An illustrated day

[ksmith]

Checked out the Incident e-arc again--hey, it's my first online story, ok--and saw that there's another illustration. Jani, running with the girl, Annalise. And Jani has short hair! And dark skin!

It's quite stylized, and very neat.

In other news, my editor sent the second pass at the ENDGAME cover. This has the background. Shades of sepia, dark brown, and greyed blue. Desert. Buildings that seem a cross between Petra and Angkor Wat. Moons, and spaceships and Jani walking down the stairs of a temple-like building, knives in hand. Her hair is too long--shoulder-length--and will be fixed. But even now, it's flippin' gorgeous. A Dune-ish science fantasy cover.

Could be a wrap cover, with lettering in sliver-blue metallic ink. A complete departure from the first four covers, but in the mood of the story and like I said...I love it.

ETA: Upon further review, one could say that this cover compares somewhat to that of CI, and that there is some semblance of logical progression.

By golly, I like it.

Comments

Educate a non-author, if you'd be so kind.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

How much input does an author generally have into the cover? Does it vary by contract, clout, agent?

Re: Educate a non-author, if you'd be so kind.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It can vary for all those reasons. I've heard of some more successful writers specifying which scene should be portrayed. I know at least one writer who is also an artist, and painted at least some of her own covers.

It's my understanding that the art side gets edgy when the writer tried to get too involved, the feeling being that the writer should write and leave the visuals to the folks who get paid to do them.

I have been asked about the appearance of various weapons, but my responses seldom translate into actual art. The shooter on the CODE cover is not the weapon I sketched out, is unlike any weapon in the book, and is obviously too large for Jani to hold as she does. By the time the RULES cover came along, the pattern was pretty much set--spandex and weapon and limbs. My editor stepped in once or twice to veto spike heels and cleavage, which we both agreed were non-starters. If she wanted skin and I didn't, would I have been able to argue? No idea.

I don't recall discussion about the CI cover, but I was in a this-book-isn't-working haze and as it turned out, I liked the cover enough to buy the original painting.

For the J5/ENDGAME cover, my editor and I emailed back and forth in August about desert scenes and knives and such. I forwarded some links to online photos of the cities of Petra and Aqaba. I was asked a couple of weeks ago what type of footwear Jani would be wearing. I mentioned the off-white clothing and the overrobe. In early November, the preliminary shots came through--photos of a model--and it was pretty obvious that the clothing and colors Jani would have been wearing in the scene would clash like hell with the cover concept. As it happened, I liked the image that didn't really match what Jani would wear in the book. That is the image that wound up on the cover draft, which is very striking overall. It is a desert scene. There are knives. Jani will have short(er) hair this time.

IOW, there's a lot of back and forth, and what I wind up with is not in perfect sync with the book. Other writers might tell you the same thing, and some of them may be more unhappy about the situation than I am. I haven't had what I would consider a disastrous cover.

Re: Educate a non-author

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I haven't had what I would consider a disastrous cover.
I know it can have some effects on sales - personally, the cover of Rules of Conflict was what got me initially started on the series.
Thank you for indulging my curiosity. (When I was eight, I wanted to be an author... as I got older, I realized that I sadly didn't have the creative spark.)

Re: Educate a non-author

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

You liked the RULES cover? That's interesting. I got the overall sense from editor et al that the blue was less successful than the red/gold/black of CODE. Less eye-popping.

Of course, then they went back to blue for the CI cover, but there was also more detail. The RULES cover is pretty monochrome, imho. But I'm glad it pulled you in.

Sometimes it's the creative spark. Other times, it's sheer bloody-minded stubborness. Many things are required that work to prop up one another.

Re: Educate a non-author

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Boy, is that last sentence a mess.

Need tea...