Books and movies always seem to get working titles and then when it is time to go public, those titles are tossed aside for something that will appeal to a live audience.
I’m a bit more lame – my working titles are simply the book number. Nothing more exciting than that. And when I finally have to anchor a title and cover, I spend hours thinking through the plot, looking at images ,and praying for something creative to leap into my head.
The next step is combining the two that I’ve found … the title and the image. At that point, I rely on one of my creative geniuses to coach me through the process. If Rebecca (check out her Imaginary World for kids page) weren’t around to encourage me, the final piece you see would be about half as wonderful.
I can do the mechanical work. Photoshop and I have been pretty good friends for at least twenty-five years. I also have a nice little template built for the framework of the Bellingwood covers. I was ready to go.
The first attempt was emailed to Rebecca on Tuesday evening. I’d had Max re-work the image for me, adding color, cropping it. I was pleased with the photograph. The title … not so much, but I jammed it all together and sent it off. I woke up Tuesday morning, hadn’t heard anything, but had spent the previous twelve hours re-working the title. It was much better.
However, Rebecca told me that the image I’d chosen really didn’t fit the story line. She was right. She’s always right. The good news is that Max had produced five or six wonderful images for me to choose from and all I had to do was go back through them and we found a perfect shot.
A few tweaks for the color at the bottom of the cover and voila … Book 6 went from being a number in a list to “A Season of Change.” You’ll see why when you read the book!
Thanks for joining me on the journey – I appreciate you all!
