Judging a book by its cover
I have just had my second cover reveal, a nail-biting time for many authors when they usher their next book into the public’s eye. Despite the adage, a cover is a very important marketing tool/selling point. More than that, it sets the tone for the story within. Think of some of the most iconic ones, The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Godfather—none of these need their famous covers to sell copies, but it’s hard to think of the stories without envisioning the accompanying artwork. You might not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can certainly judge a cover in its own right. I love the image on my first book The Coat Check Girl so much I wasn’t sure I could feel the same about another. I do.
The Book of Reservations takes place largely in New York City in autumn, and to me this cover beautifully captures that essence. Thematically it’s a great progression from Coat Check, which also shows a figure from behind in a tableau in which the weather is a character, in that case the rain.
Well done, and thank you, creative team at Roan & Weatherford.
One of the myriad advantages of working with a smaller publisher is that I actually got to weigh in on my cover design. As an author at my stage of the game, this would most likely not be the case were I with one of the Big Five* houses. I remember a panelist at the first writing conference I attended, an author who was weighing in on the pros and cons of large versus small publishers. Her book, historical fiction set in her native country of India, had come out through a publisher we’ve all heard of. On her cover reveal she was dismayed to see the figure in the image wearing clothing that was neither historically nor geographically accurate. Though she pointed this out to the powers that be, they were steadfast in their commitment to the artwork. This author admitted that her knowledge here was esoteric, yet there is a demographic who would notice. And even if no one else did, it bothered her enough she brought it up as an example of the downside of publishing large. It mattered to her, and when a publisher listens to its authors, they are expressing that these authors matter to them. As someone who gets mired in accuracy of detail, such an oversight would grate on me too.
There are, of course, many advantages to working with one of the big five—clout and industry recognition among them. I am grateful for what I have, which is a contract with a wonderful smaller publisher who respects my voice. I have a cover I love, and a book coming out in December. May this bolster me as I continue to wade through early drafts of the third book in the trilogy.
Writing a sequel to a book originally intended as a standalone was an interesting challenge. Writing the third in the trilogy is even more challenging. I have to pull plot from books one and two, adhere to the parameters I set forth, and “finish” the story of my characters. To be clear I’m finishing my involvement in and recording of their story. I’d like to think their lives will go on, that the world I’ve created will continue on whatever plane fictional worlds thrive.
*The Big Five are Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette, and MacMillan and the hundreds of imprints under their umbrellas.