Tuesdays are cover art days, and that means I’m constantly drifting off into space, returning to the worlds of books I love and scouring the net for beautiful imagery to match the writing. And sometimes I come across images so wonderful, I just have to share!
Take a look at this amazing photograph of Orion’s Belt in the Mayan skies (and visit the source or click on the image to see it up even closer):
On a personal note, I always find myself drawn to Orion. He is one of the most visible constellations in the sky, and no matter where I am in the world, he always seems to follow me around; a comforting presence. How amazing (and sci-fi) is it to think of an ancient civilization looking up at the same skies? Now I just need a book to go with it…
Tags: covers, Voyager
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With 2011 fast approaching, more brilliant covers are coming out of the woodwork!
For a start, we’re reissuing Megan Lindholm’s brilliant backlist (just after the release of the excellent Robin Hobb & Megan Lindholm short story collection, The Inheritance), and bringing the covers in line with the Hobb books using fabulous Jackie Morris art.
Let us know what you think! And look out for more cover reveals, coming soon…
Tags: covers, Megan Lindholm
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As you may have already seen over on Robin Hobb’s blog, we recently released the cover of her brand new short story collection, The Inheritance. As we’ve been having lots of cover discussion recently on this blog, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this cover too. The two gorgeous cats are by Jackie Morris.
Voyager UK is publishing The Inheritance at the end of March, 2011. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is seeing how one author can have two such distinct voices – and this is the first time ‘Robin’ and ‘Megan’ have been blended into a single volume. Anyone interested in the writing process will be fascinated by how Robin switches between writing personas and how a particular story fits one voice over the other.
Tags: covers, Megan Lindholm, Robin Hobb, The Inheritance
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The post below on sci-fi and fantasy book covers has generated some great discussion and opinions are varied. One of Voyager’s main designers, Dominic Forbes, threw his comments into the ring as well… Thanks Dom!
As a cover designer and reader of SF/fantasy, I agree it’s annoying when a series changes look halfway through. Although for very long series or ones that have large gaps between releases (Mr Martin I’m looking at you) it’s possibly more understandable. Covers are quite like fashion in that styles come and go fairly quickly. Often it’s about refreshing something to attract new readers or broaden a title’s appeal.
Tags: Asimov, covers, George R.R. Martin, guest blog, Peter V. Brett
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@westerosorg asked: Shift in cover art for SF/F, from more illustrative towards more abstract/graphic, seems more pronounced in UK than US. Why?
Thanks for your question @westerosorg! I can’t really speak for the US or even the UK market as a whole, but I’ll try to give some insight into cover design from the Voyager/HarperCollins art department team perspective.
The great thing about the fantasy genre is that the fantasy market is actually very evenly spread across genders and age groups. The challenge is then that our book covers have to work for an extremely varied audience. We also have to be extra careful not to alienate any potential readers as external market research has shown us that sometimes more traditional-looking, illustrative fantasy covers are off-putting for newcomers to the genre. There’s a whole website dedicated to ridiculous fantasy covers — and while hopefully we are doing better nowadays there is still a negative perception towards fantasy books (‘trashy’, ‘weird’, ‘dated’ come to mind) that we have to push back against. Basically, more graphic, elegant covers are hopefully appealling to our extremely loyal genre fanbase as well as to new readers who perhaps wouldn’t expect to enjoy a ‘fantasy’ novel — and changing the perception of the genre as a whole.
Tags: covers, Peter V. Brett, Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Stephen Hunt
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NICK SHAH, senior designer, and the man behind some of our favourite Voyager covers, opens the lid on what it’s like to design for us…
First of all I feel the need to confess that I am a complete nerd. I watched all the DVDs of the new Battlestar Galactica back-to-back in a 6 week period and there is still a part of me that wants Star Wars bed sheets.
Why I mention this is that designing book covers for Voyager (as it is for the rest of the Voyager team) doesn’t involve me trying to get into someone else’s headspace; it feels like designing covers for my peers. When a brief comes in you could just ask the editor for a synopsis but invariably I beg for the whole manuscript! After reading it you end up trying to distill what it meant to you (and hopefully what it would mean to others) into a smaller and smaller set of concepts.
This might seem like over simplification but you have to realize the amount of time an eye will rest on the cover as it scans a book shelf or a website. You are lucky if you get a full second of attention. In that short space of time you have to give an idea of what the book is about and try to get someone to reach for the book. A good barometer to see if you have achieved this is showing your designs to people around the company. If you have to explain or justify them it’s not working.
You know you have done something special when you put them on the table without saying anything and you start to see everyone who is looking at them smile. This is by no means a common occurrence and for every time it does happen there are times when you miss the point and your designs are viewed as some sort of highly dangerous radioactive material. However when it does come together you feel such a sense of achievement it really does make you feel rather good.
See below for some of the brilliant covers Nick has designed for us:
The Painted Man cover
The Desert Spear cover
Tags: covers, Nick Shah, Peter V. Brett, The Desert Spear, The Painted Man
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