ˈkəvər/
a thing that lies on, over, or around something,
especially in order to protect or conceal it.
"a book cover"
After all these years of looking deeper, turns out you can judge a book by its cover. In fact, if you choose the correct cover, the book itself will apparently be judged by little else.
Thus began my search for the perfect cover for my debut novel Flygirl. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there are entire companies who do nothing but create covers for books! Lucky me!
Or not. First I had to choose the company. Do they provide eBook covers, because I’m going to want to make sure this book is available for the Kindles, Nooks, and other e-readers of the world. Check. Next, can they produce a suitable jacket for a hardcover book? Because, really, if you don’t have a hardcover, whatever is the point? Ok. Done. And then there’s paperback, audiobook, oh my!
I processed the overload of information that came my way about covers and the entities that create them. I chose a cover designer. I gave detailed, specific instructions about what I wanted and what I absolutely did not want. As I scrupulously followed the company’s required format, it took me forty-five minutes to write the perfect guidelines.
Which the company promptly ignored.
I wrote: “This is not a romance novel. So, a cover with a woman looking longingly at an aircraft would not be appropriate.”
And when I got the first proposed covers, there it was. A woman looking longingly at an aircraft. Well, at least she was wearing a hat!
After wearing out the walking path in my house—my protagonist coincidentally has this habit as well—I started over. With a new set of instructions.
And finally, I have a cover. A really cool one. Which you will all see…soon!