Guest: Lilly Cain - Cover Love

Cover Love – Lilly Cain

Thank you for having me here again at Fierce Romance! I’m so happy to be celebrating the release of my third book, my new novella Building Magic from Red Sage Publishing. I’ve asked a lot of author friends if the amazing feeling you get when you see your cover up on the website (or bookshelf) and I am delighted to report that they all say no!

I’ve been thinking a lot about covers. Recently I interviewed several cover artists and art directors to prepare a workshop for my local RWA chapter – the Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada. Entitled Picture This – What Every Author Should Know About Cover Design, I asked all sorts of questions about the procedure for cover design, and whether the process is commercialism or art, and how the artists feel about it. As I sit here gazing at my latest beautiful cover, I’d like to share a few comments from those interviews with you.

“I think it's a combination of elements combined with pleasurable composition make a marketable cover. Sometimes one element stands out more than another, but what that might be is hard to say until you actually design the cover and what might be important to selling the book, whether it's the models, or an effect.” – Rae Monet – Cover designer

“Most times, as soon as I read the title and genre, I start to percolate ideas. The more I get to know the author’s online persona, the more solidified the sketches become. An example of my process: I’ll receive the cover form. That’s when I go get a coffee (lots of milk and sugar!) and start exploring the form and its links, if any. This gives me a black and white mental image, a sort of blueprint. Then I visit the author’s site, blog, twitter (I sound extraordinarily like a stalker...!) to get a sense of tastes. Has the author decided on a dark background for her site? Big, bold text? Subtle feminine touches? Knowing this fills in details in my mental image of the book. Then I start the actual file.” – Kanaxa – Cover Designer

I am a voracious reader and designing cover art has given me the opportunity to help bring an author’s words to life visually. I’m always searching for ways to improve my work and keep it fresh and different. I absolutely love my job! – Angela Waters, Cover Designer.

And I absolutely love the cover of Building Magic. It really caught the heat between the heroine, a woman who never fit in on Earth but who finds herself a new home in the arms of a living legend, a dragon shapeshifter, and the hero, a man searching for a way to save his people.

To read more about Lilly check out her website at www.lillycain.com. Or follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LillyCain
To purchase a copy of her book Building Magic or find out about other fantastic authors, check out www.eRedSage.com .