Adventures with Covers

I’ll give the ending first. All of my covers have turned out great. I consider my covers as one of my main tools for selling my books. My publishers hire people to do my covers, mostly with my input, and sometimes I get to approve the finished product—sometimes not.

There are funny stories behind my two of my covers. They might amuse you, so I’ll put them out there.

First, my first Imogene Duckworthy mystery, CHOKE. It was not the first novel I wrote, but it was the first one I got published. I was in such a tizzy about actually getting a novel published, that I fluffed a bit. I said I needed an orange truck on the cover. I thought that would be colorful and, I was thinking, it’s a big part of the plot. It would tie in to the story without giving anything away.

Keep in mind that, while the first one was getting situated to come out, I was writing the second one, SMOKE. Embarrassing discovery: there is an orange truck in the second novel. There is none in the first one. It’s easy to be confusing when you’re finalizing publication of one novel while you’re writing another one.

It wasn’t until the dang thing came out that I realized what I’d done. One of my friends, I think it was Janet Bolin, said maybe it could be a device—using an element of one book on the cover of the last one, staying one book ahead.

CHOKE eventually was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel, so everything turned out fine!

I MUST give credit to Karen Phillips for the covers of all three of the Imogene Duckworthy mysteries. I can’t recommend her highly enough if you’re self-publishing.

My second story also has a happy ending, but there was panic for a short time. I had finished the third Fat Cat book, FAT CAT TAKES THE CAKE, for Berkley Prime Crime, handed it in, and was busy sketching out plots for the next three books. (That’s a sad story that’s been told elsewhere) http://janetcantrell.blogspot.com/2016/09/some-news-about-fat-cat.html

My agent sent me a preliminary copy of the cover. I was shocked at the title AND the cover. I asked her if it matters that there is no cake in the book. She thought it would be okay, but I didn’t. I quickly rewrote some passages and was, fortunately, able to make cake a major part of the plot by changing just a few things. I like all three of the Fat Cat covers, but I think this one gets the most notice.

Do you have any interesting cover stories? No, not that kind, just stories about your covers? (You’re safe with me, I’ll never blow your cover.)

A Book by Any Other Name?

People sometimes ask me how I pick my book titles. (They never ask how I pick short story titles, but those are just as hard.) The answer, for the books, is that sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. For the short stories, I’m guilty in all cases. All those titles are mine.

For instance, EINE KLEINE MURDER started out life as SONG OF DEATH. After it was picked up by Barking Rain Press, the title was changed to suit the publishing house. If you look at their mystery/crime publications, you’ll see that there are no titles that contain the word “death.” Several do contain “murder,” so that was more acceptable to them. REQUIEM IN RED started out as REQUIEM FOR RED. I wanted the reader to have to guess which redhead would get murdered as they started into the book, but the publisher didn’t think it worked, so it was changed. I have picked out the third title, SWAN SONG, so we’ll see if that flied—after I finish the book.

My Imogene Duckworthy series has one word titles, CHOKE, SMOKE, and BROKE. I chose these titles myself and was working under the theory that long works should have short titles and short works should have long titles. This is also the reason I named my Agatha-nominated short story HANDBASKETS, DRAWERS, AND A KILLER COLD. I wish I could remember where I read that, about long and short titles, but I remember I liked the idea and try to use it, although I don’t always succeed. (Fourth one will be STROKE.)

My People of the Wind Neanderthal titles are also mine and were liked by Untreed Reads, the publisher: DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE and DEATH ON THE TREK. (Third one will be DEATH IN THE NEW LAND.)

The Fat Cat books were titled by the publisher. I suggested many titles for the first one, all of which were rejected in favor of FAT CAT AT LARGE. I had a title I loved for the second one, but they had to have a shorter one because of the fat, puffy font they’d gone with. For book two, I liked FAT CAT GETS HIS LICKS, but it is now FAT CAT SPREADS OUT. The title of the third book FAT CAT TAKES THE CAKE (changed from FAT CAT IN A PINCH), gave me pause. The cover was given to me and there was cake on it! However, there was no cake in the novel. I asked them if that was a problem and they didn’t think so. I did, though, so I stuck in some cake and (spoiler alert) managed to make it part of a vital clue.

One thing that I try very hard to do for a series is to have titles that go together, ones that reader can tell are part of the series. One series has titles that rhyme (--OKE). In another, they all begin with the word DEATH; another, they all start out FAT CAT; the classical music series titles all invoke music. None of mine are as clever and Sue Grafton’s alphabet books or Janet Evanovitch’s number titles. But they’re mine and I like them all!