The Book Cover Dilemma

I don’t understand book covers.  I know it’s important.  If and when books are displayed either at a bookstore or online I know a cover can either attract or repel potential readers.  For me, working on the book cover with a graphic artist/designer begins after the manuscript has been cleaned and scrubbed and ready for the first proof.  My timing might me a problem because the book cover becomes a snag in the publishing process.

My publisher found a book cover designer/artist to draw a cover for Out of Darkness.  The artist was given a copy of the manuscript to read in order to develop a cover concept.  After two months I was sent a very rough hand drawn sketch of two IRA fights crouched behind a wall aiming rifles into the distant nowhere.  Not to be too critical, but, my four year old grandson could have drawn the sketches I was given.  More important to be was that the sketches didn’t reflect the story at all.  The sketches gave the appearance of the standard “IRA guys fighting in the street”.  It was painfully clear the artist never glanced at the manuscript.

In order to set the direction straight I clarified that I wanted the book cover to include an image of a peace wall in Belfast because they are central to the story.  I then searched the web for free images of the peace walls and sent several examples to my publisher to share with the cover artist.  The cover artist was offended and wasn’t interested in working with images, they wanted to only work on creative drawing so they quit.

No problem.  The publisher agreed to find a graphic designer who could work with images.  The publisher found a person and shared the wall images I had previously sent as examples.  The graphic designer then searched the web and found other images and sent them to me for consideration.  I didn’t like any of the images and some of them had been altered to give a different perspective of the image.  Several weeks go by and I received a second set of images to consider, again it was a bust.  Finally, my publisher said maybe the graphic artist shouldn’t select the book cover image, just use them for the graphics.

I again searched the web and found 20 images I thought would make a good book cover and asked the graphic designer to choose several from among them and design the fonts to use.  I thought it would be easy.  It wasn’t.  Graphic designers just can’t leave things alone; they have to play with the images.  What I received back was a set of images looking at a peace wall as if you were lying on your back next to it and looking toward the sky.  Really?

Next it took over a week to select a font, font size, and number of lines for the title.  With a three word title you wouldn’t think there are that many options but a graphic designer has a different viewpoint.

Yesterday I sent final instructions to my publisher or edits to the most recent book cover.  We are very close to the final.  The book cover looks great and it is unique which I hope will draw readers like a magnet.