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Tales of Publication and Re-Publication, Part 4: More on Cover Art

5/27/2014

Last time, I told you about the process I went through for the new cover art for my work. For this post, I interviewed Claudia and Catie at PhatPuppy (www.PhatPuppyArt.com) and the model they worked with for my cover, Mybelin. (Throughout this post, I will include pics of the covers mentioned.)

It was such a pleasure to work with you both, Claudia and Catie. I wondered if you could share some background information.

Claudia, how long have you been designing book covers and how many cover that you designed do you estimate are in the market today?

I’ve designed close to 500 covers, and many are in the marketplace today, including book covers all the world as well, and even in different languages. I am especially proud of working with people like Samantha Young (who wrote NY Times Best Seller On Dublin Street) and Kami Garcia on her newer two books Red Run and Dark Futures, and also the author of Beautiful Creatures a major motion picture.

I know that when we started working together, you had important information to share with me. What is your best advice to an author interesting in a new cover design?

If a deal is too good to be true, it usually is. I get a lot of covers that need to be redone, because a lot of other artists don’t follow the rules. Attention to behind the scenes detail is lacking, and I think that it’s one of the most important things.

I would add to the comments above, that Claudia and I discussed the importance of using a work that would not be found on other covers. We also discussed licensing issues and the difficulties that can arise when people use stock art for their covers.

Before you begin to spin your artistic magic, Claudia, what are the most important things an author can share with you that will help you to create the most appropriate, powerful and eye-catching cover for that author?

It works best for me as an artist if the author gives me a general overview of his characters and setting—a wish list, so to speak, of what he’d like the cover to look like. Then, I create that in my style of art.

Claudia and Catie, can you describe the process of designing a new cover, from model shoot to selecting a background, to changing colors and so forth? What role does the author typically play?

We like to try and get into the author’s head for the custom shoots. What is her/his character like in terms of personality, style, body image, and so forth? We then put out a casting call and once we have a good number of applicants, we send the photos to the author to choose from.

Makeup and hair is done on the shoot to the author’s character specifications.

We discuss the posing with the author. In fact, the author is included in almost every aspect of the journey.

Next, we cover background, colors and the author’s vision of how she wants the end result by throwing ideas back and forth with the author.

Catie adds the typography last. It should reflect the personality of the book. Certain time periods will have a font that reflects that, horror stories will have a font that screams out “spooky”, and so forth.

(Below is the font used for Oathtaker. It is called FairyDust.)

Catie, I understand that you see to such details as wardrobe and props. What significance do they play in the shoot and in the final product? What part does the author play in this process? The model? You?

The significance of these things is very important, because without the essence of the character, the cover will suffer as well. I get details of the wardrobe and props from the author and if we don’t have the wardrobe already, I go out to find it.

The author plays a huge part in this. Without the author’s description, we can’t fully portray the character and make the cover it’s best.

Once the picture is selected and Claudia performs her magic on it, the font is to be prepared. That is something Catie does, right? How is the font chosen? What issues are taken into consideration when determining a font to use? What advice do you have for authors regarding font and back cover copy?

Yes, I (Catie) work with the font. The font is chosen based on the material of the book. If the book is a romance, I would imagine the author would want a romantic, perhaps swirly type of font. An author wouldn’t want to have that same font on a horror story though :)

My advice is to be careful. The font is extremely important, but it needs to gently enhance the cover. If an author is dead set on a blocky type of font, when the cover has more of a gentle feel, it just won’t work. My goal is for the font to make the cover even better.

So, Claudia, back to you. What is your favorite ever cover art that you designed?

My favorite would have to be “The Lioness” for Jake Bonsignore. That painted piece is my absolute favorite cover, and not the typical style for me either.

Have you any design nightmares, Claudia, that you would like to share? How about stories of your most notable design successes?

My most notable design success was “On Dublin Street” by Samantha Young, it was such a sudden thing. I never expected it get as big as it did. One morning I wake up and it’s #1 on Amazon, and that’s when everything kind of took off for me!

Thank you so much, Claudia and Catie.

Now, on to the model, Mybelin, whose loveliness graces my new cover. (Below is a behind-the-scenes shot from the day of my photo shoot.)

How long have you been modeling for book covers, Mybelin, and how many covers have you graced to date?

I met Catie and Claudia in January of this year and I worked on my first book cover a few weeks later. Your book (Oathtaker) is my fourth cover.

Do you have any specific training or experience (performing, for example) that you think helps you to portray cover characters?

I’ve had modeling training for the past three years, and taken acting classes for the past three years. I think that book covers require both of those skills to capture a story completely.

I imagine that kind of background would be helpful. Do you have a process for identifying with the character you will represent on a cover and if so, what do you do?

Most of my information regarding the character that I will represent comes through Claudia. She lets me know what the character should look like and what I should be doing, according to the author. Having at least a brief description of the character and the storyline is very helpful when it comes to the poses and expressions I will use.

How do you see to the practical considerations such as wardrobe, makeup and props? How is that decided? Who participates in the process?

Makeup and props are done for me and I do my own hair, but definitely wardrobe is the most challenging. The look is decided by the author, but the process of finding wardrobe has involved everyone, including my mom and my drama teacher and even some shopping trips. But I definitely have to credit Claudia for working with what I have and making it happen seamlessly.

I know that wardrobe for my cover was a real issue! You all did a marvelous job.

How long does a shoot take? What, other than wardrobe and makeup, if anything, do you to do prepare for a shoot?

The shoots normally take an hour to an hour and a half. Looking for and putting together the wardrobe takes the longest. I also prepare by thinking about the character and what poses and expressions I will do to represent her.

Do you have any cover modeling nightmares you want to share? How about specific successes?

I have not experienced any nightmares, but I have to say that your book cover (Oathtaker) certainly had me very stressed until the last minute because I couldn’t find a cape to use. I was supposed to borrow a cape from my school drama department and after waiting over a day, the classmate in charge of getting it for me, gave me a long tunic instead (like a sack of potatoes!). I ended up calling my mom one hour before the shoot to tell her, and I was so upset. She told me to look in her closet for a brown throw blanket to see if Claudia could work with that, and she ended up saving the day with that.

Well, all I can say is that you are all my heroes!

How do you react when you see your image on a book cover that you happen across when online or in a bookstore?

I haven’t experienced this yet, because the three covers I’ve done haven’t been released yet, but I think I’m going to be so excited, I might annoy a few people in the book aisles of the store.

What is your favorite cover ever that you modeled for?

I really enjoyed your book (Oathtaker) the most, because I think the time period is really cool, and Mara’s character is equally cool—and I liked using the dagger as a prop.

Well, I am happy to hear that, Mybelin. I am curious: do you generally read the books you’ve modeled for?

I haven’t been able to yet because none of them are out, but I do plan to read them as soon as they are out. I can’t wait!

Thank you so much, Mybelin. I am delighted to have you on my cover. Notwithstanding the difficulties in preparing the wardrobe we needed, it sounds like you had a good time. I will most certainly be watching for more from you!

Next time, I will discuss the process of formatting for publication. Until then!

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Tales of Publication and Re-Publication, Part 3: Cover Art

5/19/2014

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Last time I told you about my decision to go with PhatPuppy for the artwork for my new cover. Since I was unable to find a photo on their site that would work for me and that was available for purchase, I discussed the matter with Claudia.

Claudia informed me, they could create a cover just for me. I could have input into the model used, her clothing and facial expression, the background, and so forth. I was more than a little nervous to proceed on this basis—and for more than one reason. First, as you can imagine, the price is a bit higher than to just choose a downloaded photo from an online site. Second, what if after all the time and expense I didn’t like the result? Well, I need not have worried. With Claudia and her cohort, Catie, I was in good hands—in very, very good hands indeed.

At this juncture, let me say that I first contacted Claudia in February 2014 for some general information. When I finally decided that I might well go with PhatPuppy, I contacted her again in early April. On April 11, I asked what her timing would be, as I thought I was ready to get started and was anxious to wrap up my project. We exchanged a number of emails that day and spoke on the phone, discussing such matters as, if I had her do a model shoot for me, would there be a variety of pictures from which I could choose? What if I just didn’t find a photo that spoke to me when it is all said and done? And so forth.

I decided I would go for it.

Catie contacted me minutes later to start working with me to organize the proposed poses, wardrobe and casting. I filled her in on the general aspects of my story and pointed out other PhatPuppy work I liked (at www.PhatPuppyArt.com), along with reasons for why each of those works would not work for me. In this way, we narrowed down the ideas for moving forward. Best of all, I showed Catie some PhatPuppy pictures with a model that I thought would have the right “look” for me. Based on the description of my character that I had given to Catie, she had independently determined that the model I pointed out to her, Mybelin, would be just right for me.

Fortunately, Mybelin was able and willing—and excited—to do the cover. We set the stage. Then I added another little issue—I wanted to use the dagger that I had purchased and used on the cover of my original book. I liked the Celtic “feel” to it. Could we work that in? “Yes,” Catie assured me, that should be possible. They would take their photos of Mybelin with another blade, then put mine in the final product. So, I sent to her, a picture of my dagger.

Next we had to decide on wardrobe. Here is where things got a little sticky. It seems that one of the PhatPuppy photographers does a lot of character covers with elaborate settings and costuming, but Claudia and Catie did not have an exhaustive inventory of costuming with which to work. So, we put our heads together and came up with some ideas. They wanted to know the most important features for me. I told them: a rustic feel, a cape, and a blade.

Not having seen what Catie and Mybelin came up with, I can tell you that I was a bit nervous about what the results would be. The photo shoot was scheduled for two days from the day we started discussing poses and all. It was on the afternoon of April 16. I sat in my office that afternoon trying to work—but my mind was elsewhere.

Here is a “behind the scenes” shot from that photoshoot:

I need not have worried. As I said, I was in very good hands indeed.

Late on the night of April 16, Catie downloaded the photos to DropBox for my review.

I was afraid to open them. Remember that when you do a shoot like this, what you will get in the end is a “raw” photo. The shoot is only the beginning. The background, coloring and so forth are the next stage.

I opened the photos. My first thought was about the sleeves of the tunic Mybelin wore. I was a bit concerned. I didn’t want any fluff. But then, I started to warm up to them. I could see how it they would work in the final product. I pondered through the photos. No. 1: beautiful, but a bit too soft. No. 2: possible, but not quite right. No. 3: lovely! I might very well have gone with this one. No. 4: no. No. 5: not enough action. No. 6: it could prove too hard to replace the blade with my own since it was over Mybelin’s face. No. 7: I could see what they were trying to do as the shot was taken per one of my proposals, but in the end, it just didn’t work for me. No. 8: it could work. No. 9: possible, but there were other better shots. No. 10: that’s it! It had the right movement, action and facial expression and the dagger could be replaced easily.

I informed PhatPuppy. I wanted shot No.10.

We started discussing different “scenes” and color changes I thought would work. Claudia wanted to know how I wanted the final cover to look and “feel.” I sent her a number of proposed “backgrounds” from www.DepositPhotos.com (per her request), noting things I liked or didn’t like about each and suggesting further “scenes” we might create. Claudia asked me to identify my two or three most important concerns. I did so.

At 2:00 a.m. (yes, A.M.!) on April 19, Claudia sent to me the first mock-up. You might be interested to learn that from that moment, I “loved” the sleeves that I had at first questioned!

From there we discussed coloring and other issues. Claudia added more “glint” to the dagger, and so forth. By April 20th, she had wrapped up her work.

On the 21st, I sent Catie information on a font I thought I would like: Fairydust. She agreed it would look great. We worked out the kinks and had the e-copy cover done by April 25. (Did I mention that PhatPuppy “rocks”?) I then enlisted the aid of a formatter (to whom I will introduce you in a later post.)

On May 1, 2014, I published the new e-version of OATHTAKER.

Here are the pics we started with—the blade, the shot of Mybelin and the background from PhotoDeposit:

And here is the final cover REVEAL:

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Tales of Publication and Re-Publication, Part 2: Making Decisions About the COVER

5/16/2014

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In my last post, I discussed my decision to re-publish and along with that, to put my work through a complete new edit. While I was wrapping my editing up—actually, long before that—I was thinking about a new cover. In some ways, I wanted to stick with the old one. I liked it and some readers had complimented it. When that cover was prepared (through my former publishing company) I had searched for days—nay, for weeks—trying to find the right photo to use. I perused every online site I could find for pictures. In the end, I found one I liked well enough and went with it. Once done, I wanted to add a dagger to the cover, since one of my main character’s chief tools is a magic blade. So, I had to search for photos of blades as well. Unfortunately, my search was to no avail. I did, however, find a website, Medieval Collectibles. I found a dagger I liked there and purchased it without knowing if I could even find a way to make it work on the cover.

I sent a picture of my dagger, along with a reference to another dagger I found on one of the online sites, and had the publishing company add the longer blade from the online picture to the handle of my dagger. I needed the longer blade for the next step: I wanted them to make the dagger act as the letter “T” in TAKER in OATHTAKER. Here is what the title ended up like:

Even after all the planning for my original cover, I still discovered within days of publishing my work the first time around (March 2013), two other works with the same photo as my own. That was discouraging. But at least none of the many book covers I found had my same dagger. In any case, with re-publication meant the decision about whether I should have a new cover created.

I hemmed. I hawed. I rummaged through websites yet again for a photo that I thought would work for my cover, spending hours at it and getting nothing and nowhere but discouraged. It was all to no avail. I could not find a picture I liked that told my story correctly without also including some element that was strictly outside the bounds of what I wanted. For example, I would find a figure that would work, but the model might have a “come hither” look. That was not my character. Or, I would find something wonderful, but the cloak draped figure was clearly male. Again, that was not my main character. Or, I would find a picture I liked but had seen on numerous other covers . . . . You get the idea. (I will add here that I did find two pictures that may have worked for my purposes. Since re-publishing—just one week ago—I have found other books with both of those pictures. I am so glad that I did not go that route.)

Throughout all my searching (of both the website and “soul” variety), I continually found myself looking back to one website: www.phatpuppy.com. I spent hours there. I had done so even before my first publication when I accidently happened along the site, but at that time, it was not an option for me. If you have never seen PhatPuppy’s work, please take a minute at www.PhatPuppyArt.com. Or—let me re-phrase that: please just go there and wander around for a time. You will find it difficult to tear yourself away and you will likely revisit the site over and over. I show everyone I know (who is even vaguely interested in book cover art), the PhatPuppy site. They all marvel at the works. They are breathtaking! (Make sure you fan PhatPuppy on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/phatpuppyartist so that you can see their new works from time to time. I predict you will find yourself hitting the “LIKE” button regularly.)

I decided to take the plunge. I contacted PhatPuppy, pointing out various works I found on the site that I liked. I got a quick response from Claudia. Claudia informed me that the pictures I had seen and liked were, unfortunately, not available for my cover. Why? Because all cover art that she sells is exclusive and those works were already on other covers. No one else’s book cover will ever have the same picture as one PhatPuppy creates. What’s more, the license PhatPuppy grants the author is good for use of the photo without having to return later to purchase additional rights for more print copies or to use on bookmarks and so forth. That all sounded great to me.

Unfortunately, while PhatPuppy’s site has some shots that are “available for purchase,” none of the current inventory met my needs. They were beautiful to be sure, they just weren’t—for one reason or another—quite right for my work. In some cases, things could be changed, such as the color of a cloak or otherwise but in the end, I did not find the picture I wanted.

So, what was I to do? Well, join me in my next installment to learn more.

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Tales of Publication—and Re-publication, Part 1

5/5/2014

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Just over a year ago, I went to publication with my first work. It was all so exciting. But like many an author before me, I also found it all rather confusing. Formatting issues, font issues, cover issues, naming issues (for myself and the book), whether to have a print copy or stick just with an e-book, and so on and so on. Overwhelmed (and more than a little busy with my day job), I decided to use a third party publishing company. While they did an excellent job preparing the work for print and e-copy, the process unfortunately left me with little control over all the issues that came to matter to me most once the book was actually available to readers. Chief among them: I was unable to control the price. As a consequence, I had difficultly moving the work even though the reviews I got were wonderfully encouraging (including 5-star reviews from various Readers’ Favorite reviewers).

Taking my hits, I decided that once my contract with the publisher expired, I would re-publish on my own. So back I went to addressing all those questions that had overwhelmed me the first time around. The changing seasons inbetween times had done nothing to lessen the difficulty I had in facing and resolving those issues. Indeed, in some ways, I ended up with even more questions and issues to resolve.

The first thing I had to decide was whether I would make any “substantive” changes to the work or simply re-publish it in the same form. To make the most of my efforts, I decided to do another edit. This would allow me to address any issues that readers had mentioned to date and in that way, improve upon the work. I should say here that my work best fits in the category of “epic” fantasy. An epic fantasy includes the creation of a new world and a system of magic. It takes time to create such a world. Thus, epic fantasy works tend to be on the “longer” side. For my part, I can say that I do not read epic fantasies just to finish the stories—I read them to get lost in new worlds for as long as possible. Accordingly, as a reader, I am fine with a book of any length. (I am always first drawn to those in the 600+ range. No doubt I’ve missed many a great work that just wasn’t long enough to capture my attention at the outset . . . .) Even so, for my own work, I set out to cut whatever I could, wherever I could, without changing the story that others had enjoyed and without removing those bits upon which future stories in the series will rely. (It is amazing, how long it takes to get the words down and how fast they can disappear . . . .)

While editing, I also tried the beta reader approach but, I must say, there seems to be a science to it that was somewhat lost on me. I can see it working beautifully for a work-in-progress. But, it is a bit different for a “finished” work. I really appreciated my beta readers’ time and wonderful suggestions. However, as I was the only one with the “big picture” in mind, many of their ideas were wholly unworkable. Moreover, it took time for them to read and comment and for me to sort through those comments for the gems I could use. For the most part, I was subject to my readers’ time schedules and so, they were dictating the pace of my progress. However, I simply could not wait weeks or even months for someone else to attend to my work. Also, I felt guilty taking the time of others who had their own lives to attend to. So, while they dissected every idea, sentence, description and conversation to indicate how they would have written the work—a work with which they were not familiar and for which they did not know the “big picture”—I struggled.

About that time, two things happened that saved me. First, several prior readers contacted me to inquire when part two would be ready, as they are anxiously awaiting it. Second, another author reminded me: “we cannot write by committee.” My beta readers had only gone through the early scenes. I took from their comments what I could, applied those principles throughout, then wrapped up my own editing.

Finally, as I neared completing my edits, I looked forward to the next major issue: what to do for my cover. Next time I will tell about who I worked with for my cover. I’ll take you on the photo shoot and even introduce you to the model. Until then!

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Patricia Reding

Here is where Patricia has posted interviews of other authors as well as her own thoughts on a wide variety of subjects. As to the interviews, the questions posed are intended to pull from authors, some interesting information about them that might otherwise have gone unknown. . . .

Tales of Publication and Re-Publication, Part 4: More on Cover Art

Tales of Publication and Re-Publication, Part 3: Cover Art

Tales of Publication and Re-Publication, Part 2: Making Decisions About the COVER

Tales of Publication—and Re-publication, Part 1

Patricia Reding

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