Fantastic post. Covers often break promises for me, which is ironic, since trad authors have little control over them as you point out. I think this comes down to publishers leaning into cover trends. We all remember the "girl in dresses" era, where regardless of genre, setting, action levels, soooo many YA books simply had a cover with a girl, standing there, in a pretty dress.
As someone with a good number of girl in dress covers, even when I asked for something different . . . Yeah. A lot of readers liked those types of covers for a long time, but I'm glad we're branching out a bit these days!
Covers are big for me. I admit it, I judge a cover. It was a real eye-opener one day, while cruising through Amazon, that I saw the same cover on two different book. One was a sweet romance, the other a cozy mystery. The cover suited neither blurb.
So when it comes to my own writing, since I have no control over the cover, I constantly keep my blurb and premise in mind. And pray that when it comes time to discuss the cover with my publisher, they'll listen to my ideas.
In general, publishers do want you to be happy with your covers! They may still say "This is the design and we aren't changing that" even if you don't like it, but you might be able to ask for minor adjustments to nudge it closer to your vision. I've asked for eye color adjustments (to match the first book), moons added (to signal it's a fantasy when it wasn't clear before) -- that kind of thing -- and they've done their best to accommodate.
Thanks for this! As a writer working toward traditional publishing this is a good reminder of what you're working toward. Not just publishing a book, but gaining readers who will continue to follow you throughout your journey. Keeping your promises in story telling, sticking true to your characters or set story arc, etc. is so important, and I loved how you clearly explained it in this post. Thank you once again for such a great layout of the writer/reader dynamic.
While I write for myself first, I always try to keep my readers in mind. What do they expect? What have I promised them in the past, even unconsciously?
Fantastic post. Covers often break promises for me, which is ironic, since trad authors have little control over them as you point out. I think this comes down to publishers leaning into cover trends. We all remember the "girl in dresses" era, where regardless of genre, setting, action levels, soooo many YA books simply had a cover with a girl, standing there, in a pretty dress.
As someone with a good number of girl in dress covers, even when I asked for something different . . . Yeah. A lot of readers liked those types of covers for a long time, but I'm glad we're branching out a bit these days!
Covers are big for me. I admit it, I judge a cover. It was a real eye-opener one day, while cruising through Amazon, that I saw the same cover on two different book. One was a sweet romance, the other a cozy mystery. The cover suited neither blurb.
So when it comes to my own writing, since I have no control over the cover, I constantly keep my blurb and premise in mind. And pray that when it comes time to discuss the cover with my publisher, they'll listen to my ideas.
In general, publishers do want you to be happy with your covers! They may still say "This is the design and we aren't changing that" even if you don't like it, but you might be able to ask for minor adjustments to nudge it closer to your vision. I've asked for eye color adjustments (to match the first book), moons added (to signal it's a fantasy when it wasn't clear before) -- that kind of thing -- and they've done their best to accommodate.
Thanks for this! As a writer working toward traditional publishing this is a good reminder of what you're working toward. Not just publishing a book, but gaining readers who will continue to follow you throughout your journey. Keeping your promises in story telling, sticking true to your characters or set story arc, etc. is so important, and I loved how you clearly explained it in this post. Thank you once again for such a great layout of the writer/reader dynamic.
I'm glad it was a helpful reminder!
While I write for myself first, I always try to keep my readers in mind. What do they expect? What have I promised them in the past, even unconsciously?