November 2, 2005

I received an e-mail yesterday from a cover art designer with Midnight Ink/Llewellyn Worldwide. Apparently there's a meeting of the production committee early next week and my novel, The Devil's Pitchfork, is one of several novels on the agenda. He wanted to know if I had any suggestions about cover art, how I wanted my name to be printed, if there were any subtitles, etc.

It's very hard not to be excited about that, and I wonder if it ever really wears off for writers, even when they've done dozens of novels. I'm particularly up about this because I was told that the novel wouldn't be out until spring of 2007, and this suggests--perhaps that's all it does--that they're considering a little earlier pub date. That would be nice.

Anyway, I gave him a few ideas and attached a couple images I ripped off the 'net that he might be able to work with, told him a synopsis of the plot and tried to give him "thematic" materials to work with. I have high hopes, but it's best not to get your hopes too high or get too locked into a concept. I do, however, look forward to seeing it. I hope it's great and as people wander through the bookstore they'll see a really cool cover that makes them want to pick up the book, and even more so, makes them want to shell out their hard-earned money for it. That, in case we forget (and sometimes it does seem like publishers forget this, as do cover artists), is the point of cover art.

So I am left with a kind of, "that's cool," sort of thing going on.

Best,
Mark Terry