Judge a book by its cover.
Ann Patchett is one of my favorite fiction authors. Ann’s book, The Dutch House, is a sensational read, and I love its cover art. At the end of the book, Ann shares her process for the design of the unique book cover that captivated readers around the world. I learned a lot from her, and here’s how I applied it to the cover design for Found and Lost, book one of The Great Way Series.
Like all things of excellence, I wouldn’t be launching with such an exquisite cover if it wasn’t for the talented and experienced cover artist and my creative collaborators and production team.
Ann Patchett: It was very important to me not to have any part of a house on the book's cover. I wanted the portrait of Maeve to be on the cover.
Insight: My cover design follows a similar formula. I wanted to invite readers in via the main character, Lucy Lewis, and engage readers to wonder what happens to her.
Ann Patchett: I called an artist friend and asked him to paint Maeve’s portrait. I gave him the two pages in which the painting is described in the novel. Based on those two pages, he did the painting.
Insight: My cover artist and book production team extracted much information from me about the book, such as who the main characters are. Deep description of the supporting characters. What genres and categories–women’s fiction, adult fiction, epic adventure, thriller, and fantasy? What drives them in their adventure? What conflict are they struggling with? Is it a series? They also wanted to know what my vision for the book (and the series) was. Our process was robust and collaborative and took a long time. We went through six concepts before we selected the one that we refined and evolved over a period of weeks.
Ann Patchett: There are so many things I love about the painting. One is that it’s part of the plot, so, at some point, the reader will look back at the cover and think, wait a minute!
Insight: My selected cover design for Found and Lost serves a similar purpose. It’s engaging and creates an expectation for this thriller with a spiritual heart. My readers will look back at the cover and wonder when they will get to the scene on the cover.
Like the epic adventure that the main character, Lucy, starts in book one of The Great Way Series, getting this book from the manuscript into your hands has been a journey. We are so close to being ready for pre-orders. Found and Lost book one of The Great Way Series.
