Partial Cover Workaround

I have a cover for AoE. I'm waiting for final revisions. Ideally, I'd like to figure out how to translate my painting skills into something that would substitute for an illustrated cover. But that's going to take time and a certain amount of investment into materials like more paint and art pens. I need AoE and the Mystery/Romance out the door now. I have a couple of potential covers for the M/R, but neither are a great fit. I've looked at literally thousands of pre-made covers. Commissioning a custom cover is a little bit too expensive, especially for the M/R that I already have doubts about.

The person who made the AoE cover(pre-made) is offering a deal for the rest of the covers in the series. Those would be custom and cost more but not extravagantly more. Unless AoE takes off like a rocket, the B'vellah series is more important. I'm not sure when I'll write the AoE sequels. Maybe after the middle grade trilogy? However, in my email detailing the revisions for the AoE cover, I asked about covers for the B'vellah series. I kind of think it's too expensive, but if I could get the right style and discount, it would be cheaper than the other custom cover prices I've seen.

It would be super nice if I could update the cover for Book 1 and have the novella and Book 2 covers ready to go not long after. Book 2 is ready except for checking to see if a minor character I thought was dead was mentioned later in a scene.

The other good news is that I've started on the B'vellah novella. I have no idea what the title will be. So far, it's Book 1.5. I still don't have the plot entirely worked out, but the beginning is obvious. It picks up exactly where Book 1 left off on earth with the raid on Lakeside. When I went through Book 1 making a list of promises that need to be fulfilled, it told me what needs to be in 1.5. I just need to put it into story form in an interesting way. If I can get it all figured out and maintain a decent word count per day, the rough draft should be done around the end of February and probably sooner. Since it's only half the length of a full book, it should be a lot easier to move from rough draft to ready to publish. I'm taking a little extra care with polish to make it even smoother, although that's easy with the beginning since it has to be a certain way and won't be as subject to change the way later parts might.

Update:
I'm interrupting the blog for a live update. I got the revised cover back.

As a reminder, the book is about a 16-yr-old girl who is trapped in virtual reality. This was the only pre-made cover that fit the story and looks good and was affordable. I like it.
This should be up for pre-sale by Saturday night. I worked on setting it up last night, but I still need to add the cover designer to the front matter of the manuscript and resubmit it. I'll also need to set all the pricing and use Amazon's online tools to  create the e-book.

Along with the cover I heard back about the B'vellah covers. What I want is not really a fit for them. I got referrals to two other cover creators. I'll check them out. After sleeping on it, it occurred to me that I'll have at least a month while doing the rough draft to practice illustrating. I think I'll try that and hold off on buying covers I can't really afford. Unless I can get an amazing price, of course.

It feels like it's been a busy week.

Have a great weekend.