Hello all, I've written a novel, that covers the first exploration of another star-system (Tau Ceti to be precise) and beyond. It was originally self-published but it has recently been picked up by a publisher to take over on all general formats (e-book, hard/paper back and audio-book). The publishers have put together some cover-art which is... not what I envisaged. They seem to want to go down the Battlestar Galactica/Star Trek route with the design of a ship for the cover. In my book, I have tried to keep things as realistic as possible so this jars somewhat. I have used my veto on the cover-art to say "no" to what they have suggested. They have asked me to have a look around for what would satisfy me and I stumbled on this forum which seems to have lots of really talented people on it, who all consider engineering authenticity important. This is the scene in which the ship is described via the tried and tested Sci-Fi staple of an info dump- Only Endeavour’s designers would ever consider her beautiful but, nevertheless, she had certain attractiveness to her. The central spine, over a kilometre long, was studded with instruments and antennae. The four landers were mated nose-first into the spine near the bow. Each of them looked like the old Apollo command and service module, but on a much larger scale. At the front, the maw of the ram scoop was situated to be able to greedily consume the ethereal traces of hydrogen in space. To the rear sat the mighty plasma engine that was capable of accelerating the ship to ever-increasing velocities. The thin centrifuge ring circled the spine at the half way point, connected to it by the thin trusses. This was where the crew of twelve would be spending most of their time. Dotted within were the labs and crew quarters and the other facilities necessary for the ship to function and keep its occupants alive. Basically, I'm wondering: Do any of you have any stock images or designs that may look similar. They need to be of sufficiently high quality that they wiould hold true on a book sized cover. Also the design will likely be superimposed over some more stock art background, so if it can be manipulated to enable that to happen even better. Generally the feel has to be USS Discovery from 2001 or the Rockhopper from the cover of Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds.... basically like something that would be built in the not too distant future. I apologize if I have breached any forum rules. I am not advertizing the book, however if anyone decides to take it up on a commission format or wants a little more context in order to see what they can do, please get in touch. An added incentive is that the person who will be re-editing the book is a very well respected author in the genre. Without sounding cagey, I can't say who that is right now - but for many of those who read hard Sci Fi, you may know the name and have read his stuff. This would be an opportunity to work with him, albeit at a step removed and further-on, the sequel is nearing the end of the first draft so there may be other opportunities down the line. Thankyou
