During December and January I wandered around all of the locations in my new novel, and took dozens or photographs which I thought might make a useful image for the cover. As I type I’m still deciding which was the best fit, but I found the process really useful for two reasons. First, it made me think more visually about the locations when I was redrafting, and about the routes my main character takes so was really helpful from that point of view. This is the picture.
Second, I’d made the decision to create my own cover so it fitted the story, and there were so many things I hadn’t realised about covers, despite having worked in a bookshop for years. I was almost put off by one Cover design website but it actually put me on track to explore the subject more carefully, not just thinking about an image but about how the title integrates with the image, and that the pictures I had with big blank areas might not be great as just photos, but they were far better suited to being a cover image. Second was cover fonts. I’d never really thought about it before, including whether you were allowed to use them (I just assumed that if it was on Microsoft Word I would be allowed to use it), and how they reflected, added to or took away from the visual of the cover. I’m not saying I’ve got it 100% right, but on balance I think (for now) I’d rather pick something I think fits the content rather than just have something pretty. I know mine won’t be as commercially fashionable or intricate as I could have using a professional designer, but as this one is a passion project I want it to be good and appealing of course, but also really work with the title, text and sense of the book.
I wanted to try one particular photo involving a pub and a whisky bottle but under current conditions that isn’t possible, and of course it might not work anyway. It’s an element of publishing that’s fascinating though, and far more to it than I’d ever recognised (doffs cap to book cover designers).
Stay safe,
Kit