Thursday, March 04, 2010

Cover pains

I'm drawing to the end of my current book project (pun intended!) -- except that we still don't have a cover! I've just submitted my 9th and 10th sketches for it.

I think a cover design is always fraught - it's so difficult to find one image which sums up the book, plus there are lots of people to keep happy: editor, author, marketing, publicity, etc. oh, and yeah yourself in there somewhere too. In my experience I've found I usually need to relinquish control of the cover, and just be happy with the rest of the book to myself. Hard to do though, I still have to put my two cents in even if it's ignored sometimes ;)

I'm reminded of when I heard David Weisner speak at the SCBWI conference, and he told how he went through about 20 cover ideas for Flotsam. He showed us many of them, and they weren't all good! It doesn't make me feel so bad, seeing as he won the Caldecott and all...


5 comments:

Sabbio said...

I totally understand what you mean, I have to paint to covers for a publisher and it's been days before I came up with a "good" idea ^^' Can't wait to see yours :)

Danielle McDonald said...

How exciting - you're nearly done! Can't wait to see the final result! One thing I love about the book process is that working with the publishers always pushes you to new levels. I bet the final, approved version will be spectacular! Good luck.

flossy-p said...

What a great battle to be up against. You'll get there and it'll be brilliant!

lil kim said...

Thanks for the encouragement ladies - it'll get there! :)

Gina Perry said...

Yes, I remember that cover story of Weisner's well. So frustrating. I wish you luck in your battle to get it 'just so'. Hugs.