Toby · Bishop

Maybe you can't judge books by their covers, but book buyers are certainly influenced by them.  Intriguing images, embossing, extras like sparkles and glitter or cutouts all help to attract the reader's eye and encourage them to at least pick up the book and consider it.  There are lots of ideas about what works and what doesn't in getting a reader to buy a book.  As an example, my buddy and best-selling author Mike Shepherd says if there's a gun or a rocket ship, it had better point UP, or nothing doing!

I don't know any writers who haven't bemoaned the lack of control authors have over what goes on the front covers of their novels.  The literature abounds with shockingly inappropriate covers and sometimes perfectly awful, amateurish "art" that hearkens back to the pulp magazines of the thirties and forties.  My favorite bad cover was one for Pamela Sargent's excellent novel about terraforming, Venus of Dreams.  The main character is a serious scientist, and she's shown on the cover stark naked (rear view) except for a tool belt. 

I've been singly fortunate in my covers, with one notable exception (and that one hurt in every way, especially at the cash register!)  I've always been intrigued about how cover artists go about their work. 

John Jude Palencar painted two of my most spectacular covers:

He told me that his wife reads the manuscripts, and he creates the covers according to her book reports.

The artist for The Horsemistress Saga is the talented Allen Douglas.  About these three covers, he says that the art department at Ace wanted quite a different look each time.  He chose a changing aspect for the horse's position to link the covers together, and it's cool to see, now, how he positioned the magnificent Black Seraph, known as Tup, one of the winged horses of Oc:

Allen also shared this bonus with me, a preliminary sketch for the third cover (Airs of Night and Sea):

You can see more of Allen's lovely work at www.allendouglasstudio.com   You can also see the finished covers at www.tobybishop.net