On the road to re-COVER-y

Mary Connealy submitted a covey of questions last week concerning how we develop our cover art. The process is different according to the line--for some books we use photography and for others we use artist-generated artwork. Since I only have first-hand knowledge of what goes into the development of our HPMysteries! covers, I will walk us through that process now and will let the other gals answer for their specific lines.

The covers for the Heartsong Presents--MYSTERIES! book club line are all hand-created by the same artist--Kirk DouPonce of DogEared Design. Six months to a year prior to publication, we ask the authors for some general ideas of what they envision on their covers (since no one knows a book as well as the author!). Of course, we make sure they understand up front that we may not be able to comply with their wishes, but I believe our authors really appreciate the opportunity to provide input. Based on the author's suggestions, the artist then provides a rough pencil sketch. We then run these pencil sketches by the author for their input and approval prior to finalizing the sketches by adding the color, border, and title information.

HPM subscribers know that we use a set variety of fun "frames" for our mysteries. Among our standard frame selections are a variety of curtains, gates, wood and glass doors. Because of the extra expense required for these templates, we are only able to add one or two new frames each year, but it is amazing how different these standardized frames look when matched with different story scenes.

I thought you might like to see the progression from pencil sketch to final cover art for three mysteries from our next release cycle. Don't these fun covers just make you want to dive right in and start reading? SKD