Today I am very excited to reveal the final book cover for “The Extraordinary Life of Riz.” You may have already seen this in some of my social media posts. But if not, I wanted to inform you of the progress in this blog, as well.

Thank you to all of you who voted in the poll for the book cover contest. You made the decision very very clear for me. 🙂

Here’s another view of the cover, which includes the back cover and the description. Hasn’t the designer, @anja.arho, done an amazing job? The character illustrations are by the illustrator, Sama Nadeem Izhar (you may know her as my Api who works in animation). But the colouring, typography, aesthetics of the cover are all pulled together by the designer, Anja.

I held the book cover contest on 99designs.com. It was a little bit of a learning process at first. I must admit I did not really like the design entries I got in the first couple of days. But I continued to work with each designer, giving individual feedback on their designs, and what I was really looking for in the cover. Plus also what a cover for a middle-grade or young adult book should look like. The designers hard work and perseverance paid off, and I soon started getting really good designs. In the end I shortlisted 6 designs, out of which Anja’s design above was the clear crowd favourite. 🙂

Now that my book cover is final and my illustrator has completed her drawings, I have handed my book over to the book interior designer, who will bring all the elements together to match the beauty of the inside with the beauty of the outside. I hope. Fingers crossed.

Keeping that in mind, I expect “The Extraordinary Life of Riz” to be launched before the end of March, inshallah. This includes proofreading, samples from the printers, and also book reviews sites. I should be opening pre-orders very very soon.

Thank you for being my fans. Your encouragement keeps me writing.

Till next time. 🙂