COVER STORIES

My first professional cover!

Before I jumped headfirst into the world of MG books, my life’s ambition was to draw comics. I was serious about it, too. I even went to grad school to pursue my masters in sequential art. At one point I worked as an intern in the Marvel Comics bullpen assisting editors. One morning, I was opening the Marvel office mail with my trusty X-acto knife, and without realizing, I accidentally sliced up a piece of original artwork, an illustration drawn by the #1 ranked artist in the industry at the time. The artwork was for the cover of an upcoming issue of X-Men, and thanks to me, it looked like Wolverine slashed it with his claws.

I was immediately overcome by a wide range of emotions.

While pondering the topic of covers for this entry, I thought back to that incident and I wondered what it must be like for an author, filled with the giddy anticipation of seeing their book cover for the very first time, opening a box of arcs (or an email file), only to be horrified by what they find inside. A disaster of a cover. It happens, and it's a nightmare most of us don't anticipate. Nobody wants to spend months or years of hard work carefully crafting a book only to have it represented on the shelf by an image that doesn't do it justice. Or an image that says the completely wrong things about the book’s content.

A cover's job is to attract eyes as it sits on a book store shelf, but it should also tell the reader something true and relevant about the story inside. People say not to judge a book by its cover, but let’s be honest, that applies to just about everything except books. The reality is that a bad cover can hurt sales and a great cover can generate sales. And this holds especially true with Middle Grade books as children are weaned off of picture books where the pictures carry the primary narrative. Kids love a great cover, and great MG covers should be able to tell a story in and of itself. And why not? If someone can write a horror story on Twitter in 140 characters or less, then a picture which can paint a thousand words should be capable of doing the same. 

How involved is the writer in the cover design process? Going into my first book, I was clueless. I just knew that as an artist I wanted input. Ideally, an editor will ask an author questions early on to determine their vision, and at this point in the process it’s good to be as clear and descriptive as possible. What else can you do to make sure you get a cover you'll be proud of? If you’re an artistic person, you can share your vision in several ways. You can email photos of other covers that you think are particularly well done. You can also create a Pinterest page to capture the mood of your novel and share that with your editor and the design team. In my case, my editor was happy to look at some concept drawings I whipped up.

In the end, I loved the simple, in-your-face approach that the cover artist assigned to Frenzy took for the finished piece. It was the right choice. It says everything you need to know about the book in an eye-catching manner without giving too much away. 

Now, it could also be that none of your ideas are incorporated into the cover, and you should prepare yourself for that possibility. It really just depends on the vision your publisher and the marketing team have for your book. For The Murk, my suggestions to add a crane and to make the alligator’s eyes a glowing red made it into the finished design. 

Is there anything you can do if you’re vehemently opposed to your book’s cover art? Yes, there are steps you can take. If you’re truly not happy with the cover, first ask yourself why that is. Is it because the direction the art team took wasn't exactly what you envisioned or is it because you honestly feel the cover looks bad or misrepresents your story? If the former is true, you should know that it’s not the publisher’s job to give you exactly what you want. It’s their job to sell the book and sell as many copies as possible. The publisher has a lot at stake, too. They’re investing their time, energy and money, and the last thing they want is to let that investment go to waste because of a poorly executed cover. The cover is just as important to your publisher as it is to you. Show the cover to a few trustworthy bibliophiles and artistic friends. Show your agent. Get opinions. But if you still feel as though the cover is entirely wrong for your book then you should talk to your editor, preferably through your agent, if you have one. Keep in mind, it’s not enough to say, “I hate this cover.” You should be able to offer a list of suggestions to fix the problem. You may find that your publisher is open to implementing some of them. Just know that unless your contract says otherwise, in the end, your publisher has the final say. 

I'd love to hear other cover stories. What kind of reaction did you have upon seeing your book covers? What kind of input did you have in the process? What do you like the most about your cover art? What do you like the least? Is there anything that surprised you about the process? If you're still waiting to see your first cover, what kind of experience and results are you hoping for?