interview

Judging by the Cover, A Q&A with Erin Mallory

How do you begin to conceptualize a cover design? Where do you go for inspiration?

EM: The starting point is usually the cover concept form that each editor completes for their books. This form gives a brief outline of the plot, states the genre and age range of the book, and highlights any specific themes they think would work well on the cover. Whenever possible I will read some of the manuscript to get a better feel for the style and tone of the book. If the book is part of a series I will look back at the other covers to make sure the new book fits the series look (if there is one). Beyond that, I look to the title for inspiration: does the title itself evoke any particular image; does it lend itself inherently to an interesting type treatment; can the title speak for itself or does it need graphic elements to tell the potential reader what kind of book it is? If nothing jumps out at me right away I might look to other newer covers for some inspiration, see what other people are doing that’s interesting, new, and effective.

How many drafts does a cover usually go through before you decide on the final design?

EM: On average I would say a cover goes through around five drafts. There is the odd cover that just never seems quite right and we can go through draft after draft after draft before settling on one, and there are others that just work right away. For the most part I try to present three different initial drafts, then we narrow it down to one and tweak it a bit to get the final cover.

How much time do you spend working on an average cover design and when/how do you decide that a cover is finished?

EM: It’s hard to say because each cover travels such a different path from conception to final design, but I’ll say on average it might be between three and ten hours. A cover is “finished” when I feel that all of the elements flow perfectly together, the proper message is being communicated, and when the publisher gives his final sign off.

Does the author ever have any input about the images used or the final design?

EM: Yes, they do have the opportunity for input. In fact we often incorporate images that the author has provided. The final design is officially approved in-house though.

What type/level of involvement do other departments have on a cover’s design?

EM: Huge involvement! Editorial, sales, and design all work together to come up with the final cover for each book. As designer for the cover I will present the drafts to a panel consisting of the book’s editor, the sales manager, the design manager and the publisher and we discuss likes, dislikes, and changes. Then I go away to tweak, revise, and rethink, and come back to the same panel with new drafts. We keep going through this process until everyone on the panel signs-off on a final cover.

Tell me about the design process for Twelve Trees. What type of changes did you make to each draft and why?

EM: The initial drafts for this cover were done by Alison Carr, and she was trying to work with the most prominent image in the book, which is drinking. The entire book takes place in a bar, and the main character is a heavy drinker. In early drafts of the manuscript the protagonist’s drink of choice was beer, so Alison was working with a couple of pint glasses as cover images. She also tried a couple of bar scenes, but none of the images she was finding were seedy-enough, or rough-enough looking. We finally settled on one of the pint glasses as the cover image for the catalogue, knowing that we would revisit this cover when it came time to design the book. By the time I got the final manuscript to design the book, the main character’s drink of choice had changed from beer to whiskey, so we definitely had to change the cover at that point. Since horse-racing is another very prominent theme in the book, I tried to go in a completely different with the cover and show horses galloping away, but nothing seemed to work. The author was also reluctant to have horses on the cover, because he has previously published mystery novels with us that also figure horse-racing prominently and he wanted to break away from that with Twelve Trees, his first literary novel. So, I went back to the drawing board focusing on drinking/bars once again. The perfect image for this book would have to convey a certain darkness, a certain loneliness, but without being too bleak, and it would have to be a bit gritty. I finally found the image of a man holding a small glass of whiskey, where all you can see of the man is the lower part of his arm. The paint on the table he’s resting his drink on is peeling, the colours in the image are dark, and it really conveyed the message I was looking for. I went for a very simple type treatment for the title and the author’s name to let the image speak for itself, and when I brought it back to the panel there was unanimous approval.

(1st draft) (2nd draft) (final cover)

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