Acacia Mass Market Paperback Cover

Finally, proof that the paperback version of Acacia really is forthcoming!

I've just gotten a look at the cover Doubleday has for it. It's been a long process, although a circular one. They'd first told me they were going to stick with the original - and since they were planning a trade paperback the basic format of the cover would really have been the same as the hardback. (They did this with Pride of Carthage.) But then they proposed - and I agreed - to try a mass market paperback instead. At that point the word was they'd try something completely new for the cover. Hearing that both excited and worried me. I'm always keen for a cool new cover, and always worried that's not what I'll get. So that's what I've been waiting to see. What showed up? This:


"Wait," you say, "I thought they were going to do something drastically different?"

Well, I guess not. They came full circle, deciding that the original performed well enough that they wanted to stick with it. Actually, I can't complain about that. It's like the old one, but bolder. I kinda think it'll look nice in the small (but thick in page count terms) version. And it'll keep some visual recognition in play, as well. That's my thinking, at least. Any thoughts?

Pride of Carthage, Russian Style

What's that cover to the left, you ask? Believe it or not, it's the Russian edition of Pride of Carthage! I've just "discovered" it, after a good deal of searching.

I know, why do I need to discover it or search for it? I'm the author, right? I should be getting care-packages directly from Moscow, yes? It doesn't really go that way, though.

My Russian publiser, Eksmo, bought the book years ago, but I never really knew what happened with it. Doubleday got paid. They paid a bit less to ICM. ICM paid bit less to me. (THAT'S the way it goes.) And that's about it. Every now and then I'd do a Google search, but I could never find a sign of it. Until now...

The crazy thing is that I can barely tell it's mine. Seems like my name, in Russian, is Дэвид Энтони Дарем. And Pride of Carthage is Гордость Карфагена. Now, can you see why I had trouble tracking it down? (Oh, that and the fact that I'd been spelling their name wrong for the last two years...)

Here's a site that has it.

And here's another one.

I Ribelli Mondo Oscuro

You know I'm a sucker for new covers. Love gettin em. Got one today. My Italian publisher, Piemme, has sent me what they've come up with for the first volume of Acacia. I do mean first, since they've actually broken the book in half. They'll be doing the first Acacia in two parts, ending this one at page 307 in the English hardback version. (It'll be longer than that in Italian, though.)

The title translates as The Dark World Rebels. I don't entirely get that, but it's not my language or my country, so I defer. I won't defer on the abbreviation of my name, however, but that can be fixed...

Anyway, what do you think?

Attack of the Covers!

I woke up this morning to two emails from far, far away, both bearing covers for my... um... Well, just for me to look at, cause it's not like I have much say in such matters.

The first was one you may have already seen a version of. It the Transworld UK cover for Acacia, specifically for the hardback collectors' edition. The image is pretty much the same as before, although I do notice they spiffied up Corinn's dress a bit. It's less a burlap sack and more a silky red now. I prefer it. (Okay, so maybe I do have some influence on things after all.)I like the way they call me a "bestselling author". It's true, you know, really it is!

The second is a first glimpse from my Swedish publisher, Norstedts. Wow, now that's a different take on things! They make it look like I wrote a novel about marauding hordes of sword-weilding uber-men slogging across a frozen tundra with giant woolly rhinoceros beasts... Well... yeah, I guess I did, didn't I? That's part of it, at least. Anyway, here's what they've come up with for Akacien!

Comments are welcome...

(By the way, does anybody know what Hotet Nran Norr means? I tried to translate it online and got "hotel stamp north". I'm thinking that's not right. Then got "the threat fran north", which sounds a bit closer. So is it Acacia: The Threat From The North?)

Oh, and I don't think I ever put up the finished full jacket for the German edition. Here it is...

Old Country, New Cover

I often get asked how much control I have over various aspects of publishing my works. Some of it - the writing, for example - I have exclusive control over. But a whole lot of the other stuff is entirely out of my hands. People often seem surprised by just how much of it is out of my hands, but I don't think I'm alone in this.

Cover art is one of those areas. I don't design it. Don't hire the artists that draw it, take the photos, choose the layout, etc. Don't sit in on the meetings where they kick around ideas. Don't have a clue about most of the marketing statistics they consult as they make decisions. I do know that a lot of thought goes into the choosing. At a publisher like Doubleday, no cover is chosen by any one person or created without the consultation of many. It's arguable whether or not the factors that influence the decisions are the right ones, but this is a business, and you know what that means...

What is my role like, then? Well... with Gabriel's Story I was presented with the cover. "Here it is. Cool, huh?" That was that.

With Walk Through Darkness it was more like, "Here it is," followed shortly thereafter by, "Um, well, no, that's not it after all," and then, "Here it really is, or, well, maybe not quite that..." until eventually about the third or fourth version that I saw was announced as the cover. (By the way, the four versions I show here all came and went as options. None of them were used. I think they had more options made up also, ones that I never saw.)

With Pride of Carthage it was back to, "Here it is," and then with Acacia there was an earlier option that they loved, until they decided they didn't love it afterall and produced another version. That one I rather liked, although it got tinkered with a bit from my favorite version to become the final cover.

Nowhere in here have you heard me say I vetoed - or was asked if I wanted to veto - one of the options. That's just the reality of it. On occasion there's been some tinkering with the images in reaction to my queries. Things like shading the man's hand a bit on the paperback cover of Walk Through Darkness, but that's about the extent of my influence. My publishers trusts me to write what's in my books; designing what goes on the outside of them is another matter.

Personally, I concede that I have very little understanding of cover-fu. I just don't get what makes one work - if "working" can be defined as appealing to the most people possible. A cover that I love will get slammed or ignored. One that I hate will smile its way on to bestseller lists. It's enough to make me doubt my convictions on such things. Truth is, my tastes differ from the masses, and yet it's the masses I want to buy my stuff... All of this leads me to generally have faith that my editors and their hardworking minions should be trusted.

Which leads me to the most recent entry in the parade of covers... All hail a new life for Acacia, with a new face to go with it! This one is Transworld's cover for my UK edition, which comes out in May. What do I think? Well, you know, I'm inclined to say that's not important. I'm not the one we need to sell the book to...

The better question is - what do you think?

Paperback Contact, and A Cover Issue...

I just spoke for the first time with my Anchor/Vintage editor. He's a new guy for me, as my previous editor for the first three books has moved on from the company. It's way early days to start thinking about the paperback, but they do these things way ahead of time. Looks like they'll be aiming for an early fall publication. So this time next year Acacia should be hitting the shelves. (If that seems like too long and you've yet to read the book - the hardcover is lovely, good quality, won't fall apart on you, pages smell nice, etc.)

Man, these things take a long time. My hope, though, is that the folks at Anchor will do a terrific job with it, and that a little extra time will help that happen. If they can build interest that rolls toward Christmas all the better...

About the only thing semi-concrete that was mentioned was that they quite like what Doubleday did with the cover. I've always like it too, but I've been very aware of the cover art issues in the fantasy genre. Seems like a contentious issue, really. I know some people didn't care for Acacia's cover because it didn't seem to represent a fantasy novel well; others said they like it because... well, because it didn't represent a fantasy novel in the most familiar ways.

As we head for a second shot at this I'm wondering what folks think? Should we stick with a version of the hardback cover? (When this works well it helps to brand the book, making it familiar straightaway to people that had seen the book but not picked it up earlier.) Or should we try something new - roll the dice and see what we come up with as a fresh take?

With that in mind I'd also ask you to consider the differences between the only two Acacia covers in existence so far. Here's the US one beside the forthcoming German one. Which floats your boat more? (I'm not suggesting, by the way, that my US publisher is considering using the German cover. I'm just tossing out there as an example of what alternatives can look like...)