The old saying, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover’ might be true for people. But in the case of an actual book cover, though it won’t tell you how well-written it is, it offers up some big clues about what sort of story you’ll encounter inside.
Besides the all-important title, these clues are delivered through a combination of artwork used, colours applied and the description, or cover-blurb on the back.
When I visit schools, children always want to know more about this mysterious-seeming process and whether the author has any say in the finished version.
I’m very lucky in that regard, because my publisher, Chicken House Books does like to involve its authors in the business of coming up with a cover.
Like many other writers, I usually create ‘mood boards’ of images which help inspire the development of my story. I post these on Pinterest and share them with my publisher so that, in addition to the writing, they have something visual to help spark ideas for a cover design.
A clip from my mood board for Black Powder
In the meantime, they’ve been busy thinking of what sort of artistic style would work best, studying portfolios of work by possible artists. For my first book, Black Powder, about two children caught up in the Gunpowder Plot, they selected Alexis Snell, an artist who specialises in making prints from linocuts. You can watch a short video of how she made the lino-cut for the cover here.
Once the cover illustration is finished, the publisher sends it to a design studio to experiment with different colour-ways and design the spine.
Two different colour-ways for Black Powder
created by Steve Wells, the designer.
We chose the one on the right which we
thought was the strongest.
Next, the publicity team gets to work with writing the all-important description – or ‘blurb’ – which tells you, the potential reader what the story is about. The aim here, using as few words as possible, is to persuade you that it’s the book for you.
The cover blurb – which needs to be as short
and exciting-sounding as possible ...
Once the design and blurb are finalised, the book is ready for printing. The cover artwork is sent to the printers with instructions for the weight and type of paper to use, along with requests for any special finishes such as embossing or coloured foil.
Black
Powder was lucky enough to be
given the gold foil treatment!
And then it’s over to the printer to weave their magic ...
children and young adults -
Susan Brownrigg, Barbara Henderson, Catherine Randall,
Ally Sherrick and Jeannie Waudby.
and a youtube video with a writing challenge for young people and teachers.
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