When I envisioned my poetry book being illustrated with ink drawings throughout I knew I would want the cover to portray that same theme. I also wanted something very striking that would stand out on a shelf. There are millions of books to choose from, I wanted mine to be one you noticed and picked up out of sheer curiosity. So we went very simple and strong, with only two colors. I literally and purposely went against the grain. I gave that concept to my amazing illustrator, Jeanna Pappas, and I still can't believe how incredibly cool the cover for Tea With Death is. The cover and the title of a book is a huge part of whether your book will sell! My advice would be to make that decision carefully, creatively, and thoroughly.
I have this fear that my ideas will just stop one day, just dry up somehow and I'll never have another idea for a poem ever again. But so far so good.
The most difficult part for me though is that I fully embody creative chaos. I rarely am able (not just because of myself but family, work and life, and... facebook) to just sit down and write. So I have dozens of notepads all over the place and I write down ideas and half poems and lines on anything and everything and wherever I happen to be when it pops in my head. I then end up with notes that I can't even read or ideas that I honestly have no idea where it was I was going with. It's endlessly frustrating. I'm actually surprised I was able to pull a book together at all.
