Never Judge a Book by its Cover - Art & Design

The proverb, Never Judge of Book by its Cover, could not, unfortunately, be further from the truth when it comes to your actual book's cover.

Cover art matters.

When it comes to Broken Keys Publishing's cover-art, they're unique because they treat their covers like collaborative art projects, crediting the models and photographers as prominently as the authors. (Having featured and worked with local photographers and artists like Angela Holmyard, Anna Odeh, and John Wenzel, and models Trisha, Katya Brooks, Rachel Gilmore, Israa Jomaa, Mary Elin Moore, Stuti Mukherjee, Angela Holmyard, and Mylee Rae, & Claudine Vivian!

Broken Keys Publishing has a very distinct cover aesthetic—often using high-contrast, professional photography, and local Ottawa models to create a cinematic, "indie-prestige" look.

If you’re looking for the ones that stand out most (and have the awards to back them up), here are the top contenders:

1. The Symbiot: 30th Anniversary,The Nadia Edition: This is arguably their most iconic cover, putting the spotlight on model Mary Elin Moore (Model of the Year, 2020, 2023, & 2025) with photographer Angela Holmyard, in a shot that feels like a still from a high-budget horror film. The photo editing gives it a dark, "Stephen King-esque" atmosphere that perfectly signals the Lovecraftian horror inside.

   
   

2. Ghosts and Other Chthonic Macabres. Winner of the 2023 Faces of Ottawa Book of the Year, this cover features model Mylee Rae (Model of the Year 2022) with photography by JJ Wenzel. It is deeply gothic and haunting, using a desaturated, eerie palette that makes it leap off a shelf of standard horror paperbacks.

   
   

3. Love & Catastrophē Poetrē This one won Book of the Year in 2022. It features model Stuti Mukherjee and has a much more "fine art" feel compared to their horror titles. The photography of Anna Odeh captures a sense of vulnerability and poignancy that fits the anthology's focus on love and loss during the pandemic.

   
   

4. Sadness of the Siren. For a more melancholic and "darkly beautiful" vibe, this cover is often cited for its haunting, mythological aesthetic. It leans into the siren theme with a blend of mystery and isolation that mirrors the lyrical, "classic verse" style of the poetry inside.

   
   

5. Necropolis: 10th Anniversary: The Alia Moubayed Edition. A more recent standout, featuring model Israa Jomaa, and photographer Anna Obeh. Like the Symbiot anniversary edition, it uses professional portraiture to create a cover that feels more like a character study than just a genre book.

Newly released, and Broken Keys Publishing's 4th anthology, Exhumed Ottawa: What Lies Beneath again features the work of John Wenzel. Again returning a heavily photoshopped model.

The stylized and branding cover art of Lilly White's series of titles

 Frank Rambeau's science-fiction pulp-esque style of alien-worlds and landscapes...

Jean-Pierre Allard's The Sport of Never Growing Up captures that nostalgic feel of yesteryear, a callback to simpler times, yet the artistry to step away from the sepia-colours photographs of old.

---

Broken Keys Publishing offers an extensive list of services including

layout, formatting,

editing,

French language editing,

Fr-to-Eng and Eng-to-Fr translations,

illustrations,

bookbinding,

printing,

publishing