I sure do.
When my acquiring editor Barbara Moore asked me for cover input, I said, “Please tell the artist to go look around in Archivers. I know there’s one close to your office. He’ll get a strong sense of what’s au courant in scrapbooking. I’d really like my book to be a true reflection of the craft. It’s very artsy these days.”
I guess Kevin Brown did exactly that because the cover on Paper, Scissors, Death is sublime. Honestly, Kevin could win any scrapbook design contest with his work, don’t you think? I’ve also had booksellers tell me that they appreciate the high quality of my book. The feel of the paper is rich, not cheap. The cover stock is a great weight. The type is easy to read. As one bookseller friend said, “It enhances the reading experience.”
I think that the cover of Cut, Crop & Die is just as gorgeous and eye-catching as the first cover Kevin produced. It’s a real joy to hand someone a copy of my books and watch the reaction.
Do I judge a book by its cover? You bet I do. How about you?
Liz Zelvin has posted a plethora of covers from the 2008 crop of books at the Poe’s Deadly Daughters blog. Check it out at
http://tinyurl.com/coz3p4
Bookstores in the UK often start a series with the american covers and switch half way through to the english covers. Now the english cover designs are more often than not generic and ugly meaning I end up resorting to Amazon and the like to get the american covers. Its one of my major bug bears. I can see why they do it but it still annoys me.
That’s fascinating, Joicelyn. When I lived in the UK, I bought many books, and I was always surprised when I came “home” to the US to see how different the covers were. But switching halfway through? I wonder why? I wonder if it saves money?