I’m pretty picky about book covers. And even though the phrase is “don’t judge a book by its cover,” I know I’m not the only person who does judge books based on their covers.
The cover of a book is your first impression of it. The cover gives you an idea of what’s inside. It can convey a mood or tone, display the subject matter, or present a symbol that’s used in the book. The last is my favorite. I’m not a fan when covers feature people. I’ll find out what the characters look like as I read the books. I’d rather the cover be a picture of some symbol in the book, one that reflects the true message of the book. When I see a really interesting image on a cover, I’m more likely to pick the book up.
With Somewhere Only We Know, I knew that symbol on the cover had to be a tree. The tree in the book means so much to each of the girls, and it is what connects them all together. So when my publisher asked what I was thinking for the cover, I told her it needed a tree on it.
I also sent her pictures of both my hand-drawn and typed covers I had made for the book. I knew how I wanted the text laid out on the page. I wanted it all to be lowercase and flushed left. I played with capitalization a lot in the book, which I’ll talk about in a future Behind the Scenes blog post, and I wanted the cover to reflect that.
I’m so happy with how the cover turned out. My publisher did a fantastic job taking my idea out of my head and making a beautiful picture. I love the font she used and the green overlay on the tree. The green frames the text of the title but it doesn’t cover the whole picture. I like that some of the tree is left dark, almost black and white. It reflects how Frankie has trouble letting the light in.
If this wasn’t my book but I saw it somewhere, I would definitely pick it up. The lowercase title and picture of the tree are interesting, and they would make me want to see what was inside the book.
Bri Marino Creates 