Here is the cover (without text) for Book One of King Rolen's Kin. Many thanks to Clint Langley, who has worked on various comic strips such as Judge Dredd, Darkblade and Sinister Dexter as well as games such as Games Workshop, White Wolf and Urban Mamoth, plus he's done covers for Warhammer, Black Library and Battletech, and collectible cards for WoW, Sabretooth Games and many more. This is one busy guy so I'm delighted he's had the time to do the covers for my trilogy.
Here's what SOLARIS have to say about the cover.
I'm looking forward to what Clint does with the covers of books two and three.
Book covers are terribly important.
Look at the furore over the cover of Justine Larbalestier's book Liar, back in June 2009. The reaction caused the publishers to re-release the book with a new cover. In this case the cover illustration was a direct contradiction of the main character's appearance as described in the book and because the character was black and the girl they used on the cover was white, you can imagine the reaction.
It certainly didn't hurt the book, since it aroused a lot of reaction and got people talking about the book.
Over at Femmes Fatales, Kris Neri talks about her experience with her first book cover and the reaction of readers to other covers in her book shop.
Since there are so many books out there competing for the readers' attention, covers are important and writers invest so much in their books, naturally they get emotionally involved with the book covers.
There's a discussion thread at SF Chronicles on the topic of book covers. I even did a survey of the VISION list (dedicated writers and readers of the genre) and put together a post at Mad Genius Club about why they buy books. How important is the cover? What about reviews?
I must confess, that I have bought books simply because I loved the cover, but then I have a background as an illustrator.
When you walk into a book store, are you searching for a specific author or title? Do you browse and pick up books with interesting covers? Do you do all your book buying online? Do you read on Kindle and if so, do the covers matter?
Posts
4 comments:
I do check the cover and if there is a toss up between titles oft-times the less appealing one loses. It does look a good cover. I am curious about the tools on his back. Are they all weapons?
Brendan,
The artist came up with all those 'tools'. I assume that they are weapons.
I really like the cover art, it really worked its magic on me. Clint Langley is an excellent artist. I love his Malus Darkblade covers :)
I am looking forward to the novel now ;)
Mihai,
I saw your post on Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews blog and sent the link to Clint.
When you're a creative person it is always a buzz to get a good reaction to your work.
Then I went and looked up the Malus Darkblade covers and I see the resemblance.
Hope you like my books. I'd describe them as a Rollicking Fantasy Read. You've worked hard all week, you get to the weekend and you just want a book to carry you away!
Post a Comment