Cover Talk

As an author waiting to see your cover is scary. I think every author would agree. Many authors probably have a certain image in mind and maybe even told their publisher about their certain vision for their book.

But that doesn't mean you get your wish. Because the process of creating a cover is more complicated than just finding a pretty image. It has to be right for the target audience, it has to reflect the inside of the book somehow (ideally, though that isn't always the case), it has to stand out on shelves while still following trends. Because many people judge a book by its cover.

And that's a very scary thing for an author. Because while we have power over what's inside the book, many readers might never get that far because they don't like what's outside.

So you can imagine how nervous I was before I was shown the cover of The Other Life. And though I knew Usborne, my Uk pub had done an awesome job with the cover for the first book, I was again nervous before I got to see the cover for its sequel The Life Beyond. But then I was relieved and so happy.
Two days ago I was allowed to reveal the cover to THE LIFE BEYOND and here it is:

As you can see it's quite similar to the first book THE OTHER LIFE. That way people will know that they belong together and as an added bonus the two books will look gorgeous on the shelf together! If you take a closer look, you'll notice that the butterfly changed a bit. It's still bleeding but what's happening inside has changed and the butterfly looks scarier, more like a hornet. That reflects the book, because it's getting more dangerous for Sherry and Joshua, and for a few other survivors as you might guess from the scene in the butterfly. And the skyline in the background has changed slightly too. Again to reflect a certain scene in the book. But I won't tell you more!
What do you think?


1 comment:

Jaime Morrow said...

This is fascinating! I always like to hear about how cover art is brought to life. The bleeding butterfly was one of the things that jumped out and grabbed me on THE OTHER LIFE. The barbed wire lettering is also pretty great. :)