Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Book Cover Art

My first book cover, for Murder at the War, was amazing and quite wonderful. The story takes place at The Great Pensic War, an annual event put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of slightly insane people who re-create the medieval period in costume, jousting, music, feasts, knighting, crowning, politics, dance, crafts, etc. To help explain the setting, we sent a set of photographs to my editor. To our amazement, when the cover came, it depicted a scene from one of the photographs in which the people were identifiable. We made a quick series of phone calls and, fortunately, none of them objected to being portrayed on the cover of a murder mystery.

The next four novels in that series each had a cover with a horse on it. The heroine of the series breeds, trains and shows Arabian horses, one of the most easily identifiable varieties of horse. I describe them in each book: delicate of bone, “dished” face, large eyes, arched neck, high-set tail. And not one of the horses on any of the covers was an Arab. Disappointing.

The covers of my next series, about a medieval nun, were okay at first (the stained glass window of one was definitely nineteenth century Protestant) but got better and better as the series went along. The last one looked like an illumination from a late-medieval manuscript. Gorgeous!

I’m very pleased with the current Betsy Devonshire series, and have also noticed that they are improving as the series continues. The cover for Buttons and Bones is smashing!

Many readers don’t realize that one of the several things an author does not get to choose about her book is the cover. I have been pleased, surprised, amazed, and disappointed in the covers of my two dozen novels -- and I never know in advance which it’s going to be.

Does a cover influence your purchase? Do you pick up a book, intrigued by the title, then decide to buy it if the cover pleases you? Or put it back if the cover puts you off? I confess that if I’m selecting an author unknown to me I will sometimes let the cover be a part of the selection process.

To my readers in Fargo, ND, Wolf Point and Cut Bank, MT, Spokane and Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Sacramento, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT, look for me in your town in June. (We’re also stopping in East Glacier Park, MT, and Reno, NV, but I’m not making an appearance in either place, but will just be playing the tourist.) See my web site -- Monica-Ferris.com -- for a complete schedule.

3 comments:

Betty Hechtman said...

Book Covers are the first thing you see and tell what kind of book it is.

I think Berkley does a great job with covers. One that sticks in my mind is the trade paper back with your first three books. At first glance it looks like a bunch of yarn and then you see there is a dead woman in the middle of it and what seemed like yarn is her hair.

Betty Hechtman said...

Book Covers are the first thing you see and tell what kind of book it is.

I think Berkley does a great job with covers. One that sticks in my mind is the trade paper back with your first three books. At first glance it looks like a bunch of yarn and then you see there is a dead woman in the middle of it and what seemed like yarn is her hair.

Linda O. Johnston said...

I've also had a lot of wonderful covers from Berkley, Betty, and I agree that covers can help make a difference in influencing purchases, Monica. I've often sent e-mails to my cover artist, who's been the same throughout the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series, thanking her for doing such a great job!