I've been wrangling with the publisher over the last few weeks over the cover of my book. As one who is deeply cynical about how things work in the corporate world, I'd been girding for this moment for quite some time.
My wife used to do contract graphic design, and I knew that whoever was going to do the graphic design for the book wouldn't have read it, and would most likely receive some sort of cryptic instructions with which they would make a mockery of what the book was about.
My fears were not unfounded. The first cover version looked like this.
From an aestetic standpoint, I was kind of neutral towards the artwork. It wasn't funky, it wasn't original, it was, well, kind of blah. From a cover for World Leader Pretend, though, I was kind of like--what the fuck? I mean, desert planets? A guy in a suit? It's a book about gaming in the fantasy genre, not sci-fi. And no one in the novel (except for the character that was cut) would wear a suit.
My editor asked me what I thought of the cover and I decided to be blunt. I wanted them to start from the drawing board. Basically, I said that I hated it and told them why.
Anywho...they did, more or less, go back to the drawing board, and what they came up with was this.
Now I understand what my editor was trying to do here--the guy at the top is supposed to be looking over a computer screen at these people whose lives he is inadvertantly affecting--but my Lord is this ugly. I mean what's up with the missing-fingered scary Hobbit dude? There aren't any scary missing-fingered Hobbit dudes in the novel at all. And why do the people have alien shadows? Any why Mars? What the fuck...the novel is set on Earth and is about computer gamers...why have a sci-fi cover on a book that isn't sci-fi?
I decided to wait 24 hours to respond just to keep from freaking out. I was pretty pissed, and the note that came with the cover was to the effect of "this is the cover take-it-or-leave-it."
I ended up writing a letter that apologized for misleading my editor into thinking the book was science fiction, but saying the cover was going to genre-confuse book buyers, and needed to be changed drastically. I was on vacation at the time, but
my wife quickly whipped up a sample cover that was more genre appropriate (literary fiction). Considering it was done in 10 minutes, I was very impressed:
I didn't hear from my editor for a while after this. Fortunately, I was hiking around the Timberline Trail, so I wasn't sitting around worrying about it for a week. I was a bit surprised not to have some sort of confirmation email in my inbox. (An I- got-your-email-and-am-looking-into-it would have been nice)
Eventually this turned up in the inbox. Again with an ultimatum and a we-have-thirty-years-of-experience-in-publishing-books note.
This one is better, but still... I'm pretty numb at this point, but removing the scary missing-fingered Hobbit dude did help. The new guy looks, well, like Xerxes would--a little baffled that there are other people on the planet. I still sent a note bitching about the alien shadows, and I'm not sure why my very diverse cast of characters are all white people dressed in black T-shirts on the cover, but it's better. (Or am I just completely numb at this point?)
