Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Writing Wednesdays: Judging a Book By Its Cover

Today I finally got my copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone in the mail! I'm so excited! I even ordered the real thing (as opposed to a copy on my Kindle) because I just know it's going to be too good not to lend to friends (or a certain sister who NEVER buys her own books...).

For those of you who haven't seen the gorgeous cover:


What you can't see are all the pretty blue feathers that float onto the back of the book. Love!

As an aspiring author, I can only imagine that seeing your book as an actual BOOK must be one of the best feelings ever. I know most authors have little or no say over their book cover, but I don't think that keeps any of us from mentally designing it anyway.

For How the Other Half Lives, I imagined a black and fuchsia silhouette of two girls, also known as Rubin's vase (pretty perfect for a novel about twins who swap places, right?):



For The Book Collector, I envisioned a winter scene of a girl standing outside a used bookstore with her greyhound, preferably painted by my favorite (and sadly deceased) artist, Ramon Dilley:

My fave piece of artwork; I snagged this artist's edition lithograph for $30.

For Forever Friday, I imagine a total eclipse on the cover, maybe with a scarab beetle overlaid on the moon (this would make sense if you'd read the book).





So, have you dreamed up the cover for your book? Please tell me all about it in the comments!

4 comments:

Jessie Humphries said...

I dont think that I am artistic enough to dream up a cover. Your ideas are amazing though.

Jennie Bennett said...

I'm with Jessie, I don't think I have the visual talent when it comes to making a book cover. If I ever get published I'm just going to hand it over and say, do what you like...

Mara Rae said...

Thanks Jessie! If you're creative enough to write a book, surely you can imagine a cover :)

Mara Rae said...

Hi J.A.! Sadly, just because I have ideas doesn't mean anyone's going to listen to them. But it's fun to pretend! :)