It’s A Cover Up
By J.S. Watts
As an avid reader I have, from time to
time, been surprised by the inaccuracy of book covers. By this I don't mean
printing errors or dodgy artwork. Far from it; these can often be quite
beautifully designed covers. It’s the content or subject detail that is the
surprise. Alluringly put together as these covers are, they entice you, like
sirens of the book shelves, to browse, read and buy. It’s only when you have
read in full the book that each cover surrounds, you realise that theirs is a
hollow promise that doesn’t deliver. The image sprawled across the cover is, at
best, an imaginative interpretation of the book’s actual content, at worst, a
work of pure fiction in its own right. In other words, the enticing cover image
bears little or no resemblance to the book it embraces.
You have to ask, hasn’t the designer read
the book they are creating a cover for? In some cases the answer must surely be
no.
I have also noticed, with a different type
of surprise, the excitement/anxiety with which most authors react to the
unveiling of their latest book’s cover. When my first two poetry books came
out, I really didn't think that much about cover veracity, or about covers
much, at all. My poetry publisher favours artistically austere covers,
beautiful in their tasteful, monochrome way, but hardly cause for angst or
undue excitement and anyway the black and white cover images were ones I had
created myself, so I was happy they were an appropriate and sympathetic reflection
of the books’ contents.
With the publication of my first novel, A
Darker Moon, it was a different matter altogether. My publisher in this
instance, Vagabondage Press, has its own design team and all I had to do was
admire their artistic efforts. I suddenly discovered that waiting for someone
else to interpret your literary baby is a nerve-wracking business. Would the
cover artwork be striking? Would I like it? Would it be a fair and accurate
reflection of what I had written?
The day of revelation was upon me. The
draft image arrived by email and I clicked on it nervously. And breathed:
striking – tick, beautiful – tick, I didn't like it - I loved it, but was it an
accurate reflection of both the spirit and the detail of the novel, a dark
psychological fantasy? The answer was, breath
again, a resounding, oh yes! I take my hat off to Vagabondage’s Art
Director – she had read and understood my novel and rendered its spirit
beautifully and graphically.
I tried out the cover on friends and
acquaintances. What did they think? I was delighted by their responses:
“beautiful”, “striking”, “impressive” and, most important to me, “darkly
foreboding”. The novel is a mythical tale of light and shadow and the unlit
places where it is best not to shine even the dimmest light: I'm not after
pastel pink bunnies and “lightly encouraging”.
I was also impressed by the way the cover doesn't try to tell the complicated story of my anti-hero, Abe Finchley and his
search for the woman he has been looking for all his life. Instead, it captures
the spirit and atmosphere of the novel by
reflecting three of the key motifs running throughout the story: the owl with
its “huge yellow eyes like two full harvest moons” that haunts Abe’s lifelong nightmares,
the moon itself, with its evolving phases and apocryphal darker sibling moon
named after the goddess Lilith and the darkly flowing water which winds its way
through both Abe’s story and London, where the book is set, like a ribbon of
night.
As soon as I saw the cover for A Darker
Moon I knew it had been designed by someone who had read and understood the
book, both in terms of story and tone. I cannot begin to describe what a
wonderful feeling that is; that somebody ‘gets’ what you have spent ages and
much sweat producing and has transformed it accurately and effectively into
another art form. At last, I have understood why other authors go on at length
about their book covers and their excitement at seeing them for the first time.
I must also admit that I have rather fallen in love with the glowering and
gorgeous owl in the centre of the cover: unlike Abe Finchley, I fortunately don't have “a morbid fascination” with owls.
Anyway, enough words on the subject of
cover design. Covers are visual things, they have to be seen to be appreciated.
So here’s an image of the front cover of A Darker Moon. I hope you fall in
love with it the way I have.
J.S. Watts
is a British writer. She was born in London, England and now lives and writes
in East Anglia. In between, she read English at Somerville College, Oxford and
spent many years working in the education sector. She remains committed to the
ideals of further and higher education despite governments of assorted
political persuasions trying to demolish them.
Her poetry, short stories and book reviews appear in a variety of publications
in Britain, Canada, Australia and the States including Acumen, Brittle Star, Envoi, Mslexia and Fantastique Unfettered and have been broadcast on BBC and
independent Radio. She has been Poetry Reviews Editor for Open Wide Magazine
and, until its demise, Poetry Editor for Ethereal Tales. Her debut poetry
collection, Cats and Other Myths and
a subsequent poetry pamphlet, Songs of
Steelyard Sue are published by Lapwing Publications. Her novel, A Darker Moon, is published by
Vagabondage Press. Further details of her books can be found on her website: www.jswatts.co.uk. You can also
find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/J.S.Watts.page
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