Cover talk
The folks at Mercier Press were in touch yesterday to talk covers - what might work, what might not and what covers I really liked. I came up with a pile of options including the eerie Chris Priestley covers, the power house that is Skullduggery Pleasant, the subtle Thing with Finn and the outstanding The Wild Things novelisation cover.
After a chat with Jenny in CBI and the VHC I’m leaning more and more towards something visually text based rather than a character representation. (I really love Skullduggery’s font) Excited and nervous to see what the designers come back with in a few weeks time!
So - what are your favourite covers? Cover elements?
Agreed re Skullduggery - fantastic cover.
I’m old school David, I like a cover that’s either goiung to tell me pretty much everything about the book (once I’ve read it) - the early Josh Kirby covers for Terry Pratchett’s books are a brilliant example - you only get the references once you’ve read it - or something that has absolutely no relevance really - the cover of Shantaram is a good example of that.
I *do* judge books by their covers. Only books though
(I’m happy to pose for the cover whenever the publishers need to get me in, by the way)
I’m afraid I’m a ‘Judge Book Cover’ kind of girl too! I LOve the Chris Priestly covers, mainly because there is so much to see…you have to look really hard to catch all the odd eyeballs staring out at you.
Skulduggery is totally enthralling - that skull daring you to put the book back on the shelf once you have picked it up!
Jampack that cover full of colour/text/images, that’s what I say!
Funny that you like the Skullduggery covers: I think they are shockingly bad, other than the excellent type, and look like an early draft (particularly Playing with Fire) rather than finished art — but then art is a personal thing. I love Chris Priestly, but don’t know how child-friendly they are … just don’t get caught up with LAST year’s craze!
@Darragh There is a strong case for the all-in/clue/hints cover, I’m just not sure how it would sit with the book… (I’ll pass on yer number to the pr people)
@Julianna Haha - oh dear. Now I just hope it lives up to expectations.
@Ivan My favourite part of Skullduggery is the custom font, not too sure on Mr Pleasant himself… though readers love him there. Chris Priestly’s covers are great - the spookier the better I say
I think I get you on last year’s craze - though I’m not convinced that it is by-gone just yet…
Thanks for the input guys! As soon as I have an idea of how it looks I’ll throw it up on the site