How to Get Your Book Published in 7000 Easy Steps – A Practical GuideSTEP 10: THE COVER CONTINUES
Dear readers, while you are swirling around in what is surely your depressed miasma regarding social media and your potential blog, trying desperately to figure it all out, the publisher will probably choose this moment to send you the first stock photos/mock-ups for the cover, as if you weren’t already confused enough.
At this juncture it all becomes scarily real that this thing is actually in production.
In my case, since my book is set in the 1930’s Chicago, hundreds of stock photos began coming in of staged couples dressed in vintage attire as well as many authentic photographs from forgotten starlets from the ‘20’s. Anxiously I poured over these until the wee hours of the night, glad to be included in the process but nervous, too, that so much was riding on this decision.
After all, everyone knows that the cover is what sells the book. What if I got it wrong?
The publisher informed me that the art director was of the opinion that, given the title, A Girl Like You, the cover really should be a headshot of a woman, her head slightly turned away. While I liked this interpretation a lot, something pulled me instead toward the shots of the couples, as I really wanted to capture the hesitant attraction of the two main characters. None of the photos, however, seemed to be quite what I had in mind.
As expected, after about a week of deliberating, I got a call from the publisher asking if I had spotted anything that would work, as, well, time was ticking and they need this done sooner than later. Clumsily I tried to explain my lack of progress. Her tired response was that if I really couldn’t find anything I liked in stock photos, we could opt for a photo shoot in London with a very well-respected historical fiction photographer (what was that?) for probably about two thousand.
I admit that at this juncture, I allowed myself to wallow in this fantasy for more minutes than was reasonable. Smugly I imagined myself casually dropping into the conversation with the receptionist at the kids’ orthodontist (as if she cares) that I’m going to have to move some appointments around because I was off to a photo-shoot. In London.
Just as quickly, however, I soberly began to calculate the price tag for such an extravagance, the two thousand probably unrealistically low in the first place, plus the flight, hotels, and any other add-ons that were sure to be part of this adventure, such as, perhaps, the crew’s lunch? Also, I quickly deduced that I would be paying out what was rapidly becoming an exorbitant sum and still not necessarily be guaranteed to love the result. Worse, I would probably then feel uncomfortably obligated to go with one of these new shots after having now spent so much money. That and the fact that I would surely come back to certain disaster if I left my husband and kids alone for more than a few hours, decided it. “No,” I said, “that’s probably not going to work.”
“Good answer,” the publisher said, as if I had passed a sanity test. “You know if there’s something you kind-of like in the stock photos, we can do amazing things in photoshop. Really, you’d be amazed.”
So, with new hope or perhaps new monetary motivation, I went back to the drawing board and, meanwhile, the art department happened to dig up yet another file for me to look through, in which, of course, I miraculously found what I was looking for. I have to admit that the first time I saw it, I actually had a visceral reaction to it. As I stared at it over and over, even printing it out and hanging it by my monitor to gaze at it and forwarding it to friends for their opinions, I became even more convinced.
“Really? This one?” the publisher asked. “I don’t think the art director’s going to like this. She’s kind of starting to obsess on yours. She really thinks it should be one of the starlets. And anyway, this couple is in a forest. This is supposed to be set in a city.”
“Well, didn’t you say something about photoshop?” I suggested tentatively. “And while you’re at it,” I asked, my technical ignorance obvious, “could you photoshop in a different hat and tie for the man and change the girl’s hair color?”
Irritated sigh.
A couple of weeks later when I got the mockups, I was shocked to see that only the girl’s hair color had changed and the forest photoshopped out. “What about the man’s hat and tie?” I asked, confused.
“Well, we can’t photoshop out a hat; that would look stupid.”
But, what about the amazing things? I wondered, guessing that I had expected too much yet again.
But in the end, it didn’t matter. It was perfect, and I absolutely loved it. And I’ve since, if truth be told, received hundreds of compliments on it.
So the lesson this week, darlings, is to go with your gut feeling, especially regarding the cover. Trust your instincts! You know more than you think you do.
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STEP 10: THE COVER CONTINUES appeared first on Michelle Cox.
