Author Christine M Knight’s Blog
A BOOK COVER FOR ‘LIFE SONG’
This blog is an update onthe journey to publication for Life Song. With a few months to go before the release date, I feel both excited and a bit overwhelmed. Plans are underway for marketing, and if it all comes off as planned, I’ll be thrilled as well as very busy.
Recently, the process for acquiring a book cover design was completed. I was really interested in Highlight Publishing’s approach and impressed by the market research that went into the selection of the five finalist designs. Highlight Publishing used 99 Designs to source the cover designs. In particular, their field research focused on the story line that potential readers’ saw in the book cover design. Readers make their purchase decisions based on a book cover so it is crucial that a book cover accurately suggest the novel’s plot and concerns otherwise readers become dissatisfied.
Highlight Publishing kept me informed during the cover design process including sharing the links to the designers’ work. Their feedback to designers during the process was impressive. The publisher picked two winning designs and then continued market research in the field before deciding on which book cover design the company would use. Overall, Highlight Publishing feedback about the designers was that they wee great to work with and highly responsive to feedback.
I’ve uploaded the five finalist designs for you. In order, the designers are Banateanul, Pintado, Chameleon Studio, Elveni, and LSDesigns. You can view the entire design field if you go to http://99designs.com.au/book-cover-design/contests/book-magazine-cover-wanted-highlight-publishing-199075
Should you wish to contact any of the designers with a design project, I have provided a contact email address for you, provided to Highlight Publishing for inclusion in this and other blogs.
Designer: Banateanul Email: contact@powerimage.ro
Designer: Pintado Email: rogerdespi.8229@gmail.com
Designer: Chameleon Studio
Designer: Elveni Email: elv3ni@gmail.com
Elveni’s cover design below will be used for the sequel to ‘Life Song’. That novel is called ‘Song Bird’ and will be released October 2014. Obviously, the title will need to be adjusted accordingly and the mother and child silhouette will be removed.
Designer: LSDdesigns Email: suzanastankovic09@gmail.com
Below is an explanation to interested readers who corresponded with me by email about the choice of book cover. 12A number of them wanted to know why Arrowdesigns’ book cover didn’t make the final cut. I’ve copied Highlight Publishing’s marketing team’s explanation below that design.
Designer: Arrowdesigns
Arrowdesigns’ uses a poignant photograph of a mother and child by Mikael Vojinovic, a French photographer, (http://www.designwoo.com/2010/08/mi…vojinovic) as the central image in the book cover design. The image of mother and child in this design conveys the anguish and struggle of a single parent and her bond with her child. While this is a beautiful design, this cover design does not tell the potential reader about the story line in Life Song, and in fact misleads the reader. For that reason Highlight Publishing did not include it in the finalist designs. This cover provides a window into Mavis Mills’ earlier life as a single mother a few years before the start of the novel. Life Song is about better times.
Viewers of the competition also emailed me about Banateanul’s innovative, beautiful design of the book as a guitar with the image of a young woman on the road looking back in the guitar keyhole. Field research showed potential readers had a warm response to the design but thought the novel was ‘just another chick on the road trying to make it in the music industry‘ story. The plot of Life Song is much more than that.
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