Cover Me - part 2

Technically, a cover only serves to protect the book, the writers work, from damage. Don't tell the publishers and the artists who create the covers that. The cover art serves to sell the book. That being the case the cover should cause the book browser to stop and actually pickup the book rather than just glance over it.

Recently, on the mystery shelves, there have been a lot of darkly colored covers. Why Harlen Coben's books stand out amid these is beyond me?

Sometimes changing publishers changes artwork.

Sometimes having a long print life changes covers.

Sometimes the author has a say in what a cover could look like. Pete Hautman had a rare objection to the mock up cover they showed him for Doohickey and actually got the chance to change it. More often authors have very little say in their cover art.  Series writers lucky enough to have the same publisher and artist often get "series" covers. Thus providing a continuity to their work and a familiarity to the book purchaser that stand alone books and authors can't take advantage of.

It's interesting to note that one seldom sees the hero or heroine portrayed on the cover. Every reader draws their own picture of the lead based on, or sometimes despite, what the author provides as description. It's, in part, why some authors refuse to sell their main character to the movies or television. On the other hand some heroes and heroines are so familiar or cross over so quickly that if the character wasn't on the cover the public might not recognize it as one of the series.

While we're at it booksellers don't always have the time to sort books in the series by order of their appearance. It's easy in the case of Sue Grafton but she's also a case where if they're not careful... John D. MacDonald's color series, with Travis Mcgee, can lead to some eyeclashing results but that might actually work toward a sale where a nice blend through the spectrum would just lead the eye right to Ross's, Lew Archer books which actually isn't the end of the world either as both series are good reads.

Ok, half of what makes a promise interesting to the party it's given to is anticipation. If you can wait until Chapter 3 I'll deliver on the promise I made in Chapter one.

Until then, I'm Dave Biemann