Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - A stupid question, but...

[[deleted user]]

What's with the cover art?

Normally, you can say, "It has nothing to do with the text." and have at least a 50% chance of being correct. But in the interest of fun, does anyone want to advance a theory of what the cover and its elements are about?

[M.D.]

To me it's not a really interesting cover but it sort of fits the story with its virtual reality, robotics, and cloning elements. I just wish they'd picked a colour other than green...

[Sandi]

I didn't like the cover at all, especially the icky color. I've thinking the hand is supposed to be either a Mickey Mouse hand but they can't use a real Mickey glove because of trademark issues. Or, the hand is supposed to be from an animatronic figure. Also note that one of the robots at the bottom has something that resembles Mickey Mouse ears on its head.

Other than that, I don't think the cover has one darn thing to do with the book and I'm stretching it for the elements I came up with.

[M.D.]

Writers rarely have input on the cover of their books. It'd be interesting to find out what Cory would have had in mind for a cover.

[Mark]

>>>>Writers rarely have input on the cover of their books. It'd be interesting to find out what Cory would have had in mind for a cover.

M.d.: I disagree. Any legitimate publisher will ask for the author's input. What comes out the other side may or may not be what the author requested, but they will be consulted. Sometimes what the author wants is beyond the capabilities of the artist (or too expensive or time-consuming for the publisher to approve), and the publisher does get the final say-so. But the author will be consulted. (I imagine a major author, like Asimov or McCaffrey, will get exactly what they want, but not necessarily a new author.)

I've had two publishers so far, and both have asked me, in detail, what I wanted. The first cover was very close to what I wanted (except for a few small details). The second cover was mediocre-to-poor (but the third attempt at it was much closer than the first two, which were horrible). The publisher told me I got only three tries....

I'm still waiting to hear from the artist (second publisher) about my third book (coming out in a few months). So who knows how it will look. But they did ask.

Mark.