This week has been all about covers for me…
First of all there was the staggering news that not one but two of my books had received an Award of Excellence for their covers from the Colorado Romance Writers – a chapter of the Romance Writers of America.
Of course, I hasten to point out that none of the credit for that goes to me. Both covers were designed by Berni Stevens – who has now done covers for four of my novels – and I have loved every one.
At the same time as this was happening, I have been in discussion with my publisher ChocLit about the cover Berni is going to do for the next book.
No matter how often people say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – we all do it. A cover can catch your eye and make you pull a book off a shelf, or click on a link. After that, it’s up to me to write a book that sounds interesting. But without that initial attraction of the cover, you may never know.
Cover design is a fascinating process. So I thought I’d give you a bit of an idea how it’s done.
The new book is another Coorah Creek Novel. (What’s that – do I hear cheering and shouts of joy?) Because of that, certain design elements will be the same as the previous book on the series. The idea is to establish a brand that is instantly recognisable. The font, for example, will stay the same – although the colour may change.
The other covers all had images that were uniquely Australian, to match the setting of the series. The new cover will also feature uniquely Australian settings.
Because a cover designer can’t read every book before they do the cover, there’s a marketing/cover design document for them to read. This document includes useful information such as the description of key characters and details of key settings – both locations and time.
If the book has any theme, such as Christmas, that’s always important.
There’s also discussion of any key images – for example, if the hero give the heroine a special gift, that might feature on the cover. Or if there are six million penguins in the book. Seriously – check out the cover of Bring Me Sunshine.
But no matter how much I, as the author, contribute to a cover design, it all comes down to the skill of the designer… and in this I have been very lucky. My seven published books so far have had two different cover designers – and I’ve loved every one of the covers they have made for me…
I might be able to show you a new cover in the not too distant future – and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me that it’s fabulous too.