We are unusual in
that we give authors quite a lot of say in what their book cover might be like.
The overall concept
We ask our authors to
give us a concept for the book cover. We almost prefer words at this point to
pictures. Very specific pictures often have so many problems that we really
have to let them pass.
One book was called
See Through a Glass of Red and the author
asked us to represent that description on the cover. It worked!
We issue a caution with
short story collections. Wait until we’re at least through Edit 1. Sometimes we
rename a story or even take it out altogether. What if that were the one you’d based
your cover on?
Covers shouldn’t
give spoilers but they can hint at what’s happening.
Don’t commission too soon
Your father/ son /
sister / aunt may be a talented artist or photographer and you may have a vision
of what your book cover may look like. But please don’t ask that relation to do
too much work until we’ve had an opportunity to talk to them. Certain things have
to happen: e.g. there must be room for the title and the by-line. The colours must
be bold enough to show up. It’s such a shame if all of that effort goes to
waste.
Types of picture
We like landscape pictures
with the focal point on the right (though we can flip it if need be). Over on
the left should be some sand / sea / sky / grass or fencing etc. that we can write
the blurb on.
 |
| This picture has been flipped yet no one complained about the Blackpool Tower facing the wrong way! |
Occasionally we
have used a portrait picture and just made the spine and back cover a
contrasting colour. This is particularly so for novels in the Schellberg Cycle,
The Red Telephone, Feisty Women and Walela.
Take care with blue
It’s generally
quite hard to get the colours on the cover to print as you see them on a computer
screen. We have our screens configured so that we’re pretty near to what one
can print. Blue can be notoriously difficult.
Available on the net doesn’t mean
copyright free
No, it doesn’t. And
you can get into a lot of trouble for using pictures that aren’t copyright
free. We use pixabay a lot: not only are the pictures copyright free but also
they are free. However, we do give a small amount each month to them which is shared
between all of the artists and we do acknowledge any artist we use.
Picture books are a little different
The design for the
cover normally comes along with other illustrations though we often find that author-illustrators
forget this one very important illustration.
Working with artists
There are a handful
of artists we work with who understand the way we work. Usually though if we
work with an artist it involves us in more work than if we work on our own. We
do also do a little of toing an froing with the writer. Sometimes we vary the
font or the size and colour of the font. Often we’ll involve the writer with
the blurb that goes on to the back cover. This has usually already been decided
by this stage.
Pulling the eye of the would- be
reader into the picture
It’s a little trick;
if the potential customer is drawn into the cover picture they are more likely to
buy the book.
