Oh, it came at last! I've said before how much I love the painting on which the cover image is based. Still do. Wendy Ewell seems to have completed a poem I didn't know needed completing:
Morning
Ardennes – January 1945You wouldn’t believe how beautiful
it was. In the night the fog would freeze
and in the morning everything
was soft with it — ghosts of trees.
We advanced into open fields
the colour of apple blossom,
delicate with blue shadows.
Against that snow we stood out
like deer.
And then
the shelling would start.
It feels as if Ghost Maps is going to be real, after all. I'm so excited I can hardly swallow.
However, the graphic designer in me is a small, small, whingeing sort of person. And she's going: Would you care to pick an alignment? She's going: Times New Roman? How ... legible. I am not sure what I'll do to placate her. Possibly confess to my publisher that I am a small, small, whingeing sort of person. It's my first book. I'm allowed to be obsessive and petty.
I would have picked Palatino. But it's lovely. I'm looking forwards to it!!!
Legible is good. And Times New Roman is so familiar it's transparent. That's also good because when people pick up the book they'll be thinking about what's inside, not the type face.
You can complain. I agree that it's a bit plain, like a bargain basement cover, rather than a "real" cover. The cover is beautiful! Congratulations again. I am so proud of you!
That is really a beautiful cover. Not sure why Therese thinks it looks like a bargain basement cover. It's good, simple, and I like the shadowy impression of the colors. Who is the painting by?
Amanda, the cover artist is Wendy Ewell, nee Wendy Noteboom -- my sister.
http://www.sitehouse.net/wendyewell
How exciting. One step closer to it being in bookstores! I'll look for it when it comes.
I love the image. Wendy is really good. I didn't notice the typeface at all, until I read your comments. So in essence, I guess I am like Pat: I like the transparency and familiarity because it doesn't draw my attention. The meaning of the words does. The shadow of the bare tree on the snow is so powerful, it should not be competed with. I'm so happy to see you moving along like this, Erin. Congratulations again and again.
P.S. I love the way the tree shadow looks like a map of the circulatory system... Blood...
You must be so excited!! The cover is great...if I were in a bookstore, I'd be enticed to look further. I'm such a sucker for nice covers (I guess that's why I'm in marketing, huh?). What is the paper stock going to be? That's often half the battle.
What a wonderful complement Wendy's art is to your own art!
I should mention I eventually shut my smaller self in a closet (where she is happy, anyway) and began to love the simple "transparency" of this cover design. So this is pretty much how it's gonna look.