information in your design, here is more information about the characters and the locale. PLEASE NOTE: The following information is extra and only presented for designers who would like to use it. It is NOT necessary that you incorporate any of the following information into your design: The three main characters are Molly, Janet, and Merilee. This is our idea of them in order. Molly is dark with dark hair and eyes. Janet, with the pixie cut, would have blue eyes and her hair is definitely brown. Merilee, the redhead, has green eyes. The bad guy is Raymond Boyd. The three girls are helped by Officer Eric Bartlett, Denzel “Denny” Brown, and Jax. The Flying B Ranch is thousands of acres, and has a very beautiful ranch house. Finally, Shotgun City is a sort of modern-day Old West town. You could consider featuring a beautiful ranch house or small Texas town or a ‘mountain.’ You might search “Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge” and “Cedar Ridge Preserve” to see what the topography in the area might look like. The authors wrote a ‘mountain’ into the book, but as there are no outright mountains within an hour of Dallas, it’ll have to be more of a rugged hill. (see pics)

Anything that involves a lot of dark colors I have a subscription to iStock. If you find an image there you want to use, I can get it for you but only if it is in the Essentials Collection.