One of the most important things that affect the
marketing of a book is the cover art. That’s what people see. It is supposed to
catch the eye and make a person go, “hey, what’s this?” There are a lot of
different schools of thought about what a cover should look like. Some people
opt for extreme simplicity, like just a solid color with the title. There are
artistic reasons for going with simplicity, and as long as it is an artistic
reason that is driving it (and not a financial one) that is fine. It’s all art
anyway, the novel and the cover. Other people go for a showy, eye-catching
cover.
In the realm of science fiction and fantasy
books there have been some wonderful covers and cover artists over the years.
The Hugo Awards started giving awards to artists in 1958. Prominent cover
artists include Frank Frazetta, Kelly Freas, Boris Vallejo, Michael Whelan, and
many others who are giants in their field, but whom the public may not know by
name (though they probably know their art).
In the early pulp fiction days of science
fiction, covers often included a B.E.M. (Bug-Eyed Monster. It happened often
enough that people came up with an acronym for it.) We may look at those covers
today and think they were kind of cheesy, but hey, people back then were trying
to capture attention, and nothing catches your eye like a good B.E.M. They
eventually became a cliché and artists quit putting them on covers.
I have come to realize that I am in the same
boat as many readers of the genre. There are many iconic covers that I can
recall, but I have no idea who did the covers. Some of the covers I had to
research: Hogan’s Inherit the Stars (Darrel K. Sweet), Heinlein’s The Moon
is a Harsh Mistress (Carl Lundgren), Le Guin’s The Left Hand
of Darkness (Alex Ebel), and Varley’s collection The
Persistence of Vision (Jim Burns). As I was looking into this, I
noticed that many of the older books in my collection do not even list who did
the cover. That seems a shame. Artists (all artist) have a hard enough time
without being uncredited. Try it. Go to your bookcase (if you still have such a
thing) and pick out your favorite science fiction or fantasy book and see if
they give credit to the cover artist.
When my novel Star Liner came
out, the publisher found a cover for the eBook. It was kind of a retro-looking
image and worked fine for the eBook, but when I went to get the book published
in paperback, I wanted something different on the cover. Through a mutual
acquaintance I was put in touch with Mary Madewell (marymadewell.com). We
talked about my ideas for the cover and she sent some preliminary sketches. I
told her what I liked and made some suggestion, and she made some suggestions.
It was a nice collaboration that still left me in control. In the end, she came
up with a cover for me that I liked very much. From the basic colors to the font,
it all has to work together. I count myself fortunate because finding the right
cover can be a challenge. I made sure that she got the cover art credit
in my book.
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