The Little Reader Library: paperback

Saturday, 20 July 2013

Re-designing a book cover - Untying the Knot by Linda Gillard - Giveaway

The new cover design for Untying the Knot

Linda Gillard is one of my favourite writers. She has recently self-published her novel, Untying the Knot, in paperback form (it was available solely as an ebook initially) and she chose to have a new cover designed for the paperback publication - this is the cover shown above, and it is now the cover for both the paperback and the ebook. Both covers were professionally designed, and I think this certainly shows - they are gorgeous.

Here's a link to the book cover designer Nicola Coffield's website, where she writes about the design process for this cover, and you can see the stages and read about the thought behind the design.

I thought it would be very interesting to hear about the thinking behind this, and for readers to be able to compare the original cover, the new one, and another one that was considered as a possibility, too (see the link, above, to the designer's site).

Here's the original cover, which was used for the ebook for Untying the Knot.

The original ebook cover for Untying the Knot

Here's Linda talking about the re-design...

Author Linda Gillard

by Linda Gillard

I'd had a lot of requests for a paperback of UNTYING THE KNOT so as I prepared the text, I reassessed the original ebook cover which hadn't been popular with readers, particularly those who'd read the book. It was a Marmite cover - people loved it or hated it. The book had had some brilliant reviews, but it didn't sell as well as some of my others which made me wonder if the cover was wrong.

UNTYING THE KNOT is my most romantic novel but it's also emotionally challenging. Readers told me they didn't think the runaway bride represented the tone or content of the novel. And that was the problem - trying to find an image that conveyed a very mixed message, because if ever there was a genre-buster, it's UNTYING THE KNOT! It looks at the destructive effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on a military marriage, but there are strong elements of rom-com mixed in with the drama. It's also a 3-generation family story (but not a saga).

It was difficult to come up with an image to suggest all that. Working with my designer, Nicola Coffield I'd originally chosen a surreal image of a bride fleeing with a suitcase across a rural landscape, but readers had thought it suggested chick lit. Was she late for her own wedding?... Or was she running away?... The image was ambiguous and confused readers. I realised you have to make sure the cover of a mixed-genre book doesn't give out a mixed message. It doesn't work in the crucial thumbnail that sells your book online.

So we did a lot of re-thinking and came up with a very different cover. Nicky did a brilliant job of putting two separate images together. She dropped in the ruins of Kilchurn Castle behind an image of a woman walking through the countryside. The colours suggest Scotland and the image is rather bleak, but also beautiful. The flock of birds above the ruins were my idea! I also requested a very dramatic sky to suggest the emotional turmoil of the book.

So now UTK has a cover which goes with its synopsis:

Marrying a war hero was a big mistake. So was divorcing him.

A wife is meant to stand by her man, especially an army wife. But Fay didn't. She walked away - from Magnus, a traumatised war veteran and from the home that he was restoring: Tullibardine Tower, a ruined 16th-century castle on a Perthshire hillside.

Now their daughter Emily is getting married. But she's marrying someone she shouldn't. And so is Magnus...

I'd be very interested to hear from your readers which cover they prefer and which one they'd be more likely to buy. Did we get it right?

~~~~~

Thanks to Linda for sharing the thinking behind this key process - a cover certainly can influence our reading choices, despite the old adage not to judge by it. My opinion? I think both covers are striking and appealing - I actually did like the original cover a lot - but overall I think the new one is my favourite; I love the castle with the birds circling, the shadowy figure, the beautiful purplish colour to the ground, and the lovely colours of the moody sky.

You can read my review of Untying the Knot here. It's probably my favourite of her books that I've read so far, though I've enjoyed them all.

You can find Linda on facebook here and visit her website here.

Giveaway!

Linda has very kindly offered to giveaway an ebook copy or a paperback copy of Untying the Knot to a reader of this blog. If the winner is based in the UK, the paperback will be signed by the author too. If the winner is overseas it will be unsigned and sent via amazon.

To enter, please leave a comment below; Linda would love to know your thoughts on the cover designs - which do you prefer and which would you be more likely to buy...?

*****THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR ENTRIES. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.*****

Links to amazon UK for the paperback and the ebook:

Link to amazon US for the paperback and the ebook.

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Kerry Hudson Blog Tour - Author Guest Post & Competition

I am delighted to welcome author Kerry Hudson to the blog today!

Kerry's debut novel, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, was shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award 2012 and is now published in paperback on July 4th and she is celebrating with a #TonyHoganTour - below is a guest post from Kerry about the amazing past year of her life since publication! There's also a great competition, plus you can read my review of this novel and find out where Kerry is off to next on the tour.

A year after publication, by Kerry Hudson

This time last year I was up until 3am baking 75 cupcakes. They were for the launch of my first novel Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma. The next day I took those cakes, and my sleep-deprived self, to my local bookshop to read my entire book aloud in one day with the help of friends, family, actors and brave passers by. That evening (it took us eight hours in total, by the end I sounded like Marlon Brando) on my way to a celebratory to dinner in Soho I went into Foyles, saw my book on the shelf and burst into tears. I had no idea what to expect from having a novel published, particularly such a personal one, but seeing it on a shelf in a shop was dream come true enough.

I genuinely didn't have any expectations but I did have hopes. I hoped people would read it, I didn't expect a lot to, but I hoped at least a few would. I hoped people would understand the characters actions, that they'd see how hard I worked to bring both laughter and honesty to the story. I hoped mothers would pass it to their daughters and vice versa. I hoped I might get to see a review of it in a paper; a nice one so I could show the people who'd supported me.

In the last twelve months I've travelled to Poland, France, Scotland and umpteen other places to read my work. I have written articles for national newspapers and magazines. I travelled to back Vietnam (where I first wrote Tony Hogan) to finish my second novel and while out there discovered I'd been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Prize, Green Carnation Prize and Southbank Sky Arts Award and so I got to put on a nice dress and drink some free cocktails at some ceremonies. Tony Hogan was sold to Editions Phillipe Rey in France and then to Penguin in the US. People did buy the book, all sorts of people, and they sent messages saying they laughed and cried, that the book had touched them in some way, that they'd passed it to their sister/mother/daughter/great-grandmother. I got good, thoughtful reviews and got to show them to people who'd been so kind and supportive to me before I'd ever written a line. Best of all, I met incredible, smart, decent, interesting, kind people; I've never met so many lovely people as I have this year.

I have been very, very lucky and I don't forget it for a moment, I'm still grateful every day. Most of my luck has come from the kindness of others; bloggers who let me talk to their readers (thank you Lindsay!), readers who championed the book and passed it on, an agent and editor who first found it and first loved it. I have been lucky thanks to others.

Almost exactly a year later I am about to make more cupcakes to deliver to hard-working booksellers to celebrate the Tony Hogan paperback. I have finished my second novel Thirst (it's out this time next year – so more baking to be done!) and am working on a one-woman play of Tony Hogan which I hope to tour around the council estates featured in the book. Many things have changed for me but what hasn't is that every day I sit down all by myself and make things up and I hope to God that I'm writing something worth reading, that it is as good as it can possibly be....and, of course, that my luck holds for a wee while longer.

Competition!

Want to win a signed copy of Tony Hogan? I'm trying to put together a Tony Hogan soundtrack. Simply submit your song suggestion to me @kerryswindow on Twitter with the hashtag #tonyhogantune by the end of Monday 8th of July. If your song is one of the ten selected for the soundtrack (and you were the first to suggest it!) I'll send you a signed copy of Tony Hogan.