Thursday, April 2, 2009

Would You Rather...Cover Talk

Tip of the Day: When an editor, agent, critique partner etc. suggests a change to something in one of my books and I like my current version, I pluck that bit of text that I like out of the manuscript and put it in a new word doc and play with it there. Something about not messing up the one I like eases my mind. Then if I like the new change, which 8 out of 10 times I do, I add it back to the manuscript.

Would you rather have total control of what your book cover looks like or no control whatsoever of what your book cover looks like?

My guess is that most people would say total control. Am I right? It would only make sense. We spend so much time pouring over our darling books we would want control of the cover too.

Me? No way. Uh uh. I have no artistic vision whatsoever. I couldn't imagine trying to put together a cover. It's not that I just can't draw (which I can't), I seem to have a mental block in what looks good. From putting together clothing and jewelry to decorating a room, I'm just never sure what looks good. Even now, I'm trying to group together some picture frames on one of the walls in our hallway and I just can't make it look right. Stuff like this should be easy but it's not for me so I end up with a hundred holes in the wall. I'm always amazed at Web site designers and all the cool designs they come up with. And people who can draw, paint, and do graphic designs-- WOW. I don't know how they do it. I can't even do my own make-up very well and that's something I practice everyday (well, most days). So designing my book cover? Noooooo, it's best that I stayed far, far from that. Nobody would have picked up a book with a stick girl holding a cup of coffee on it.

What do you guys think? Total control of your book cover or NO control at all? Let me know.

Kristina, Miss Delighted to Debut

5 comments:

Kate Fall said...

Ha, a stick girl cover!

I agree with you on this one, Tina. I'll trust the experts. I don't even like telling my hair stylists how to cut my hair.

I have this mental image of me asking for my main character on the cover and then the designer showing me the cover I could have had instead ... gorgeous, it blows my mind... but too late, I insisted on MY idea, so no awesome cover for me. :(

Sarah Garrigues said...

I'm also with you on this. Leave the cover to the ones with the cover talent. We are in much better care in their hands.

~Sarah

http://sarahgarrigues.blogspot.com

Lisa Schroeder said...

I don't have any artistic abilities either, so I definitely choose to leave it up to the experts!

Kristina Springer said...

Okay, I was so wrong! I thought everyone else would want the control! :-)

DeenaML said...

Actually, I would want NO control initially, but then TOTAL control if I didn't like the first effort.... :) The sad thing is sometimes I think it's MARKETERS, NOT artists, whodo the covers, and those are the times you can tell.