Fantasy Art Forums » Wanted

**cover art** Posted: 3/15/2010 1:20:08 PM

I'm new here so forgive me if I'm doing this wrong.

First off I realise this will sound highly implausible and we'll all just have to live with that.

I've just secured a lucrative 3 book contract (one of which I've written).

My agent tells me that I won't have any contractual say in choosing the cover art. And in fact the art is likely to be different in the US than in the UK, Germany, Australia etc, angled towards local ... traditions. However, he has told me that he will be active in making sure some attention is paid to my opinions.

I have two firm ideas for the cover & it would make a more powerful pitch if instead of describing them to the publishers I were able to send an example. There is a chance - I've no idea how big a chance - that they would contract the person who produced that picture to do the actual cover/s. This is my first book deal and so I don't have a strong handle on these matters.

However, if you read the descriptions below and send me a picture and I like it, I will send it on to my main publisher, and there is an unknown chance that you will become a bonefide cover artist (you would have to negotiate your own deal with them if they decided to go that way).

cover idea 1: A pen and ink drawing, heavy on the large areas of black and white. Ruins with our hero front and centre, a young warrior with long dark hair, probably head bowed with hair obscuring most or all of his face. The only colour in the picture would be a line of scarlet along the edge of his sword.

cover idea 2: A young warrior hanging cruciform in thorns. The thorns can be abstract/dream thorns, i.e. as big as you please. Again head down and hair obscuring face but with one eye staring at the viewer in a fierce, I'm going to get you manner, the eye could well have the 'Clockwork Orange' eyeliner design around it.

Again, I can see why you might be skeptical. I was very skeptical that I'd get anywhere when I sent my book out.

You can reach me at mark32_2000@yahoo.com

Please note the date of this message (March 2010) if you're reading it many months past this - you're too late!

Cheers,
Mark

**Re: cover art** Posted: 3/18/2011 9:34:43 PM

It's always a wonderful thing to dream but I have 8 books I Illustrated on speck. only to learn it does not work that way. Well, rarely. I joined writers groups to find out how it did work. I went to writers conventions. Writers and illustrators in the publishing biz. are great. I discovered I didn't want to be a book illustrator but I have friends I will never be able to repay that I met on this path. Congrats on the books. Work everyday at your craft and you will live happy. Joy, nonie@ nonieland.com

**Re: cover art** Posted: 4/18/2011 11:03:19 AM

Cover art is an Illustration Job. The Artist is hired by the publisher and on rare occasions, by the author in the case of someone who is self-publishing. The job is to entice the viewer to read the book; it is therefore a communications problem. The outside must convey the feel and story of the interior - in a way that piques interest and satisfies the customer. Ultimately, the customer is the hiring party: the publisher.

Publishers do what they do because they are investing the money to print the book and they have the connections & infrastructure to market and distribute the book. It is much more than putting a pretty picture on it and putting it up on Amazon or someplace. There is a reason why authors generally do not get to have much say in what goes on the cover; they are writers and not visual communicators. While it may seem as if they are, due to the images generated in the mind via words, it is a completely different part of the brain and visual language is actually very different than words. Humans make emotional assumptions based on color, shape, texture, line, contrast... etc. Humans also make emotional assumptions based on word usage; but the emotional impact of a color is vastly different than just saying, "He wore a red shirt."

There is an entire field of study involved in these things and it cannot be adequately covered in a forum post. Just be aware that the job of illustrator is separate from the job of writing, for a reason. And the people who publish also have specialized knowledge that goes into their work.

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