After three years of thinking and writing, Shut Your Monkey is finally complete. The words are written, the illustrations are completed and the layout is stunning. We just sent the final files to my editors this week and the book will soon head to the printer and be in your hands before Thanksgiving.
The hardest part of creating a new book is working out the cover design. No matter how many fancy adjectives I’ve used, no matter how many revisions I’ve written, in the end, we know the book will be judged by the cover.
While I have designed most of my books, I wanted to make sure that we pulled out all the stops for Shut Your Monkey. I was lucky enough to enlist the help of one of the top book designers in New York. Rachel Willey and I batted ideas around for most of the spring and summer and she produced through dozens and dozens of designs. Finally, we and my publishers agreed on a winner. It is fantastic and if you’d like to have a copy of your own, you can preorder it (and the book inside it) right now.
Here is a small selection from the design process.
Danny Gregory 
I liked most of the covers. It must have been a hard decision.
LikeLike
Is that a banana in your lap, or….? Thanks for sharing the covers, Danny. It’s amazing how phallic a banana stays until it’s peeled. Something profound there, I’m sure, but it eludes me. Congratulations on birthing another book. I look forward to getting my very own copy.
LikeLike
Loved seeing all the cover possible designs! Cover Your Monkey is an idea in itself! Like putting a cover on the parrot’s cage to shut it up! LOL! You’ve got it Covered! Can’t wait for it to arrive in my mailbox!
LikeLike
An interesting array of ideas there Danny…. but totally love the one you ended up with!! I can’t wait to get myself a copy as soon as I can.. my Monkey has been really bothering me lately!!!
LikeLike
Ah… as someone whose monkey constantly causes her to slip up, I think you made absolutely the right final choice. (And yes, who’da thought someone holding a banana could be so definitely the ‘wrong’ choice! 😉 )
LikeLike
[…] about silencing your inner critic (or as he calls it, your ‘monkey’). He also reveals his choice for the book cover and shows what a wide selection he had to choose […]
LikeLike