By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Traditional publishing is a funny
thing. It’s a hurry up-and-wait type
of business. Sometimes (quite frequently,
actually), everything moves at glacial speed.
But sometimes, things happen before you’re ready. And you never really know what’s going on
behind the scenes exactly to cause
either one.
I heard from my editor on Friday that
she’ll be attending—today, actually— the cover conference for the book that I’m
currently writing. This is a book that’s
due in January that will publish October 2014.
For some reason, everything that’s happened with this book has happened
earlier than I was ready for, and it’s made me a bit flustered. This is the same book where the teaser chapter
was due at the same time as the outline, but then the outline had requested
revisions…you remember.
This is the series where the editor (and
I love this editor—she’s very talented and I live in fear that she will be
promoted and won’t be my editor any longer), really likes me to be involved
with the cover process. Each time I
assure her that’s not necessary and I don’t know a darn thing about design—but
she’s good to keep at me and encourage me.
I’m sure, looking back now, that despite the fact I’ve dragged my feet
for every cover—it’s helped me out with the self-pubbed covers that I’m a good
deal involved in.
This is a cozy mystery, so there are
elements that need to be on the cover for branding both the genre and my
series. It will most definitely have a
corgi on the front of it, and I’m sure I would hear from the readers if it
didn’t. It will have a very peaceful,
picturesque scene with an element of danger in it—an overturned glass of red
wine, a knife to the side, a broken chair.
And, because the series hook involves quilting, there will be quilts.
The title was the first thing the editor
asked me about. She and the copy editors
had ideas for titles and she asked for my feedback on them. This is another area where I appreciate their
contacting me, but I know they usually have their own ideas for titles and
marketing plays a role. I do come up with ideas for titles…they tend to not use
them. :) But they’re very polite about
considering them.
Branding the covers in a series also
involves the way the title appears on the cover—font, appearance. It can even
go to the level of whether it’s an outdoor scene or an indoor scene.
My editor was going to attend the
conference with information off my old outline and I hadn’t updated her with a
new outline (oops) that reflected the changes we’d agreed on earlier. So…I agreed
to the changes she suggested, but didn’t correct the outline and send it to
her—instead, I scribbled the changes on my hard copy of the outline. That was clearly not helpful. Now I’m in a time crunch and don’t actually
want to stop to edit the outline and send it her way, especially since I’m
halfway through writing the book.
So she asked for the unedited copy that
I’ve written so far so that she could skim it for more ideas for setting the
cover using scenes from the book. This is the third time this has happened with
different series and now I hardly even blink an eye. Earlier, it would freak me completely out to
send what essentially was a disaster over to my editor. This time I attached the file with the
warning that although the teaser chapter one was in perfect shape but the
second and third chapters would be extensively rewritten…since there were two
more characters to add to them, and the other chapters should be fairly static
in terms of major changes. The text didn’t even have chapter breaks included
and had notes to myself included throughout.
At this point, though, it’s more of a trust issue—I know that she knows
that I’m not going to turn in something like that in January. So it’s easier to send it.
I
also sent along, at her request, pictures of quilts that were similar to ones
that I was writing into the story.
Honestly, I’ve never had a problem with a
cover that either Penguin or Midnight Ink has done—they tend to do beautiful
covers. I’ve heard horror stories from
other traditionally published writers about covers they’ve had and how they
feel the covers affected the sales of their books. I’m sure if I’d gone through a horrible
experience, I would be a lot more
involved in the process, except…well, I don’t know what I’m doing. I only know what I like and don’t like.
For both my other Penguin series and the
Midnight Ink book, the covers were done and it was more of a fait accompli
and I was asked afterward if I had any changes or if I approved of
them. So I didn't have the input on those
covers…and I will say that I think this is a lot more the case with most of the
big publishers…my experience with my editor and this series is more the
exception than the rule.
For my own self-pubbed books, I’ve taken
a page from my publisher’s book and branded the series as well as I could,
especially for using a couple of different cover designers …most recently Scarlett
Rugers. I have the sweet scene and the element of danger. And no images of people on the cover—there’s
never been a person on any of my covers so I won’t start now. Well, there’s been a dead person’s hand. That’s as close to human as has been on a
cover. I try primarily to make sure that
the color scheme used and the setting tell readers that there’s a new book in
my series…and that it’s the same series.
The difference with the self-pub is that
I think my designers have a sense of relief that I’m not trying to backseat
drive with the covers—I’ll throw in what I’m looking for and pick my
favorite design…maybe ask for small changes. But that’s the thing—I’m no
designer and I have no time to try to become one. I’d rather be writing more books.
But I do want it to look good in
thumbnails. I do want the
thumbnail-sized image to clearly belong to the rest of the series. And I want both my name and my series name
to be obvious on the cover—I need readers to find my books.
This is
how I start the cover process for the self-pubbed books:
I ask if they’re backed up. This is
important—if they are significantly backed-up, I’ll need to use someone else.
I give them the sales copy/back cover
copy that I’ve written for the book.
I give them a paragraph of ideas for
setting the cover. For the book that
came out in August, I emailed: “The cover scene could be set in a backyard.
We could consider using a croquet set or croquet mallet as the murder
weapon/dangerous object to indicate it's a mystery. Since the murder occurs
during a party, we could show a cocktail or wine glass spilled over on the
patio furniture, or a broken high heel...something like that.”
I attach pictures of the other books in
the series, if the designer hasn’t worked with me before.
I tell them what precisely I need in
terms of format. These days, I say: “I'm
interested in an ebook cover (the book will run on Nook, Kindle, iTunes,
Smashwords), a print cover (spine and back cover for CreateSpace), and an
audiobook cover for ACX.”
I give the ISBNs and the price to be
printed on the cover of the CreateSpace project.
That’s pretty much it. Then I field any questions from the designer.
(I do maintain a free database of cover
designers and other self-publishing professionals here
if you’re looking for a place to start.)
If you’re published, how involved were
you in the process? Does you genre have
a standard “feel” for its covers? If
you’re not yet published, how interested are you in being part of the cover
design?