What’s in a cover?

My publishers, Hermitage Press, have sent me the early cover reveal for my upcoming novel, The Bycatch Principle, and I LOVE it. There’s a few more tweaks and embellishments to do yet, but the cover is basically formed. It’s been a work of collaboration between myself (spilling my general thoughts on my vision for the book and how that might translate as a cover), the cover designer (taking my rambling thoughts and magically transforming them into a cover image), and my publishers (consulting and coordinating, and now embellishing and doing the tech bits). Next, it’ll be over to the printers to make all these efforts come to fruition, which given their past record, I have every faith they’ll do.

Through my work as a tutor and editor, I’ve helped other writers get to the point of finishing and publishing their books, both fiction and non-fiction, but my focus has always been on the words. So this whole visual aspect has been new to me, and a fascinating process. I can’t wait, now, to see how the physical product comes out. I love it, but will it speak to the readers it needs to speak to? Time will tell.