How a book cover gets done

This is what was involved on my end of how the covers for Magic Lost, Trouble Found and Armed & Magical were done. The part of the process that goes on in the art and marketing departments at Ace Books remains one of those "great mysteries of the universe." And since I've been blessed to have drop-dead-gorgeous covers, I'm content to leave that process among the great unknowns. But I do know what a first-time author can do to help influence the direction a cover takes. Again, I don't know if the folks at Ace listened to me, or we were all just on the same page. Either way, I got what I wanted, so it's all good.

One of the first things I did was browse my local Barnes & Noble for covers that I absolutely adored. Then I found out who the artist was and did a little online research. This let the art dept. know what style I liked. Not knowing if the artist who would eventually be commissioned to do the cover would actually read MLTF, I wrote up a brief physical description of each of my main characters and what they wear for most of the book. I basically did a cut & paste of my descriptions in the book and added some specifics that I might not have mentioned in the book. For example: height. And if you have some pictures of people who you visualized while writing the book, send those along as well. And my editor asked me if I had a particular scene that I thought would work for a cover. I couldn't think of one in particular, so I left that up to them. Because during my research at B&N, I looked at a lot of the Ace and Roc Books covers. While they were done in varying styles, every last one of them were beautiful and a cover that I would be proud to have. So I felt comfortable just leting the art dept. at Ace work their magic -- and they did.

I loved covers that had that mixed-media look: a photograph of an actual person, combined with a luscious computer-generated backdrop. I'll have to admit that when I opened that PDF of the cover for MTLF, I just burst into tears. The good kind. There on my computer screen was Raine. It was an emotionally overwhelming moment. I was thrilled, my agent was thrilled, and my editor was thrilled that we were thrilled. Everybody's happy. The publisher wants the author to be happy with their covers, and if there are things about the cover that the author simply cannot stand (and if they have a good, sound reason for not liking it), more than likely, the publisher will try to make you happy. This is where a diplomatic agent comes in. It's their job to contact the publisher and relay the author's "concerns." Your agent knows how to work these things. A teary, emotional and/or angry, screaming author is the last person who should make that phone call or send that email.

In the next week or so, I'll blog on how to go about researching and finding an agent (I've had a lot of requests for that), as well as how to deal professionally with agents and editors.

BTW -- I have the postcards for A&M from the printer (they look great). I've ordered the bookmarks, and I should get those in the next two weeks. When I do, I'll send out the goodies to everyone who's requested them. And it's never too late -- if you want postcards and bookmarks, just email me your name and address to lisa@lisashearin.com.

And don't forget this Saturday, December 22, you'll get my Christmas gift to all of you. Just come to the blog that day, and I'll tell you where to go to find your present. ; )

Lisa