I got my first peek at the proposed cover art for Unexpectedly, Milo today, and I think I love it. There are tweaks that I think need to be made, but overall, my first reaction was quite positive.
This is good. My initial reaction to the cover of Something Missing was less than favorable, but I’ve also come to like it a lot.
When the cover is finalized, and I can share it with you, I’ll post it here. Before becoming involved in publishing, book covers meant little to me. I do not have a good eye for design, and my attention to the visual realm is sometimes nonexistent. While I can often remember every word spoken in a conversation from days ago, I often cannot tell you what color pants I’m wearing without looking down. But ever since I saw the cover art for Something Missing, I’ve started to pay attention. While the cover of a book would still not influence my purchasing decision, I can now see how one book might stand out above another because of the cover’s appearance.
Recently, the miserable cover of Wuthering Heights received a refresh after the book was featured in the plot of Twilight. Attempting to capitalize on Stephanie Meyer’s success, the cover attempts to capture some of the essence of the Twilight cover, and while it feels a little cheap and commercial, anything is better than that original art.
Instead, I have always been drawn to the titles of books rather than the art. Intrigue me with a good title, and I’ll give your book a shot. Titles such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and The Time Traveler’s Wife have caused me to purchase these books without any knowledge of the story inside. In contrast, a bad title is likely to keep me away. My wife is a huge fan of Sharon Creech’s YA novel Walk Two Moons, but the title (and cover art) is so lousy that I cannot bring myself to read the book despite my wife’s ardent recommendations.
And titling a book isn’t always easy, as I well know. I titled neither of my books, and I have no title for the book I am writing other than The Chicken Shack, which will undoubtedly change upon completion.
And speaking of changing titles, The Guardian had an interesting list of rejected titles for well-known books that I found quite intriguing. My favorites include:
Trimalchui in West Egg, the original, and I might argue the better, title of The Great Gatsby.
All’s Well That Ends Well, the unbelievably upbeat original title to War and Peace.
