So the cover arrives next week! I feel like I am going to finally meet my book. Obviously we have met before but now I feel like she has been off to college and a year abroad and cut her hair and met new friends and is all grown up and totally different. She is coming back a book.
The funny thing about covers is that they really are the clincher in buying a book. I will absolutely judge a book by the cover. Sail right by the icky ones and not even pick them up. And then I will pick up the pretty ones and even if the subject matter sounds iffy, I will try to talk myself into it. And now I find out that the author has absolutely nothing to do with it--bizarre.
Not that I should have anything to do with it. I would probably want to paint it pink and gold, feed it macaroons and give it the flavor of Eighteenth Century Paris although it is set in Seventeenth Century London.
I miss Seventeenth Century London. The Second Novel is set in WWI and it is so bizarre to be able to ride the omnibus, discard the corset and use Pears soap. I miss the foggy rootling around in the obscurity of the Restoration. Digging out kitchen utensils and bedroom slippers and not bathing. I miss the strangeness of it all. The voluptuous beauty ideals (Nell was a rarity as she was slightly built and that was seriously unfashionable) and the scale felt so distant and absorbing.
Don't get me wrong, I have gained marvelous new, clear precise stuff in The Second Novel. I know what they had for breakfast--really for breakfast on the day that I am creating. That is good in that it gives me a super strong impression of the character and bad in that it gives me a super strong impression of the character. It is a lot to work around. I have decided to follow in the footprints but wear different shoes.
In other utterly unrelated news the Caribbean Pirates are arriving on the island this week, captained by Johnny Depp.
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Whee~ I'm very excited! I'm also bad for judging books by their covers. Really bad habit - but pretty books are just so inviting!
ReplyDelete17th century London?! How did I not know this before? I am in love with the 17th century, and I'm desperately head over heels with the Cavaliers/poets etc. Excited!
This is amazing! I'm looking forward to the cover. And like you said, covers can make or break to a certain extent. I'm not overtly awed by just the cover. More by the blurb, actually. I'm a sucker for a good blurb. When I finish reading the book and see the blurb didn't do justice to the book, I sit down and try writing one of my own :)
ReplyDeleteSorry for that little rant :P Good luck with the book anyway =)
Good Luck with the cover, do hope you approve. I am a strong believer in the maxim, never judge a book by it's cover.
ReplyDeletebethany, so good to know you like 17th c! exit the actress has poets and cavaliers aplenty--johnny wilmot, 2nd earl of rochester (johnny depp in the libertine) plays a huge role as does dryden and all the theatre folk. so glad you already like them!
ReplyDeletekals, yipee for liking good blurbs! i have the most wonderful blurbs from the most unbelievable authors but i am not supposed to talk about them yet. the galleys come out soon and then i can talk about everything!
lindy lou mac, the more i find out about the publishing business, the more that seems like a very sound policy!
This is really exciting. Can't wait to see the cover.
ReplyDeleteI think your picture is fabulous.
Priya, I'm looking forward to more details about the book when they come :)
ReplyDeleteI have an award for you on my blog!
Exciting stuff. Why 'she' though? I'm very curious to know.
ReplyDeletekals, thank you! you are so sweet!
ReplyDeletebook quoter, thank you! i am so glad you like it!
petty witter, exit the actress is written in a pastiche style of primary sources--like a paper trail. it is all housed in the over arching frame of nell gwyn's diary so i think of it as nell's voice=she. that just came naturally for me to refer to it that way--so glad you noticed that!
Oh whoa! Okay, I am seriously excited now! I looooved The Libertine (who couldn't?!) Whee~ Oh my GOODNESS. I can't wait!
ReplyDeletePriya, love the idea of your prodigal text returning to you all spruced and casually world-weary...!
ReplyDeletePersonally I find it really supremely odd that authors aren't involved in choosing covers - do you get any say at all?? I guess it's just that I would trust the author over a marketing person every time to make that call - the author knows the book more intimately than anyone else, and I think that does feed directly into an aesthetic sensibility toward it too, don't you??
I do love surprises though, and this has got to be one of life's greatest.
(Also cool little tidbits about the worlds of your work - looking forward to reading #1 while you're writing #2.)
doctordi, we get to see it and 'say what we think' but that is all. i am extremely grateful i get to see it at all. i am sure they will do a beautiful job if the interior design is anything to go on! cross your fingers!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting! So excited for you!
ReplyDeleteThis quote has just become my favourite!
Not that I should have anything to do with it. I would probably want to paint it pink and gold, feed it macaroons and give it the flavor of Eighteenth Century Paris although it is set in Seventeenth Century London.
lol
bethany, so glad you like the libertine! i do too. it casually threw the most wonderful lines away--love that. it is so lovely to know you are excited for the book to come out! makes me so happy!
ReplyDeletebeth, you are a sweetie!