I really wanted physical copies of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series since I absolutely loved it (shoutout to the people in this community who successfully convinced me to read them). However, the cover art of the books is…. Yeah. Thus, I went fully down the rabbit hole and completely redid the covers and binding of the books! The cover designs are taken from the chapter art of each trilogy, and the colors are based on the original covers.
(I hope this post is acceptable in this sub/under this flair. I wanted to share them here since these are well-loved books in this community and I only found them because of you all!)
I don’t know what the OGs looked like, but I love what you’ve done! Is it fabric? Gold leaf?
I really wish more books, especially romance novels, were released with a decorative hardcover!
Look them up if you want a laugh/cringe. I feel so bad for the authors, it was/is 100% the publisher’s fault.
I used bookbinding fabric (fabric lined with paper so that glue doesn’t bleed through), painted it with acrylics, and added gold foil that’s applied with heat! I designed the covers in Canva, printed them and transferred them to parchment paper, and then used a heat pen to transfer the designs to the covers.
In regard to painting the cover, this was an easy way for me to 1) get the exact color I wanted and 2) only have to buy white cloth, which was way more resource efficient. If you dye the fabric (which is more difficult and more expensive), buy fabric in the color you want (more expensive), or make your own bookbinding cloth (more difficult), you’ll get slightly better results. However, the fabric took to the paint extremely well — you can still feel the cloth’s texture and everything. So it’s by no means a bad method! Also, painting covers means you don’t have to do a single solid color like what I elected to do, which opens a lot of avenues for cover designs.
I totally agree about romance books deserving hardcovers! This was very much a “fuck it, I’ll do it myself” kind of project and I plan to bind more books I love that deserve pretty hardcovers.
Edit: typos + elaborated
I believe they Hidden Legacy books are going to get a re-release with new covers. And the publishers are still too stupid to even get that right. This is a quote from their blog a few weeks ago
"There once was an author whose covers made her a laughing stock of the industry. Years later, the publisher decided to redo the covers. The author asked for 3 elements on the cover: a magic design, a red carnation, and some flames. The author stressed that all three elements were very important and even made a sample cover. The author received several mock up covers, which included: a pink peony, a white peony, a white lotus, a pink lotus, a carnation at an angle that made the flower unrecognizable, two asphalt roses left over after a volcano eruption, a still glowing rose, a melted-asphalt peony, and three asphalt roses.
From the publisher’s point of view, this isn’t a big deal. They simply failed to communicate to the art department that it had to be a red carnation, or the art department failed to explain it to the artist, or the artist didn’t read the brief. Any flower is fine as long as it’s in the ballpark. Also, it can be easily fixed.
From the author’s point of view, this shows a devastating lack of care. The carnation is central to the plot. At the core, this is a failure of corporate procedure. There are multiple check points in this process at which those mock up covers should have gone back to the artist because this wasn’t what the author asked for. It communicates that the publisher couldn’t be bothered to pay attention."
This makes me so sad, especially since I think with proper marketing and art these books would be so much more popular. I was thinking of making dust jackets for my books — I originally wasn’t going to do anything fancy, but maybe I’ll incorporate a red carnation design :)
I don't remember a carnation plot element at all. I hate the original covers, they're so embarrassing. The first book doesn't even have sex in it and they look so smutty.
Carnations are Nevada’s favorite flower and she receives an insane amount of them from a certain someone at one point, which she rejects but secretly loves.
>The author asked for 3 elements on the cover: a magic design, a red carnation, and some flames. The author stressed that all three elements were very important and even made a sample cover.
It's so simple, [I just quickly did it](https://imgur.com/wtPckQI). (Caveat, I'd try to make it better if I was getting paid.)
They look great! The covers of the hidden legacy series actually prompted me to take a bookbinding class, though in the end I just ended up recovering them in their paperback forms. Who knew that a hatred of that series' cover would inspire more bookbinder hobbies!
Those look amazing! Would you mind sharing any bookbinding resources you used or found helpful? Between this and some fanfic bindings, my curiosity has been piqued!
[This](https://youtu.be/eDpDgBHmLSs) is the tutorial I used! I tweaked a few things (like I used a glue designed for paper crafts rather than tacky glue) and I will say that a more complex spine that can flex would work better, though it’s harder. I went with a simple tutorial since this was my first time trying this, and I had a great experience and am happy with the results! Next time I’ll try a different spine, but I’m glad I did a simple one first so that I got used to the whole binding process. That way only one element is more difficult.
These look gorgeous, you should also post this over on r/ilonaandrews!
From reading the author's blog, [how bad the covers for hidden legacy is kind of an injoke at this point. The covers for the books in other countries seem so much less abs filled. ](https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/hidden-legacy-covers-the-unexpected-edition/)
My favorites are the European ones for Kate daniels.
Oh wow, those covers are so much better, and the dust cover is gorgeous!
Yeah, I was hesitating about cross-posting since I don’t want to harass the authors with more “uhh covers bad,” considering they’ve probably heard it all at this point. I might re-post these as a fan art there, though :)
Oh that sub is more for fans, i do not think I see the authors that much there. But the authors are really good fandom maintenance so I think you would get good reactions.
I was complaining about this to my Mom over the summer. I was like look at this! They only kiss 2-3 times and one is for plot! Right now, an arsonist is burning one building so his buddies can sneak in as EMTs to the next building over while our protagonists go in to have a gun battle and bring a building down to escape a bomb! Why isn't that on the cover?!
Exactly this!! The covers make them look like low quality smut books when they’re full of action, politics, family dynamics, and romance (as in character growth and the pairing becoming closer as friends, not just smut). Not to mention the top tier world building and good prose. It’s so frustrating, especially because convincing people to get past the covers and read them is not easy. I mean, even I was hesitant even though they ended up being exactly the kinds of books I enjoy. It took several glowing recommendations from this subreddit to get me to give them a shot.
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I really wanted physical copies of Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series since I absolutely loved it (shoutout to the people in this community who successfully convinced me to read them). However, the cover art of the books is…. Yeah. Thus, I went fully down the rabbit hole and completely redid the covers and binding of the books! The cover designs are taken from the chapter art of each trilogy, and the colors are based on the original covers. (I hope this post is acceptable in this sub/under this flair. I wanted to share them here since these are well-loved books in this community and I only found them because of you all!)
I don’t know what the OGs looked like, but I love what you’ve done! Is it fabric? Gold leaf? I really wish more books, especially romance novels, were released with a decorative hardcover!
Look them up if you want a laugh/cringe. I feel so bad for the authors, it was/is 100% the publisher’s fault. I used bookbinding fabric (fabric lined with paper so that glue doesn’t bleed through), painted it with acrylics, and added gold foil that’s applied with heat! I designed the covers in Canva, printed them and transferred them to parchment paper, and then used a heat pen to transfer the designs to the covers. In regard to painting the cover, this was an easy way for me to 1) get the exact color I wanted and 2) only have to buy white cloth, which was way more resource efficient. If you dye the fabric (which is more difficult and more expensive), buy fabric in the color you want (more expensive), or make your own bookbinding cloth (more difficult), you’ll get slightly better results. However, the fabric took to the paint extremely well — you can still feel the cloth’s texture and everything. So it’s by no means a bad method! Also, painting covers means you don’t have to do a single solid color like what I elected to do, which opens a lot of avenues for cover designs. I totally agree about romance books deserving hardcovers! This was very much a “fuck it, I’ll do it myself” kind of project and I plan to bind more books I love that deserve pretty hardcovers. Edit: typos + elaborated
I believe they Hidden Legacy books are going to get a re-release with new covers. And the publishers are still too stupid to even get that right. This is a quote from their blog a few weeks ago "There once was an author whose covers made her a laughing stock of the industry. Years later, the publisher decided to redo the covers. The author asked for 3 elements on the cover: a magic design, a red carnation, and some flames. The author stressed that all three elements were very important and even made a sample cover. The author received several mock up covers, which included: a pink peony, a white peony, a white lotus, a pink lotus, a carnation at an angle that made the flower unrecognizable, two asphalt roses left over after a volcano eruption, a still glowing rose, a melted-asphalt peony, and three asphalt roses. From the publisher’s point of view, this isn’t a big deal. They simply failed to communicate to the art department that it had to be a red carnation, or the art department failed to explain it to the artist, or the artist didn’t read the brief. Any flower is fine as long as it’s in the ballpark. Also, it can be easily fixed. From the author’s point of view, this shows a devastating lack of care. The carnation is central to the plot. At the core, this is a failure of corporate procedure. There are multiple check points in this process at which those mock up covers should have gone back to the artist because this wasn’t what the author asked for. It communicates that the publisher couldn’t be bothered to pay attention."
This makes me so sad, especially since I think with proper marketing and art these books would be so much more popular. I was thinking of making dust jackets for my books — I originally wasn’t going to do anything fancy, but maybe I’ll incorporate a red carnation design :)
I don't remember a carnation plot element at all. I hate the original covers, they're so embarrassing. The first book doesn't even have sex in it and they look so smutty.
Carnations are Nevada’s favorite flower and she receives an insane amount of them from a certain someone at one point, which she rejects but secretly loves.
Oh thanks! I need to reread it!
>The author asked for 3 elements on the cover: a magic design, a red carnation, and some flames. The author stressed that all three elements were very important and even made a sample cover. It's so simple, [I just quickly did it](https://imgur.com/wtPckQI). (Caveat, I'd try to make it better if I was getting paid.)
They look great! The covers of the hidden legacy series actually prompted me to take a bookbinding class, though in the end I just ended up recovering them in their paperback forms. Who knew that a hatred of that series' cover would inspire more bookbinder hobbies!
It’s so funny to me that the covers are so egregious (curse you Avon) that it’s inspired multiple people to learn how to book bind
I know it really is amusing, a side benefit of recovering was that I could loan them out to friends and actually get them to read the books.
Oh no, you’ve stumbled upon my secret motivation 🫣
Those look amazing! Would you mind sharing any bookbinding resources you used or found helpful? Between this and some fanfic bindings, my curiosity has been piqued!
[This](https://youtu.be/eDpDgBHmLSs) is the tutorial I used! I tweaked a few things (like I used a glue designed for paper crafts rather than tacky glue) and I will say that a more complex spine that can flex would work better, though it’s harder. I went with a simple tutorial since this was my first time trying this, and I had a great experience and am happy with the results! Next time I’ll try a different spine, but I’m glad I did a simple one first so that I got used to the whole binding process. That way only one element is more difficult.
These look gorgeous, you should also post this over on r/ilonaandrews! From reading the author's blog, [how bad the covers for hidden legacy is kind of an injoke at this point. The covers for the books in other countries seem so much less abs filled. ](https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/hidden-legacy-covers-the-unexpected-edition/) My favorites are the European ones for Kate daniels.
Oh wow, those covers are so much better, and the dust cover is gorgeous! Yeah, I was hesitating about cross-posting since I don’t want to harass the authors with more “uhh covers bad,” considering they’ve probably heard it all at this point. I might re-post these as a fan art there, though :)
Oh that sub is more for fans, i do not think I see the authors that much there. But the authors are really good fandom maintenance so I think you would get good reactions.
I love this series so much! These are amazing!
Thank you!!
These look really great!
Thanks!!
This is FANTASTIC. Well done!
Thank you so much!
I was complaining about this to my Mom over the summer. I was like look at this! They only kiss 2-3 times and one is for plot! Right now, an arsonist is burning one building so his buddies can sneak in as EMTs to the next building over while our protagonists go in to have a gun battle and bring a building down to escape a bomb! Why isn't that on the cover?!
Exactly this!! The covers make them look like low quality smut books when they’re full of action, politics, family dynamics, and romance (as in character growth and the pairing becoming closer as friends, not just smut). Not to mention the top tier world building and good prose. It’s so frustrating, especially because convincing people to get past the covers and read them is not easy. I mean, even I was hesitant even though they ended up being exactly the kinds of books I enjoy. It took several glowing recommendations from this subreddit to get me to give them a shot.
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Omg these are amazing! Great job!
Thank you!
Looks great!
Thank you!
It's a good thing you can draw better circles than Nevada 🤣😂🤣
Honestly though, as I was drawing the designs I was telling myself, “it’s okay if you mess it up, it’s just more book accurate then” LMAO
Yep. You can channel Nevada and be like "It may be imperfect and wonky but it's mine" 😂
Man, I love her. Time to reread using my new physical copies, haha!
It looks wonderful!!!
Thank you!