Got It Covered

 Why would they have book covers if we aren't supposed to judge the book by them? It makes no sense.

Ingrid Weir

Book covers are a tricky business. Promise too much, and the reader feels cheated. Too little, and no one is enthused enough to buy the book. Which, I hasten to add, may not be the whole point of writing for publication, but I had to purchase the photos... But, I digress.

Someone described book covers as a sort of haiku. Since I don't know what that is, and I'd never heard of the source (Chip Kidd - a good Pennsylvania boy who has some chops. I looked him up.) I used the above quote, which is more my style. Here is the caveat.

Aside from the short stint A Miracle of Zeros and Ones spent on the shelves in Tattered Cover - I think I sold a couple there, one purchased by a good friend (you know who you are and I'm eternally grateful) - no one is going to pluck these off a shelf and feel how it would be to take it home. Maybe read a few pages on the light rail "n root." The front of the cover is what people see on Amazon, or in one of the several marketing campaigns in which I might place it.

I'm not convinced... Well, I take that back, even though I didn't offer it. I bought a book called Ahab's Wife because the cover was compelling - a woman in mid 19th Century garb on a beach, staring at the shipwrecked prow of a wooden sailing vessel. It spoke of the lament many left-behind-lovers must have felt when the remnants of their lost love's last ship washed ashore. I took it home.

It was tedious, but eventually worth the effort. Were it not for the excellent cover (which, it turns out, was a metaphor) I may never have had the impulse to buy it.

Fast forward to the 21st Century and a little-known but plucky local writer. I've taken to relying on the immense talents of Aaron Kilbon when it's book cover time. It would have taken me a week to figure out what he put together in 45 minutes. I like it - a lot. It tells me (I've read the book) that Karen Sorenson fulfilled her promise to Trevor Malloy and became a charter pilot. It says that she did not shed her talents as a keen observer of the little, unkempt things around her to do that. It says that someone dies, and implies it has something to do with Karen.

Here it is - a very polished rough draft of the cover for An Intrusion of Trifles. We'll talk more, but this book should be available in early March. The writing part is finished, the plot a lot of fun. You'll love it.