"Losing the Peace": I didn't really, as Picard's body is wrong (and no combadge)...
Ummm, I'm not anywhere near my copy to check, but wasn't the combadge added to the final cover?
The combadge is there (plus it's on the spine as well, since the spine just used a cropped version of the cover)...although I can't see the rank pips, but the author may not have put them in, since on both Worf and Picard that area is heavily shadowed.
The author designed the cover art as well? I never knew, I assumed they got someone else, normally a graphic artist to do such things.