The big reveal

Don't worry, I'm not getting naked, or anything. I'm talking about covers. I love cover reveal day on Twitter, when authors finally get to show off their shiny new covers to the world. It's like giving birth, except a whole lot less painful, I imagine.

And no, I'm not going to reveal a cover to you either. But I just got sent a draft cover and I was thinking about that moment. Even if you're not revealing it to the world, there's that moment of anticipation before you open the email... Am I going to love it? Hate it?

It's all personal preference really. I mean, some people like CGI people, others like cartoony covers. Some people even enjoy symbolism, for some reason. I kid. Symbolism is awesome, yo.

You never really know if you and your cover artist are going to mesh. Of course, with some publishers, as the author, you get to have input on what your ideas are for the cover, but unless you're an amazing graphics artist along with being an author (I hate you, Skyla), you don't get to see your vision appear on your book. Or maybe your cover artist is psychic. Who knows?

At any rate, I'm not super creative visually, so I have to try and explain, with words, to the cover artist what I think is relevant to the story and what the characters look like. Sometimes the artist gets me and my vision, and sometimes they don't.

On the cover of my first book, I had a naked lady holding a gun. I loved her and the rest of the cover, but it didn't seem like the greatest in gun safety ads for her to be running around naked with a gun. Fortunately, modern computer geewhizy stuff is awesome, so they gave her a dress and we called it good.

Artists are awesome - in the awe inspiring sense. I can't even imagine doing that - creating a picture based on words described by a (probably crazy) author. So impressed!

I guess the moral of the story here is consider your cover when writing your book... and maybe be an artist yourself  :)

- Skye