Designing the cover of a book is a
challenge. Because, just like the saying says, it's what people will
first judge it on. So I thought I'd share my new book cover along with
the process behind it...
Recap:
There are a lot of themes in my upcoming graphic novel "Will &
Whit," but the most important one is light and dark. My main character,
Wilhelmina (Will), has a passion for making lamps partly because she
likes to tinker with old things and partly because she's afraid of the
dark. But when Hurricane Whitney (Whit) comes to town and knocks out
the power, she's forced to face her fears and the shadows that come to
life around her.
For
the cover, originally I thought of using a spotlight and shadow puppets
since they're a fun motif that's featured in the story...
After
feedback from my art director (Chad Beckerman) and editor (Maggie
Lehrman) over at Abrams, I changed the design to feature Will's shadow
more prominently. So I made some digital mock-ups...
But
the title needed to be more interesting, so I drew it as something
that would hang in Foxxden Antiques. (It's the family business where
Will helps out her Aunt.) And surprisingly we then ditched Will
altogether, replacing her instead with a silhouette...
And the folks at Abrams went for it! Which I found surprising, because neither one of the figures on the cover is Will or Whit. It's instead foreshadowing a vital scene later in the story.
I worried it was too enigmatic or misleading. (I mean, the title
features two boy's names that are actually girl's names!) But hey,
what's wrong with a little mystery??
So here's the final result. Ta-da! It's scheduled for release in May.
And if you look closely....I snuck in a pair of eyes in the bushes on the right side.
{If you find this design process interesting, here's my blog post about making the "Page by Paige" cover!}
