cover dreams...

tiny · Sep 19, 2008

I'm not even within spitting distance of getting my novel published, but as with many of my stories, I like to imagine what sort of cover or illustration (for shorts) they may have when I finally accomplish my goals.

At the moment I'm writing an urban horror about a soldier's journey into death and the medic who carries him. Without explaining too much (because it would be a novel in itself) there is a white place between war and civilian life when soldiers have flashback. It's a place where they are most lost. I imagine my novel cover to be white with an ink drawing of a kevlar helmet. Two slips of paper are slid into the elastic band around it. One is the Ace of Spades (the military deck has a picture of Saddam) and the other is a train ticket that looks like a triage label.

Do you ever imagine what the cover of your book may look like? Have you ever drawn it just to see?

Dream a little and describe it to me...

JoNightshade · Sep 19, 2008

Most of my "cover dreams" are more like what I don't want. I'm deathly afraid of getting a book cover that makes my novel look like a cheesy Hallmark romance (sorry to cheesy Hallmark romance writers!) because it would be very easy to do, symbolically. Book #1 pairs a disabled dude with a basketball coach. I DO NOT WANT to see a basketball or crutches on the front cover. NO NO NO NO! If anything, I think I would want a bouquet of yellow carnations, because they play a small but very important role.

Book #2 I have less worries about... My working title is Ghosts of Ivy House and if it keeps that title I guess I'd want a painting of an ivy-covered manor with a garden. Possibly a woman in the garden. Although I also have this fantasy of getting one of my favorite comic artists to do a sketch of my three MCs. But that would probably be tacky.

IceCreamEmpress · Sep 19, 2008

What you want is completely irrelevant unless you're self-publishing, you know. Which doesn't mean that thinking about it can't be fun. I want a mass-market paperback with raised gold letters and one of those die-cut covers that has a window into a larger picture, because I love those.

Darzian · Sep 19, 2008

I hope my cover ends up being an action packed scene from the story. That'd be nice.

Toothpaste · Sep 19, 2008

I always fantasize about my covers. In fact before Alex even had an agent I sat down and drew my idea for the perfect cover. I am quite sad because I lost it, and I was rather fond of it.

The book I am writing right now is so different from my MGs that I am having a lot of fun trying to picture what the cover could be. And I haven't even sold it (yet

)!

Straka · Sep 19, 2008

I start to sketch, then remember I should be using that time for editing

Kitty Pryde · Sep 19, 2008

Tiny terror, yours sounds cool-very striking!

For the MG novel I'm revising right now, I imagine my MC looking clever, from the shoulders up, in a ski helmet and goggles, with wind and snow blowing, and a ski area in the background. Painted in a somewhat cartoony but still hip style.

TrickyFiction · Sep 19, 2008

There's a specific artist whose work I would pay to see as the cover of the book I'm working on. I know I won't have much choice in the matter, should I succeed. But it's still fun to imagine what she would do with my story.

Stew21 · Sep 19, 2008

The inside of a car looking out the front window to a highway at night (yellow center dash lines into the distance) splash of headlights, and a man in the rearview mirror who bares a striking resemblance to a young Ernest Hemingway - but smoky and see-through.

Tasmin21 · Sep 19, 2008

I'm hoping that when I get the book published, some brilliantly artistic person will come up with something positively amazing.

In the meantime, I picture mine as a Kansas City skyline after dark in the background, the Missouri River in the middle ground, barely visible in the moon's light, and in the foreground, an upright katana skewering a baseball glove to the ground.

(Trust me, it makes way more sense if you've read the book.)

Mr. Anonymous · Sep 19, 2008

A plain, golden crown would dominate the cover. Next to it, a pool of blood. In the pool of blood, a king would be slumped dead at the base of his throne.

Judg · Sep 19, 2008

TT, that sounds like a really good cover, actually.

I'm having enough trouble coming up with a decent title, let alone a cover. I just hope it doesn't look like pulp fiction, that's all. And that it doesn't misrepresent the story.

tehuti88 · Sep 19, 2008

I haven't thought up covers for my main serials yet because there are so many characters and situations and stuff! It would be so hard to narrow down! I should look into daydreaming about that though.

I did imagine once a sort of "teaser poster" for my first serial if it were a movie. And not even the "real poster," but the teaser one, you know, the kind of mysterious posters they put out long before a movie, that just say some ominous tagline and the upcoming release date. Mine is mostly dark or black and features a silhouette of the main demon character's head against some kind of light source like the moon or something, maybe with glowing eyes, in profile, and I think the tagline would be "Welcome to the Island..." or "Be careful what you dream for..." Something cheesy and eerie like that. Then the regular poster would show all the characters and give it all away. *LOL*

*is a loser, yes*

tiny · Sep 19, 2008

Great ideas guys. Fun to dream, and yeah, I know authors have little to no control over the cover but I'm a doodler and my notebooks always end up with mock covers.

sunna · Sep 19, 2008

Straka said:
I start to sketch, then remember I should be using that time for editing

Yep, that about covers it.

Actually, I did start playing around in Illustrator (two weeks of glorious procrastination) since I really don't want to pay anyone else to design a website, and came up with what might be a very cool cover: simple, spare, dark and sorta shimmery. The last thing I want is scantily-clad or armor-spiky anything. I love fantasy, but some of the covers are pretty ridiculous. The less on it the happier I'll be: I always get intrigued by the simplest covers.

Christine N. · Sep 19, 2008

I used to dream about covers. Then I'd fill out the cover art form for my publisher, and do my best to convey what I wanted.

Then the cover artist (Christine Clavel is the most awesome-ist ever! She did my two Samhain covers) completely blew me away. Better than I could have imagined, and everything I never knew I wanted.

bethany · Sep 19, 2008

I imagined that my cover would be matte black and would look alot like Crank by Ellen Hopkins, except with a pair of dangling handcuffs. I would have never thought of the actual image they used in a million years.

Polenth · Sep 19, 2008

A plain black background with gold lettering, and a cockroach as a centerpiece. It'll never happen because publishers like having humans on covers. But I think the cockroach is the true star.

TheAntar · Sep 20, 2008

I want a picture of the actress from the movie featured on the cover.

/giggle

(That is what I want though!)

cover dreams...

tiny

riding the sun

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

Darzian

To-to-to-ron-to

Toothpaste

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

Straka

Bored Fanatic

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

TrickyFiction

Who?

Stew21

Tasmin21

They will come from below...

Mr. Anonymous

Just a guy with a pen & a delusion

Judg

DISENCHANTED coming soon

tehuti88

Mackinac Island Fanatic

tiny

riding the sun

sunna

Christine N.

haz a shiny new book cover

bethany

:)

Polenth

Mushroom

TheAntar