Lily Was the Valley now has its official cover.

It had always been my desire to hold a contest for multiple cover designs, and it was also my hope to have it professionally done. But before this campaign, I decided 1) I had either spent enough money or 2) I didn't have the additional months it would take to wait for the designer(s) I wanted or 3) I was afraid of paying someone and then not liking the end product.

It turned out that my original Lily Was the Valley cover (the one you've all seen before today) turned out to be the perfect compromise. It was done by a professionally trained artist, but as a friend she did it for free. And created a design ten times better than the cover(s) I had been working up myself. I was very grateful for it.

However, once this pre-sale had cleared a few hundred dollars, I realized I could make my original hope come true as well, and since I already had a cover I liked, there was no risk.

99designs.com was the perfect place to get offered multiple design options for a reasonable price ($299, their lowest tier). In the poll most of you just participated in, three of the four finalists got at least some five-star votes, as did the original cover design via people emailing or telling me directly. But in the end, tallying everyone's star-ratings for all designs together, this final design rose to the top as the one with the highest average and most five-star votes.

I feel great going forward. A huge thank you to SM, my original designer; HanroogMOU, the winning designer; the two additional designers who came in second and third in the poll; all my other designers from 99designs; and most of all to you who voted.

Dann