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I just got the cover proof for the UK edition of AN ECHO IN THE BONE. As usual [g], this is Completely Different from the US design–but also different from the most recent UK versions of the series cover, because we have a new UK publisher for ECHO–Orion.
The cover is really striking, and I like it (slight quibble with the typography and balance of the title, but art departments routinely mess with those things; this isn’t a finished product, by any means).
Anyway, I asked the editor whether Orion would mind my showing it to you–since y’all were so interested and helpful in the question of the new US cover–and he said that would be great; he’d be very interested to hear your comments.
Only difficulty being that I don’t know whether I can insert a .jpg into this blog–or if so, how. Do any of y’all have any good technical advice? (If I can’t post it here, I’ll put it up on my website, but that takes a bit longer.)
Thanks!
OK, I _think_ I’ve got it. Let’s see now…OK! I think it worked.
Really striking, as I say–the gradations of blue are gorgeous; don’t know how well they’ll show up here. And the leaf in the center is–they tell me–going to be embossed in gold foil, so will be much more visible. (I was impressed that somebody thought about it enough to come up with the skeletal leaf as a non-bony [g] metaphor for the title.)
Anyway, let me know what you think!
I love the look of the cover. The blues are rich and intense. Is that supposed to be stone in the background? I can’t tell, but I like the texture of it. The gold leaf is beautiful, too. The only thing I don’t like is the typeface for the title. I think it could be more refined and less chunky looking.
Pam, daughter of a printer
I do love the colors of the cover, but the font reminds me of a ghostly murder mystery.
diana,
thank you for sharing this with us. it is beautiful and mysterious at the same time.
i love the details & colour.
j
m&m – haha you crack me up
its very striking. Intense. Cant wait to see/read all of the inside!!
Dear Diana:
When your blog page opened on my computer, the cover art was smack-dab in the center of my screen and I was overcome with gooseflesh! So beautiful and the blue is such a deep, rich color. Love the gradations of it. I do agree that the title needs to be balanced, but all in all, it’s lovely. This is so tantalizing — I can’t wait much longer for “Echo” to be in my hands.
Midge
Diana,
I agree with Janie! It is very beautiful! I love the blue shade here. And leaf skeletons… well, being a former forester and park naturalist, I love leaf skeletons!
Thanks for sharing!
Vicki
I love the blue and the idea of the embossed leaf skeleton, but I agree with Renee that this particular leaf looks like a heart. Maybe there is another specific type of leaf (maybe one that is particular to the region around Fraser’s Ridge) that might look less heart-like?
I really like it all except for the font they used for the title. Kinda hokey!
Dana
http://charmeddesigns.blogspot.com/
Nightsmusic, Yes, but it has nothing of the Celtic in it. I confess to loving the Celtic symbols. They bring Jamie, where he and Claire began, and the original stones to mind.
Still don’t care for the heart leaf. Sorry.
Hi Diana
I’m a long-time fan … perhaps you might remember me from Compuserve days, but I’ve been reading (and loving) your blog quietly to date. I really like the new cover. It’s rich and evocative. I don’t particularly like the font for the title or the mixture of upper and lower case (but then again I simply prefer lower case titles). I think the title is unusual enough to speak for itself and doesn’t need any adornment. Less (i.e a simpler font) would be more in this case. Either way I’m just soooo happy to see that a new novel in my favourite series is ‘en route’.
p.s I wandered into a new book store down the road from me (in Dublin) and was delighted to see that they had selected Cross stitch as one of their ‘staff picks’ … good taste eh. Just looking at the novel reminded me of when I picked it up first (as far back as 1992) and was hypnotised by the contents. What a book. Keep up the good work.
all the best
Siobhan
Renee, no argument there. I much prefer the Celtic symbols. I just meant that sometimes, with a more abstract cover, the symbol often ties to something specific. In Cross Stitch, Claire went through the stones so those are the perfect choice for that cover.
ABOSAA had a giant snowflake on the cover, but that too was apropos to the story…
What happened to the idea of the caltrop? I was hoping that would be the cover art? The colors of this cover however are beautiful. If you decide on a leaf, could it be something herbal and healing that would be part of Claire’s arsenal?? I agree that Diana should be identified as the “author of the Outlander series” not the author of DOA……….
What happened to the idea of the caltrop? I was hoping that would be the cover art? The colors however are beautiful. If you decide on a leaf, could it be something herbal and healing that would be part of Claire’s arsenal?? I agree that Diana should be identified as the “author of the Outlander series” not the author of DOA……….
Dear Arcana–
The caltrop (assuming it works out aesthetically) is for the US cover (which will be a deep wine color). This is the UK one.
Dear Michelle–
I like the symbolism of an oak leaf, too–but the difficulty is that oak leaves don't really skeletonize; they're very tough and leathery, and when they fall off the tree, they go stiff, and then eventually get fragile enough to crumble into bits–but they don't lose their soft tissue easily to reveal the interior "veins". I've spent a _lot_ of time out in forests with oak trees, and don't think I've ever seen a skeletonized oak leaf. Not saying it can't happen, mind < g >–just that I haven't ever noticed one.
Dear Alissa–
Well, you can always order a book published in the UK from amazon.co.uk – though I don’t have any idea how much the shipping would be.
You might, though, check with The Poisoned Pen bookstore; they routinely import books from the UK, and often will carry or get on request one of mine in a UK cover. (Extra added advanage: they’re my local independent bookstore, so I stop by there once a week or so to sign orders for them! So if you want any of the books, in any format, signed any way you want… go to http://www.poisonedpen.com .)
Dear Jess–
No, the series covers aren’t changing. The _publisher_ is changing. (We were with Random House, but AN ECHO IN THE BONE will be published by Orion.) Random House will likely keep the same covers for the earlier books of the series–I certainly don’t think they’d try to change them to match ECHO.
For Those Who Don't "Get" the Leaf–
<g>
OK, look. We got "echo," and we got "bone." The veins of the leaf are its skeleton ("bones," geddit?), and the skeletonized leaf is an "echo" of its original form.
It's a visual metaphor of the title. Very subtle and clever of whoever thought it up.
Dear Met–
Well, I'd agree with you. The relative sizing of author name and title is a publishing convention that reflects sales, though; the title is routinely larger than the author name to begin with, but the author name gets bigger with subsequent books (assuming said books sell decently), and when your name is bigger than the title, you have sort of "Arrived," in terms of sales. <cough>
At that point, the publisher is more or less stating that they think your books will sell mostly because you wrote them, rather than because of anything specific about That Book.
Its beautiful!! I wish we had the American covers like tht!