Several questions

HourglassMemory

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I was always curious about this thing, and it's been in my head for years:
1- How do editors....or the person(or group responsible for it) come up with a cover picture for our novel? Do they ask us if it suits our book? Do they ask for your opinion? Do we choose the image? Or do they just push you back while they all mess up with your book?
2- If you can draw like sketches and stuff, do you think it's good to take them when you're going to present them to your publisher or editor or whatever( I get confused with those names) If so, should I do it before or after it gets "accepted" ?
3- How do you get a professional to paint/draw/color your book cover? You call them and if they like the book they''ll do it?
4- Do editors or publishers(whatever) dislike exagerated things like a heist where the characters steal like...100 objects or something?
5- Do editors themselves read our books before they get "accepted" or do "specialized" people do it instead?
6- Why do publishers keep publishing novels that are about the same thing?like..Lord of the Rings type of novel? There's always elves, trolls, profecies, magic and a bad guy.It's starting to get boring.(that's just my opinion, I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings either)
7- What is the diference between Editor, Publisher and Agent?

Out of Topic: 8- What is the best way to describe music in a novel? You just say the instruments and "adjectivate" their preformance?
 

Bleak House Books

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Authors generally have very little to with the covers of books. They may be asked what their vision is and they may be shown comps along the way--but authors write. The business side of publishing a book is handled by editors, marketing/sales departments, graphic designers, etc.

To imply that they "mess it up" is probably a bit insulting. A publisher's job is to come up with cover art that is going to sell the book. The job should be handled by an experience professional who, presumably, has many more years working with the the task of selling books than the author.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that in 99% of the cases, nobody wants to see sketches, mock ups, Photoshopped doodles, or any other cover ideas that an author might have.

How do you get a professional to paint/draw/create a cover? As an author, you don't (unless you're self-publishing). The publishing house has a team in place to handle it.

Editors are specialized people. It's what they do for a living. If they're employed, it's reasonable to expect they've got marketable skills. An editor's job is to find books that can be invested in and can turn a profit. Some publishing houses have interns or editorial assistants that read through unsolicited manuscripts to hopefully find a diamond in the rough. But it isn't a specialization. The intern/editorial assistant understands what the house is looking for and is looking for that quality in what he/she is reading.

Do editors like exagerated things? Depends. Does it work? Is the suspension of disbelief worth the payoff? Or, more importantly--is it going to sell books? Satisfy readers?

Publishers publish what sells. Though you may be sick of Lord of the Rings type books, there is certainly a market for that genre. On top of that, there is a very large bookstore that carries a million other books that have nothing to do with trolls, magic, etc. As soon as that type of book doesn't sell, publishers will probably stop producing them.

Publishers--As a company, is the business that pays for the production costs associated with a book. These costs include, advances, design, editing, printing, and to some degree--marketing. Most publishing companies have the stated goal of making money.

Publishers--As an individual, is the person who oversees operations of the publishing company. He/She will work with editors, designers, the marketing department, etc. to make sure the company does its best to make money.

Editors--Do a variety of tasks. Most notably they acquire manuscripts from authors based on potential earning power and once a manuscript has been acquired, some editors (in some cases the same one) will work with an author to make the book as good as possible, paying particular attention to plot line, theme, development, and as importantly, making sure that the book is free of typos, bad grammar, and anything else that might detract from the overall quality of the book. However, no author should finish a first draft and expect that an editor will "fix things." An author has an obligation, IMO, to turn in the best book he/she can produce.

Agents--Because there are many more books written than could anybody could ever hope to publish, some screening processes are put in place. Agents act as gate keepers for publishers. They read new manuscripts, and if they think the book has merit, they may opt to represent it. That means they'll take it to the publishing houses, negotiate contracts, and at the end of the day, they'll take a cut (usually in the area of 10-15%) for their work and reputation. Why do you need an agent? Because publishers don't have the time or the interest to dig through large stacks of submissions that haven't been asked for (slush pile). So, publishers trust that any agent worth his/her salt will only represent solid projects and will listen to an agent when he/she is excited about a project.

Describing music in a novel is like describing anything. Verbs. Nouns. Lay off adverbs that aren't needed. Engage the reader. Show, don't tell.
 

PattiTheWicked

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1- How do editors....or the person(or group responsible for it) come up with a cover picture for our novel? Do they ask us if it suits our book? Do they ask for your opinion? Do we choose the image? Or do they just push you back while they all mess up with your book?

Well, if they "mess up" your book, they're less likely to actually SELL it, so it's really in their best interests to put a cover on it that will sell it. Depending on the size of the publishing house, you may or may not have some input on the cover -- if you're really fortunate and have a good relationship with the editor, you may get the chance to say, "Yeah, I like that." You will most likely not have the opportunity to say, "Well, on the lower right hand corner I think a white kitten would look nice, and then a picture of the heroine, who's a redhead, in a green brocade jumpsuit, in the center. Oh and please make the text in a nice pretty Papyrus style font, size 24, in blue."

2- If you can draw like sketches and stuff, do you think it's good to take them when you're going to present them to your publisher or editor or whatever( I get confused with those names) If so, should I do it before or after it gets "accepted" ?

Unless you're a professional artist, don't do this. The publishing house will find an artist that will create illustrations and/or cover art for your book. Sending in stick figures, rough sketches or cut & paste Google Images is the mark of an amateur.

3- How do you get a professional to paint/draw/color your book cover? You call them and if they like the book they''ll do it?

Let your publisher worry about it.

4- Do editors or publishers(whatever) dislike exagerated things like a heist where the characters steal like...100 objects or something?

Depends. Look at John Grisham's book The Runaway Jury. It's a perfectly normal story about a group of people sitting on a jury -- and in the end, one man is in control of the whole thing and manages to hose the tobacco industry out of gazillions of dollars. If the book is well written, then it doesn't matter if the main characters steal a thousand objects or just one. In Ken Follet's The Modigliani Scandal, the core group of characters sets up an art heist that revolves around fake paintings -- all so the MC can get her hands on ONE Modigliani. Just one work of art, but it's still an exciting, fun read.

5- Do editors themselves read our books before they get "accepted" or do "specialized" people do it instead?

An editor is one of many people in the publishing food chain. They read them, they edit them, they look over them for horrible errors, they determine whether or not they can sell a book. And then, if you're really lucky, they try to convince all the OTHER editors that their company can sell it. An editor is NOT a babysitter, proofreader, or rewriter. In other words, if your book isn't close to being publishable, no editor will waste their time with it. I've heard people say, "Well, its okay if I have typos, the editor will fix those." Not bloody likely.

6- Why do publishers keep publishing novels that are about the same thing?like..Lord of the Rings type of novel? There's always elves, trolls, profecies, magic and a bad guy.It's starting to get boring.(that's just my opinion, I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings either)

Because people will buy them. Same reason that romance novels, mysteries, and a bunch of other stuff keeps getting published.

7- What is the diference between Editor, Publisher and Agent?

An editor is the person who generally acquires a manuscript and then oversees its production from start to finish.

A publisher is (a) the company which purchases the ms with the intention of printing it as a book, such as Random House, Bloomsbury, Harlequin etc, and (b) the individual who is the big Kahuna of the publishing company.

An agent is someone whose job it is to sell your ms for you to the above people. He or she acts as your agent -- much like a realtor does when you sell a house -- and negotiates contracts for authors. While not all publishers require that submissions be agented, it certainly does help open some doors if you've got representation.

Out of Topic: 8- What is the best way to describe music in a novel? You just say the instruments and "adjectivate" their preformance?

Describe it as what it is, nothing more and nothing less.
 

Cathy C

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Hi, HourGlassMemory, and welcome to the Cooler.

I was always curious about this thing, and it's been in my head for years:

No problem. Most people are curious about these same things.

1- How do editors....or the person(or group responsible for it) come up with a cover picture for our novel? Do they ask us if it suits our book? Do they ask for your opinion? Do we choose the image? Or do they just push you back while they all mess up with your book?

As the others have said, the goal of selecting cover art is to entice people to pick the book off the shelf and buy it. What often happens is that authors have something in their head that they think will make a good cover. Sometimes it does -- other times, not so much. Now, on our first novel, we actually suggested an historic photograph that we thought would make a great cover. The publisher agreed, and used it. But it was a small company, and didn't have access to professional cover artists. Keep in mind that cover art can cost a publisher from $1,000 to $25,000 EACH. Since the first impression of the book is primary to whether the book gets purchased, publishers seldom skimp on the cover (if they can avoid it at all.) While occasionally, the artist fails to create a vision of what's IN the book, the goal remains the same: get the book off the shelf and into the customer's basket. After the register rings, it's all elementary. Now, there is a contract perk known as "cover consultation" in the publishing industry. Sometimes, the authors really DO know their readers, and have an eye for what will sell the book. In these cases, the publisher will OCCASIONALLY (and it's a big deal when it happens) allow the author to consult on the cover before it's sent to marketing.


2- If you can draw like sketches and stuff, do you think it's good to take them when you're going to present them to your publisher or editor or whatever( I get confused with those names) If so, should I do it before or after it gets "accepted" ?

Quite a few publishers have a process called the "Cover Concept Memo." This is a document that asks the author's opinion on the cover. You can describe the physical appearance of the characters (so you don't have a blond hero who winds up a redhead on the cover), and any particular scenes from the book that you think might be a great action shot to grab the reader's eye. You can certainly send along a sketch with the memo. It's always possible that the artist will get inspiration from the sketch or drawing and turn it into something spectacular. For our latest book, we gave certain details to the artist, such as the hair color and nationality of the heroine and said that the setting was in Denver, CO (and we included a photo of the area). The artist turned those details into a SPECTACULAR cover that should really jump off the shelf. The lower part of the back cover is the skyline of Denver in neon. If you want to see what I mean, click here

3- How do you get a professional to paint/draw/color your book cover? You call them and if they like the book they''ll do it?

As the others said, the publisher will choose the artist. You don't have to do a thing.

4- Do editors or publishers(whatever) dislike exagerated things like a heist where the characters steal like...100 objects or something?

Editors dislike cliches if it will cause the reader to shake their head and put down the book. If you can manage a different twist of a cliche -- by having the ending take a startling twist, then go for it.

5- Do editors themselves read our books before they get "accepted" or do "specialized" people do it instead?

Editors ARE specialized people, and yes, they do read the books before they pay you money to publish it. Occasionally, they'll hire "readers" to go through the "slush pile" (unsolicited manuscripts/queries) and pick out the ones that might show promise. But then the editor (and sometimes more than one editor) will read it.

6- Why do publishers keep publishing novels that are about the same thing?like..Lord of the Rings type of novel? There's always elves, trolls, profecies, magic and a bad guy.It's starting to get boring.(that's just my opinion, I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings either)

Because they keep selling. That's the goal of publishing. But eventually, the majority of buyers will agree with you. They'll get bored and not buy anymore, and the publisher will move on to something different.

7- What is the diference between Editor, Publisher and Agent?

The agent works for the AUTHOR. They are paid a portion of the money that the author earns to negotiate the contract (to get the author the most money and best terms) and, as the others have said, they are a strainer for above-average books that the publisher can probably sell.

An editor is an employee of a publishing house. The others described it as well as I can, but I'd add that there are often different levels of editors at a company -- each responsible for different things.

A publisher is what the others have stated.

Out of Topic: 8- What is the best way to describe music in a novel? You just say the instruments and "adjectivate" their preformance?

Describe it for what purpose? Are you intending on one of the characters CREATING music, or merely listening to it? Let's say that your character plays the guitar. You can describe the music by describing the sensation of his fingers on the strings, or furrowing his brow because one of the notes is "off" and he has to fiddle with the tension until it's right again. The reader then knows that he has an ear for music, and will know that when the adjustment is done, the music will sound "good." As a listener, the character can notice someone tapping a finger or foot in time to the bass notes or dipping their chin in time to a rock or rap beat. By observing someone ELSE, the reader can follow the flow of the music through words.

Does that help? :)
 

Hannah

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I'm a photographer by trade (portraits & photojournalism) and a writer second.

Last year, I was commissioned by a publisher to do some photography for a book (It was a bio of an NBA player).

I had to go to the neighborhood where the subject grew up and take photographs to illustrate the text in the book.

The subject had influence on what was photographed, but mostly information: places where he played as a kid, the basketball court where he first played, etc., but it was left mostly up to me to make those photographs breathe with life.

The publisher also paid me a hefty licensing fee, but I still own the copyright. :)
 
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