Darkly Delicious YA: Dishing Secrets about My Book Cover by Lisa M. Basso

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Dishing Secrets about My Book Cover by Lisa M. Basso

One of the happiest days in any writer’s usual routine is that day. The day you look in your inbox and see IT. The cover of your book. Whether you’re a self-published writer hiring a cover designer, work with a small press publisher, or signed with one of the big six, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for.

One single picture representing tens of thousands of words, months—sometimes years—of work puts the pressure on to get that cover just right.

When it was time for A SHIMMER OF ANGELS to get its cover, I filled out the necessary form from my publisher. Of course, I knew exactly what I wanted. Something dark, something mysterious, something to draw the reader in. Then the first mock-up of the cover arrived. It was entirely different than what I’d wanted … and I was wowed.

The cover was beautiful, yes, but not perfect, and since my publisher asked for my feedback, I got to work. I recommended the addition of smoke somewhere in the cover (to go along with the story), and changing the white dress (in the book Rayna never wears a white dress).

The next email came with a bunch of options.

I would have been happy with any of these covers. They were more than I ever expected. I rated my favorites and inquired about possibly changing of the font.

The next email came with an almost finalized cover and some font changes.

Again, I rated my favorites. When it got to my publisher, they toyed with the font, and chose to make it bold. It all clicked, the image and font, a complete collaboration. The cover is everything I never knew I wanted, but so much better than I could have dreamed.