So, some of you fellow wannabee authors are probably asking yourself - why go to all the trouble? After all, there are a variety of images available in the public domain - in fact, CreateSpace even offers a service to create your cover using one of those images. Now, I'm not disrepecting CreateSpace and I think they offer some good services (I may take advantage of them later - still undecided), but personally I felt was important to have a unique brand to my book.
By the way, the image that most closely inspired me was Mariparis City: (http://www.jameshillgallery.com/#/gallery/science-fiction-gallery/meraparis-city/) If you don't find that image inspiring, you should probably quit reading my blog.
Anyway, back to - why should the cover matter?
First, ask yourself - how many times were you perusing books in a book store or book section of a Target and decided to look at a book (by an author you hadn't recognized) because of one of two features:
The Title
The Cover Art
Then you read the description in the back or book jacket, then flip through it and then decided to read a little or just purchase the book?
My guess (if you're like me) is often. After all, we're bombarded by information and ads all the time. We have to be picky about how we want to spend our time. And the old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" is very true. We are visual and the cover and title set the vibe.
I won't go into prices because they vary a great deal from artist to artist, but I find James very reasonable for what he is doing for me - namely, showing me step-by-step his process. There are others out there, but make sure you get these conditions:
1. Don't pay for the whole process in advance (but be prepared to pay half)
2. Make sure you get agreement on being able to to see the work in stages
3. Make sure you get the the right to use the image w/o royalties
4. Get a good sense of the artist, his reputation, and his work
5. As you discuss your project, make sure he understands and is excited about what you are trying to do creatively
I've now worked with two artists for this novel - once on a precursor to this novel that has since been rewritten so it is no longer relevant. That artist, an acquaintance / friend, showed me his final image with and without the print added. Later, when I requested a change, he refused to answer back. Not good, so I am not using him any more. James has written in to his contract that he will guarantee my satisfaction before he's finished. Wow! So you know I intend to use James in the future!
Anyway, the timing of this blog entry is because James just sent a series of rough sketches and agreed to let me show them off.
The book cover in question is based on an alien artifact called The Cathedral. I have put in my description from Sojourners:
Michael pushed
the stick forward and aimed towards the Cathedral, its multihued glow
outshining the surrounding high-rises and the iridescent white splash of galaxy
and Fox moon above them. The triangular obelisk rose two hundred meters into
the air, with a fifty-meter half-crescent cut taking a bite out of two of the
three sides at the base, leaving a rounded triangle approximately ten meters on
a side as the guarded entranceway, making its architecture so thin at the base
that it seemed impossible to support the massive structure as it rose up. After
the middle swelled up to a twenty-meter triangle, it eventually tapered to a
two meter triangle at the top. During the day, its surface was a highly
reflective mother of pearl, at night it became a seemingly transparent
multihued crystal where it seemed you could look through it, though it didn’t
allow a real view into its interiors.
I also gave James further description for context. Below is part of that visual treatment:
...
The prominent structure on the North Columbian continent is known as the Cathedral and one center of humans settled around the structure after it allowed human entry. The Cathedral is the three-sided obelisk I mentioned before. Its appearance during the day is a shifting pearlescence - opaque, but always changing its patterns of colors. At night, it appears more translucent, with shifting colors but grounded in a honey-like yellow. It doesn't actually let you see inside of its own internal structure, but it does let you see "through" it to the other side. At its base is a perfectly circular crystalline base made of the same material that goes out thirty meters from the center. It is perfectly smooth and looking down on it is almost as hypnotic as staring upward, since it seems to go on infinitely. Scientists have been unable to determine how for down the Cathedral and its base goes, so some speculate that it may be only the tip of a much larger structure. Invasive attempts to dig down have been met with hostile, active defenses, so it is illegal now to do more than scan.
People often come for days, weeks or even longer to simply spend time observing and meditating. For people who spend even a minute focusing on it, they swear it seems to "sing" to them. Many believe that it is is in communion or communications with us, but they can't fully decipher it. It inspires artists and musicians alike and is a focal tourist point for humans across all the leagues or varying human governments spread across North Columbia, the major continent of settlement.
...
One note that I made to James was that I was intentionally giving him more than he probably needed and trusted him to pick what he found relevant and develop that.
So, without further ado, here are a few of his images:
Seeing these first sketches shows me that James is really considering a variety of creative dimensions and that gets me very - no, freaking - excited!
To me, a book is not simply a manuscript, but something we create that has to communicate the idea of our book to our potential readers.
So I encourage any serious authors, whether your novel is ultimately going to be hard- or soft-published to find an artist who gets your muse and let him help you elevate your shared journey!
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