Writing and Reading

OH. MY. F*CKIN’. GOD. Be still my dark heart so that the vampires have nothing to drink–for I be alive to know that the Sci-Fi Channel has picked up one of my favorite series that was shamefully cancelled off of CBS–

“MOONLIGHT”

Alleluia. I have been saved.

Check this post out at the “Book Roast”. You know you wanna. I’ll make ya (lifts eyebrows a few times). Sssseeeexy, huh?

Anyway, enough of that–yeah, the post is about book covers. Plain and simple. Only book covers aren’t so plain and simple–at least from a certain point of view. It takes a subjective eye, I guess.

Let’s face it, we sometimes buy books based on what we see on the shelf–something grabs us, something looks interesting, the art is impeccable, it draws us, it lures us, we take the book, we turn it over, and then what grabs us? The blurb. Scintillatingly written as if that dark voiceover in movie trailers speaks to you as you read, you’re drawn in even more, you pull out your wallet, you can’t help it, no matter how hard you fight–you buy the freakin’ book. You shell out $10’s and $20’s to buy PAPER. That’s all your buying is PAPER.

But, to my point: it all started with the COVER OF THE BOOK.

I find it fascinating the number of different styles of ‘cover art’–everything ranging from minimalist to detailed Renaissance (for lack of a better term, no, I don’t mean voluptuous naked women or men in the buff with their penises hanging out kind of Renaissance). Based on the “Book Roast” post, what goes into the cover is a paramount decision. How the decision is made mystifies me–let me explain–

Here’s the cover of Terry Goodkind’s bestselling FAITH OF THE FALLEN–

Gorgeous cover, right? Very ‘Renaissance’, right? Lots of detail, majestic, mystical. In fact, for context, you must know that the man standing there, Richard Rahl, one of the main characters, carved those two porcelain white figures. VERY Renaissance. Makes me think of Michelangelo (hears a violin playing passionately).

Now take a look at this one–

I’m sure you recognize this one even without reading the author’s name. The beautiful thing about that is how utterly ‘generic’ it looks. It’s a freakin’…

RED RIBBON!

And yet we identify it easily, don’t we? Even me. I have yet to read Meyer, and already I recognize this cover.

Both authors, Goodkind and Meyer, are bestsellers. Their covers differ on two opposite spectrums. How does a publisher decide what kind of cover to use? It’s a remarkable question. I’m sure it has to do with genre, even pacing of the plot within the book. Things like that.

That would have to be probably the most enjoyable part about producing a novel–because it’s the only time, I think, to test the waters with bookstores. A publisher sends a sample of a cover, sees the reaction, sees if the store will order copies to stock on shelves–up in front where customers see ‘em better–and goes by that. There’s room for trial and error there. Sometimes the cover artists can provide several choices, samples. Makes it kind of fun in my opinion.

I’m going to ask a question here (actually, better yet, this is a challenge): I know you aspiring authors out there love your work. And you must’ve daydreamed about what your cover might look like:

I challenge you to search on Google, search anywhere, even draw the cover yourself (!) if you like, post a link of it on a comment here for this post. Are you more minimalist? Or detailed and dramatic?

For those who’ve read THE CAIN LETTERS, you’ll enjoy this one. But I found my cover online. It’s wonderfully abstract, but speaks volumes to me. It carries history–as that partly is what the book stresses. History. See if you can get the meaning behind the cover. I’ll say this much: it’s an unfinished (supposedly) sculpture by Michelangelo (AHA! See how I mentioned him earlier? I’m clever, I foreshadow). And it spoke to me. Maybe it will speak to you as well….

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