Boom! Welcome to a special edition of Books & Biceps & Bear Brawl and today we’re talking about a topic near and dear to my heart: book covers.
We have finally reached that glorious stage in the book publishing process where we’re working on a cover for Bear Brawl.
I love book covers. I treat the covers of my books like they’re movie posters, meant to catch your eye and force you to stop, stare and pick up a copy.
With my non-fiction books and biographies, I often aimed for a “sense” or a shot of “nostalgia”. I wanted readers to feel something when they saw the book, whether it was Macho Man or an N64 Game for Generation Griffey or a ‘Property Of’ tee shirt for 1996.
Since Bear Brawl is an epic, genre-defining thriller, I pulled out some of my favorite book covers to give the designer an idea of what I was thinking and to help us brainstorm ideas. In particular, I have two versions in my head of what the cover can look like (one for hardcover and the other for the eventual paperback).
One version is from a scene in the book that I’ve pictured as the centerpiece of the cover from the moment I wrote it in the manuscript. No bullshit. I wrote it and made a note to myself: “cover!” The other version is a little simpler, but would be show stopping on a bookshelf.
Of course, converting that idea into a viable cover is easier said than done, so I needed some visuals to help us iterate. Since you’ve all been on this ride with me for a while, I thought I’d share the covers we’re drawing inspiration from:
First up, we’ve got Jaws, which is possibly the best book cover/movie poster of all time. You can’t see this image and not pick up the book. It’s impossible. It’s everything a great cover should be: eye catching and compelling and curious and cool. We’re aiming for a Jaws-level cover with Bear Brawl.
Next up we’ve got Jurassic Park. This one doesn’t have the terror-factor of Jaws but it grabs your the second you see it. The image of a T-Rex skeleton, black on white, is magnetic. One of the most iconic covers of all time.
There have been about ten fantastic covers of First Blood, but my favorite is this one, with the famous John Rambo Knife taking up the entire cover and a blood-red silhouette of Rambo in the metal reflection. Very cool. Very bad ass.
I could have shared a dozen more covers, but these three are unmissable on a bookshelf.
As for Bear Brawl, we’re now we’re in the design phase. I should have a few cover options to start working off of in the next few weeks and then we tweak and make changes and see if we can earn our spot on the thriller cover Mount Rushmore.
That’s the goal. Nothing less. And the minute we have it locked, I will share it with all of you.
In the meantime, book pre-orders are extremely important to authors and publishers, even this far out (the book comes out November 10th). Every single pre-order that you make helps the success of the book.
I know you’re in. I know you can’t wait. I can’t either.
We’ve got cover reveals, teasers and trailers coming as we get closer, and right now, we’ve STILL got a few weeks left if you want to get your name IN Bear Brawl.
Yes, I’ve dedicated a section in the back of the book for all of you. Forever. We’re calling it the Books & Biceps Hall of Fame. Every reader who pre-orders in time gets in. And every sale, even this early, counts so much.
So let’s gooooo!
1) PRE-ORDER your book below.
2) Reply to this email with a screenshot and your name.
3) You’ll be a part of a blockbuster hit book forever!
I appreciate you reading Books & Biceps every week. This book is going to be our moment. Our time to show the publishing world that we want these books. We want Bear Brawl.
And we’re going to make it the #1 Thriller of 2026!
Thank you for pre-ordering! You’re all hall of famers in my book! - Jon