The Tiny Ghost Newsletter, edition #12, July21, 2022
Hey Glamour Ghoul!
They say never judge a book by its cover, but the thing is...people do. They definitely do. A book's success relies heavily on a stunning cover that will grab attention and make people want to look inside.
One of the big surprises and major joys I've found on my publishing journey with Tiny Ghost is the process of cover art creation. From speaking with our authors and figuring out a direction that suits their creative desires, to discovering amazing artists and seeing their process, to the final product arriving in my inbox, designing and seeing covers come to life is for sure one of the most rewarding and exciting aspects of publishing a book!
I knew early on that I wanted to find fresh, captivating artists whose work spoke to the sorts of books we plan to publish and I scoured Instagram, Twitter, and anywhere else I could think of to find the perfect artists to match with our books. I wasn't necessarily interested in finding book cover designers so much as people whose art jumped off the page. We've been really lucky, that in our short existence we've already worked with some incredibly talented artists.
When we sign a book one of the first things I'll discuss with an author is their cover and the vision they have for it. By this time I'll usually have come up with some ideas of my own, based on the market and what I think would be an exciting direction. We'll discuss our ideas at length to make sure we're all on the same page. and come to an agreement on a direction. Then we find an artists who matches our shared vision.
Once the artist is on board we compile a lengthy spec document with everything from technical information (dimensions, title placement, etc.), to in depth character descriptions, a break down of what we'd like to see on the cover, snippets from the book, and anything else we think might be useful. We accompany this with as many inspiration images as possible.
Usually an artist will go away and come back with some thumbnail sketches with variations on what we've asked for and sometimes some entirely new ideas. One of the best moments is when an artists provides an idea that blows yours out of the water (which has happened multiple times). Once we've locked in a design, the artist will get to work. We usually go through a few rounds of line drawings or character sketches, before the artist goes full-out with color and lines until the project is complete.
But it doesn't end there. Our graphic designers then take over to design the back jacket and the spine, and ensure that the designs will fit the size of the book and are suitable to send to our printers. Then they go out into the world with a cover reveal which is always a great day.
It's an amazing thing to see your characters come to life, or a scene from the book realized in technicolor. And working with these artists has been such a pleasure. We have more covers in the pipeline that we're hoping to reveal soon and I'm so excited about working with even more artists, or revisiting a series for a chance to work with some of the artists who've done amazing work for us already.
They say don't judge a book by its cover, but honestly, go ahead. I'm so proud of the work our artists have done and so excited to see what's next.
Stay tuned for more snippets into the life of an indie publisher and to see more books come alive.
In the meantime...stay scary.
Josh x
P.S. As we continue to grow it's so exciting to see who's along for the ride but we're also really interested in what people are keen to see more of. What would you like to see covered in this newsletter? What sort of books would you like us to publish? Which communities would you like to see represented? Let us know if the comments, and help us build a reader focussed publishing experience!