posted
Okay, I've gone to the book store numerous times and never can get out of there under just an hour. During that time I see tons and tons of good covers and titles but when I go to pick up the book it turns out to be something I end up hating or just wouldn't give half a rat's butt to read. I'm wondering why books with good covers and titles can be so lame while most of the good books get really weak titles and covers. My beef is more with the artwork on the cover and the text (more than the actual title). Do the authors themselves have a say in what's portrayed on the cover of their books? As for me, I'd like to do my own covers for the books I write, seeing as how I love to do art myself; to me that just seems the natural course to take if I'm going to write. But why don't we see the covers given the measure of the story? Meaning, the good get good covers and the bad get the bad covers. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there.
Posts: 62 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
As I understand unless you're mega-important you have NO SAY as to cover art or any other art (like a children's picture book--it's all decided at the publisher's--when it's done they mail you a finished one without any of the author's say or approval in the illustrating process.) Ray Bradbury has some input or control over his book covers--newer authors don't.
What you write seems to further the old cliché "You can't judge a book by its cover."
A lot of thought and skill goes into creating covers that make you do exactly what you've described above: you pick up the book. Leave it to the experts.
posted
Y'know, the big chain bookstores I go into regularly usually cram all but a few of the books spine out---you don't even see the cover unless you've already made the decision to pull the book out and look it over. The only ones with a visible cover are usually the newest ones. So something else (author, recommendation, review, track record, title, whatever) must motivate you to pick up the book first.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Lewis Carroll hated John Tenniel's famous illustrations to "Alice in Wonderland," and, if he had any taste, Dickens hated Cruikshank's of his works.
Posts: 283 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
That totally bites. I think if the writer's a good artist then he should be able to make his own cover or at least CHOOSE which one he likes. I'm actually trying to focus on both writing and art so it'd be nice to do my own cover; at least then it wouldn't be so messed up like so many others.
Posts: 62 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Well, you could try querying, but honestly it is very much the exception rather than the rule for any author to do their own art. The reason for that is publishing houses have completely different art departments than editorial ones. They have different employees and managers and chains of command. It messes up their system to deviate from it, and they aren't likely to do so, especially for a newbie author. Yes, it's a huge corporate machine.
If you are serious about doing both, consider going small press. An editor there might be more willing to see what your ideas are. Depends on the press, though, and I don't have any recommendations, unfortunately.
posted
Apropos of next-to-nothing, I recall the story Asimov told, of the time he received a proof cover for one of his early non-fiction books. He called up the editor, and said something along the lines of, "Well, I like it, except for just one thing."
The editor, I gather, replied, "Yes?" He assumed Asimov was one of those authors who has ideas about color and composition, and he could wind up in a fight with Asimov and / or his art department.
Asimov replied, "Well, you've misspelled my name."
posted
I think the only way to have any control of a cover as a beginner is to write something with such outstanding visual impact that the editor will want to put it on your cover.
But then, a big wow factor in your first sixty pages is a good idea just to sell any novel.
When "Forest Gump" came out in paperback after the movie; one would think it was written by Tom Hanks. You have to look hard to find the author's name.
I fantasize about getting to the point as a writer where I can demand a clause in a contract: "No other person's name shall appear on the cover in equal or larger print than that of the author's.
I can dream, can't I?
[This message has been edited by Ted Galacci (edited March 05, 2006).]
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