The Cover Story

People do judge a book by its cover. The cover makes the first promise to the reader. The promise of fantasy, romance or horror. You can usually tell by the cover. What makes a good cover is a science I don’t have time to learn. I am therefore grateful to have a publisher Odyssey Books and the phenomenal covers they create.

Which is not to say I don’t have an opinion!

My publisher might say I am too opinionated but it is my babies I am sending out in the world and I want them to be well-dressed.

I still adore the cover for my first book, Cassandra

In the world of big publishers, you might not get any choice about your cover. With a smaller, independent publisher like Odyssey, you can be part of the process. 

My forthcoming book, The Dark Poet will be out in May and a few months ago we started talking turkey. The lovely Hannah asked me what I had in mind. I said I couldn’t sleep and had a vision of a cassette tape with spots of blood on it. I said something dark and dangerous but alluring.

I know, I wasn’t much help.

But Hannah came back to me with some pictures and words. There was a cassette tape, (not bloody because understandable that might make the promise of a mystery).  There was also a view from the driver’s seat, a lonely looking bridge and a person walking down the street.

Hannah’s most inspirational idea was the story teller’s throne – a tattered abandoned armchair. I could never have thought of that.

Next came some mockups. Then came my opinionated literal self. But, but, but…

So, I was offered a couple of other options.

Clearly, the original design was right in the first place.

So what promise does my new cover make?