Musings on Cover Art (Secret Stuff) · 6:39pm Nov 6th, 2021
Let’s talk about the dirty secret in publishing. My pre-reader asked me why does Starlight Glimmer look like Starlight rather than disguised as Grimoire on my new cover (below) for Love, Friendship, and Gangsters. This is what I explained:
Being in the biz and in the know for decades now, I understand that to a publisher the book cover is advertising. Good cover art increases readership and sales. In a perfect world, I’d insist the story details be correct on the cover. Maybe a Heinlein, Stephen King, or JK Rowlings could, maybe. They’d be stupid to do so.
Look at this cover (mine): The Girl from the Emeraline Island
That’s a wookie. It published during the time of Star Wars ascendency. It sold out its first (and sadly only) printing of 25,600 books. It should have looked like a humanoid sheep dog—but whilst cute, it would not have sold as well. I felt that Grimoire looking like Starlight might attract a few readers, so I told the artist (Syrupyyy) to put Starlight there and we worked hard on making her recognizable. It lends the image and the book cover a real publisher vibe. I have learned to like that.
This visualizing what the author visualized thing gets more interesting, though. I’ll admit it’s true what I wrote to my cover artist, Syrupyy, especially the italicized red part below.
C-
I was so focused, I missed the cutie mark. Amazing.What I had written in the story was "feather and katana", changing it from knife because a kirin-trained (read Japanese) master taught him to fight with his razor wings. It was such a throwaway line in the eight days I took to write the 20k story, I never imagined what such a thin[g] would look like. In fact, the two characters were really an amalgam of adjectives that I never visualized in my head.
I feel they have come to life...
Again, aMAZING!
Thank you,
-R
I can’t speak for others, but there is a special difference between movies and literature: In movies, they show you movie stars and someone else’s interpretation of what everything looks like. In literature, it’s all allusion. I may or may not have an idea what he, she, or something looks like, but I allude to it. You, the reader, perform Magic! You see, smell, hear, taste, and feel something that never existed in the real world.
Good cover art helps the magic work, providing a base for your imagination. Even if it’s horribly wrong, it engages the reader, first getting him to read (and buy). Second, good art challenges the reader to find the scene or the characters, and to see how right the image is. Engagement improves the experience, and that interaction makes the reader more likely to analyze and “get” the story.
It’s all good. Please visit my cover artist at https://twitter.com/SyrupyyyArt. I did the lettering, and I will take commissions for that.
