I am an avid fan of all of your books, especially the Ender and Bean series. I'm awating the new one with great anticipation! I also love Pastwatch - it made my intrest level in Christopher Columbus and his history go WAY up.
Ok - on with my question!
Do you need any book cover art for the new book in the Bean series? I am an amatuer artist, and although I am more into sketching, I would love to switch gears to do a cover for your book. (Frankly, I am just soo excited the new book that I want to be part of it. I'm just another wacky fan, I guess. )
If my art doesn't meet the standards or whatever, that's fine with me. I love all the art on all the covers so far, and I won't be offended in the slightest.
I also had the idea of maybe you could hold a contest, and publish the winning art (or maybe a few of the art pieces) on the cover.
Just a couple ideas - I'm sure there are many out there who have the same thoughts. In fact there might already be a post with someone saying the same thing...)
Thank you for your time.
~ Bella T., age 13.9
PS. If there is any other way you could use my help, let me know... although I'm sure you don't need me, there are fans aplenty, many of whom are much brighter than me...
posted
Not to speak for Scott, but in general authors are one rung up from the janitor as far as picking cover art for their novels. I'm sure Scott reserves a certain amount of pull, but typically the publisher commissions an artist to do the coverart and then, if lucky, the author can give suggestions.
If you want to do coverart for novels, I'd suggest you start practicing now. Look at every novel cover you can. Practice some more. Submit pieces to the Illustrators of the Future contest. Keep practicing. Find an agent and contact some publishing houses.
This might put you a bit behind schedule to get on board with Scott's next Shadow novel, but who knows, some day down the line you might be able to paint the cover to a different one.
-Oliver
[edited for spelnig]
Posts: 154 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Where is the Illustrators for the Future contest? not this site, right? d'ya have a link, perhaps?
Posts: 20 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Whoa. That smilie is backwards. At first I thought it was a Kirby without a nose. Anyway, check out www.writersofthefuture.com The two contests are run by the same people.
posted
If OSC had creative input on the covers, do you think that he would have gone with that butt-awful Young Adult "Ender's Game" cover? You know the one I mean - the kid that looks like Mega Man floating around.
I love the original Ender series covers - the ships floating around in nondescript metal wastelands.
Posts: 127 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I think Mr. Card has said in the past that he's had real problems with publishers choosing the most embarrasing scenes in his books to reference in the cover art (or something like that). If anybody has a copy of the Worthing Saga handy, I think it might be somewhere in the forward/afterward.
Posts: 70 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
"Hot Sleep followed a year later, with a hideously ugly cover from Baronet that embarrased me doubly because it faithfully illustrated a scene in the book. I learned then- as I have relearned since- that if there is a scenein a novel which, if depicted on the cover, would detroy the effectiveness of the book, that is the scene which will appear on the cover." - Worthing Saga Introduction
Yikes, Peter, how did you know exactly where that'd be? -very impressed-
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Kids at my school the other day saw the cover of Prentice Alvin and thought I was something really weird. They kept wanting to know why he was naked. And then my mother saw me with my copy of Hearfire which I got just recently and she was like- "are you reading a love story" and then she read the back and was like- are you reading something weird?
I had to tell those kids at school that there is really no good cover art for OSC books (Except for pastwatch- that one I really liked)
Posts: 30 | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
I always wondered why some of the covers looked so random. I think it's Shadow of the Hegemon that I was looking at the other day and I thought why do they have those two people looking at a spaceship when this book is set on earth. Unless it's not a spaceship and something else entirely...
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I get no say on cover art unless I'm the publisher or the publisher chooses to seek my opinion in time for my opinion to make a difference.
For an illustrator to solicit the help of an author in order to get book cover assignments is like the proverbial starlet who was so dumb that to get ahead, she slept with the writer.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
My favorite covers (in general) are the ones that show little detail, but still try to look like something. Because when I picture characters from books in my head, they really dont have any detail, that way they are very malleable inside my head. So that really includes most if not all of the Ender/Bean books.
Posts: 879 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I was always confused by the Ender's covers I have seen. They all seem (enders and xenocide more precisely i think) to involve a jagged-looking ship flying out of a large rectangular base thing that appears to be a military base. Then nothing of the sort is described throughout the entire book. Rather odd I think.
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Yea that's what I've noticed too. And sometimes there are two unidentifiable people standing looking at it.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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