When it comes to how a books cover has come about, I'm all for learning more about it. The steps involved throughout the creative process and how a publisher and it's art department come up with the covers that we all first fall in love with - yeah, I'm all for learning as much as I can. When asked if I'd like to share with my readers how Egmont came up with the cover for K.J. Wignall's Blood, I jumped at the chance!
Blood is the first in the Mercian Trilogy and is Currently Available.
Synopsis: Will is a vampire in danger. Heir to the Earl of Mercia, he was brutally attacked and buried in the thirteenth century before he was able to assume his title. Perpetually sixteen, Will’s life has been lonely. He leaves his tomb every so often, adapts to the present day, feeds his bloodlust, and never gets close to anyone.
Until now.
Waking from a twenty-year slumber, hungry for the blood that sustains his undeath, he meets Eloise—but can’t bear to make her his next victim. Drawn to a girl he can never have, but whose fate seems bound with his own, he feels the need to protect her. But Will has an enemy who will stop at nothing to find him . . . and he’s closing in. . . .
Egmont’s editorial staff
had a great time creating the sexy-heart-throbby
jacket image for BLOOD by K. J. Wignall. To start, Elizabeth Law,
the publisher, talked to the jacket designer, Sammy Yuen,
about what ideas he might have for showing the character of Will, a teenage
vampire who was “created” in the 13th Century and Sammy had the idea of showing the
vampire as he stalks the streets of London. As she recalled, there was some
discussion of wardrobe, and of a long jacket that might be a possible choice for the
model (Sterling) to wear. But when Elizabeth arrived at the photo
shoot she was so dazzled by the sight of Sterling with his shirt off that all
thought of trying additional wardrobe choices went out of her head. She
wanted something where the character looked haunted, but also where he would
clearly appeal to the readership.
I’d say they nailed it! What follows are paired shots from the photo shoot and Elizabeth’s commentary on the thought process behind each one.
Check out the photo's and get more of an idea on the thought process behind the images -
1. Sterling with short hair & Sterling with long hair - Will has long hair in
the book! But, frankly, we hated how the wig looked. We
decided we could live with the error, that being immediately appealing was more
important than being 100% accurate.
2. Sterling one-eyed long hair & Sterling hair in the
face - The single eye shots
looked good in the studio, but when we tried them on the cover, we found it
was a little forced looking—like he was acting, rather than
natural. Also, we really hated the wig!
3. Strikes a pose A & Strikes a pose B - The first shot was too
reminiscent of Taylor Lautner’s entrance in Twilight: Eclipse, and in
the second I thought Will looked like a juvenile delinquent—not heir to
the Earl of Mercia, which he was long ago, before he was attacked and
became a vampire.
4. To fog & Not to fog - I LOVED the
fog. We tried shots with and without fog because we weren’t sure which would look
better on the jacket. We ended up using a fog shot because it added to the
“atmosphere” on the book jacket.
5. Black fog & Just black - It’s interesting,
because the shots against black look really good—but the white background allowed
the designer, Sammy Yuen, to lay in the London architecture into the
finished background. Also, black made me think “vampire at night” which
I find really clichéd.
6. Black fog full frontal & Black fog over the
should look - There was quite a bit of
discussion about over the shoulder—I thought those shots were very
sexy. We are thinking of using an over the shoulder shot in the book’s
sequel (due out next fall) called Alchemy.
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