The Astonishing Story About Manifesting the Cover Of My Dreams

And All The Synchronicities Along The Way

Step One: Wish Setting

On January 1st 2023, my husband and I went swimming. It was a cold but beautiful day, sunny, with only a few clouds in the sky. The sea was frigid, at least by our standards (spoiled Croatians that we are): it was below 14 degrees Celsius. Needless to say, it took me half an hour to get in. I waded in slowly, the sea biting hard on every centimeter of my skin that I dared to submerge.

My husband took a photo of me from the shore with his phone. On it, I’m turned with my back to him, gazing down at the sea, looking thoughtful and pensive (in reality, I’m just sucking in my breath for how cold it is).

But as soon as he showed me the photo, I thought, “Well, my cover should be somewhere along these lines.” Obviously, not with me on it. But a woman, gazing down towards the sea, looking melancholy and nostalgic, just felt very well suited for the book.

My book was in the drafting stages back then. I had written around 100-150 pages, and there was still so much to do, so much to figure out. I had no idea if I’ll even manage to finish the book, let alone if it will go anywhere. But what I did know, viscerally, was the underlying emotion of the book, and the photo my husband took conveyed that emotion to a T.

Because it was New Year’s Day, when I, as most other people, do my reckoning, I did some thinking and goal-setting (which can sooner be considered wish-setting). What did I want this year—and perhaps even the next few years to look like?

I had recently seen a snippet of an interview with Oprah, when the interviewer asked her what was, in her opinion, the thing holding people back the most from reaching their goals and manifesting the life they want? And she said, (paraphrasing here): “Not knowing exactly what they want.”

I didn’t want to be vague about what I wanted, so I thought hard on the outcomes I wanted. I wanted to write a good book. I wanted to sign with the kind of agent who would be a great and supportive partner. I wanted to place my book with a good publisher. I wanted to become an author. I wanted (and still want) to touch readers with my words.

I’m not new to the concept of manifesting. Once, I had written down, three months before my due date and in the deepest throes of pre-natal anxiety, that my daughter would be born on a Wednesday of her 39th gestation week (because my ob-gyn worked Wednesdays in the hospital and I wanted her to be there with me); and sure enough, my water broke at 1 a.m. that Wednesday. Once, while I was still a Croatian attorney, I kept repeating I wanted to read books for a living, and sure enough, a few years later this is my day job.

Feeling the excitement of something that hasn’t yet happened before it actually happens is a crucial step to getting what you want. Crafting small tokens that help you feel this excitement—is another.

I’m not sure how any of this works, except that it does. Where you place your focus, your energy goes, and somehow (not necessarily the way you’ve predicted or planned, or even foreseen), the desired results materialize. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” — long ago said the Bible.

So I took the photo my husband took of me, and in Canva, I turned it into a mock cover of my book. I put the title on, as well as my name as the author. The desired outcome.

Meaning, I asked.

Of course, I didn’t show this to anyone, not even my husband — it’s totally cringe, I even feel cringey writing about it now. But when I did that, my book felt more real to me. I could actually imagine the future that hadn’t yet happened. I could feel the excitement of it, as if it had already occurred.

Step Two: Signs Along the Way

In January 2024 (a whole year after that wish-setting day) I had already signed with my dream agent, and we were about to go out on submission with my book, when a sponsored post popped up on my Instagram.

It was a painting of a dark-haired woman, gazing down towards the sea.

As soon as I saw it, I thought, “Here’s my cover.”

I don’t consider myself a big visual art connoisseur; I don’t follow any artists on IG, apart from Jessica Miller, the brilliant artist behind Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful.

There was no reason for the algorhythm to show me this post—except that it did. And because I had made that mock cover of my book, the painting immediately resonated.

(Which really brings me back to what Oprah said. Things can only resonate if there is something for them to resonate with. This was, apparently, the whole purpose of that mock cover I had made one year earlier).

I looked up the artist. Her name, Hana Tischler, sounded international, and the caption said she was based in Lisbon. But when I opened her profile, my whole body froze again. She was a Croatian living in Lisbon.

Croatian, just like me. Establishing her artistic career outside Croatia, just like me.

Step Three: Knock…

I took a screenshot of the painting from the artist’s video and made another mock cover in Canva. This too felt a bit cringey: authors generally don’t have a say about their covers, especially before they go on submission. Sharing this cover with my agent could’ve made me look like someone incooperative, someone who sees her book in a too-fixed way. Someone who wouldn’t be flexible and willing to compromise with the publisher.

But all I can say is, the woman on the cover IS Ivona, my protagonist. The way she looks, the emotional state she is in… It was as if Hana had known who Ivona was when she painted her.

I took a chance and sent the mock cover to my agent.

And luckily, my agent agreed: it was the perfect cover.

Normally, agents never include a mock-up cover made by an author (for all the reasons stated above), with a submission. But the image conveyed the sense of place and the underlying emotion of the book so well, my agent took this chance. And so my mock-up cover went on sub alongside the manuscript.

Step Four: … And You Shall Receive

Fast forward to June 2024, when my editor said, “We’re starting to work on the cover, do you have any preferences?”

Do I ever?

I sent her the mock cover again.

I didn’t expect them to use the actual painting. I sold the rights to my manuscript, but it is the publisher who turns that manuscript into an actual product. It is them who have the marketing, publicity, and sales team that understand the readership and their preferences. It is them who have the art department that knows how to make a cover that will reach its target audience. The visual representation of the book is vital to the sales. I should know—I’d bought books with US covers that I would’ve never bought with their UK covers, and vice versa. I understood that my wishes were one thing, and the reality of bookselling is something else entirely.

When I sent that mock cover in, the most I expected was that the image convey the essence of what I wanted the cover to look like.

One month later, I woke up to a mail from my editor, with a PDF of potential cover designs.

When I opened the document, there were five versions of the cover inside.

On all of them, the same painting, only different fonts and letter placements.

“The art department LOVED the cover you provided,” my editor said.

Step Five: Synchronicities…

I was floored. To say I didn’t expect to actually see Hana’s painting on my book cover is an understatement. But now, there was an actual possibility that this painting, this incredible, gorgeous painting, will be the cover of my book! IF the painter agrees to approve its use.

Fear struck, and I tried so hard not to focus on the possibility that I’ve come so far, only to hear that the artist isn’t willing to licence the rights.

Thankfully, within days, an email from my editor landed in my inbox. “The artist approved.”

We had the cover.

I should add here that my editor’s name is also Hana.

Step Six: … And More Synchronicities

Finally, I could reach out to Hana the painter myself.

I wrote to her, introduced myself, thanked her for her dazzling talent and for approving the rights. It was odd, after all this time of communicating everything about this painting in English, to write this note in Croatian.

We got in touch. She asked me where I lived. I told her I was in Zadar, Croatia. And, funnily enough, she was home in Croatia for the summer, and on one of Zadar’s islands, of all the places!

We agreed to meet.

Step Seven: Good Things Never Come In Ones

On August 17th, I met Hana in my hometown. She is as her pictures and videos show her: beautiful, interesting, brilliant. I couldn’t love her more. We talked like old friends — like we had always known each other, and were simply catching up after not seeing each other for a while. So much of our lives has been the same, not least the struggle to make it in any reasonable way in Croatia; to have a place to channel our talents, which ultimately made us both seek that professional, artistic recognition outside our homeland.

Within that hour that we had at our disposal, more synchronicities arose than I could put into words. My older daughter and Hana are born on the same date. Both Hana’s son and I have birthdays within 15 days of that date. My older daughter and Hana’s son were born in the same year, within six days of each other. Hana’s son has the same name as the son of the protagonist in my new book—so rare a Croatian name that I had never met a person with this name before.

Step Eight: When Two Manifestations Meet

Hana told me how this story unraveled on her end. On a very hot summer day, she received an email from someone at Simon&Schuster, a US publisher she had never heard of, inquiring about licencing rights to this one painting she had posted on Instagram a year and a half earlier.

She thought it was spam.

She almost deleted the message, but then googled the publisher, and saw that it was legit, and the name of the person sending her this email checked out. And then she got my message, and the synchronicity of us being within a hundred miles of each other told her that this was more than a coincidence.

The real gain here isn’t the cover (for me) and more exposure (for Hana). It is this newfound friendship. It is these two Croatian women meeting against all odds to feed and support each other’s art.

Back in January of 2023, when I sat down to wish-set, I never could’ve imagined an outcome this lofty. Like Hana had done with this painting, on that day I had only sketched this new reality in with broad brushstrokes. But OMG the colors with which the Universe, God, Whoever-It-Is-Up-There, colored it in!

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SLANTING TOWARDS THE SEA is now available for pre-order. Pre-orders are so important for the authors: they signal to their publisher, booksellers, and librarians that this is a book worth paying attention to. It would mean the world to me if you pre-ordered, or shared news about my book with someone who might like it. You can also add it on Goodreads on your to-read shelf.

Links for pre-order: Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Books-A-Million, Amazon