I never imagined I’d be a sought-after book cover designer. Heck, I never imagined I’d be a book designer, period.

I never considered myself an artist. I’ve never been particularly good at drawing or painting, and when I was growing up, the concept of computer-based graphic design was still science fiction.

Now, I always wanted to work with books. But I thought it would be on the word end of things. And I do. But the art aspect surprised me.

I didn’t discover my talent for design until graduate school, really. And it led to a master’s degree in not just editing but also design.

Now, I get to use that degree every day. It’s pretty awesome.

And in today’s publishing industry, my design skills come in handy. Because things shift a light speed. And that sometimes means redesigning an entire series at once.

And that’s just what I’ve done recently to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s award-winning Diving series.

We didn’t change the art, of course. That has been brilliantly executed by the amazing artist Philcold, and is perfect for the series. But the typography needed a refresh.

It was a great time for a reboot. Now that we have the rights to the entire series worldwide, we’ve been able to reorganize the series into a more straightforward reading order. Plus, we added a series starter bundle to make starting or sharing the series even easier. Oh, and did I mention we dropped all the paperback book prices?

If you haven’t started this series yet, there’s no better time. It’s stellar.

And don’t forget that I occasionally share my design knowledge in WMG workshops and lectures (like I’m doing the next few weeks in our latest, but now sold-out, workshop). Stop by the website at https://wmgpublishingonline.wordpress.com/ regularly for new offerings, schedules, and signups.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.