Book covers

Late last night, my publisher finally sent me a copy of the book cover they want to use. I will spare you a detailed list of all the changes I want and focus on the front cover image. It is an image of mountain in the background cover in light mist with a river crawling serpentine-like forward toward the reader.

As an image, it is fine, but does it belongs on my novel? I'm thinking no because it has little to do with the story. Oh sure, the main characters find themselves on the side of mountain looking out across the surrounding land but that's it.

I would have thought an image of the magic gem would've been more appropriate. But then it got me thinking about other covers I've seen. There are many that have little or nothing to do with the content of the book in which they are apart.

But more often than not, as I review the books in my possession, the cover reflects some key moment or some scene of the novel. The one exception of that is a collection short stories and that's understandable since there are so many stories from which to choose.

So if the cover of the book should reflect its content and the draft I received does not do that really, that begs the question, how do I get a better cover? And the answer is I don't know. I've stated that the cover should be more connected to the novel but unless they have read the novel, and I'm not sure the artist has, it will be impossible for this person to pull a scene from the book and bring it to life.

I suppose I will have to be more forceful and tell them that a new image is required. But first I will see what they think about the comments I've already given them.