MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

It's covered!

So, one more time for those not paying attention -- I have a cover for my new book!
Or rather, Erika Chase has a cover. I was delighted to receive it last week, along with the gentle nudge from my editor's assistant to make sure Erika's website is up and running fairly soon. Like yesterday.

I'd been putting off doing it, mainly because it seemed so daunting a task. But with a lot of help from my friend David Cole, the website will be launching later this week. That's a blog for another day.

What I thought you might find interesting is the cover process. I know all publishers are not alike in this. For our Ladies' Killing Circle anthologies with RendezVous Crime, we were very lucky to have a lot of input into the cover. We sent suggestions, they were worked on by terrific artists, and then we got a final chance to comment on the covers before they went to press.

I remember attempts at suggesting a cover to a previous publisher -- we even went as far as submitting a dynamite painting done by LKC member Joan Boswell (she's also a terrific artist)-- were for naught and instead, we were stuck with a cover that still makes me cringe.

I've discovered that Berkley Prime Crime has some wonderful cover artists and that they're open to suggestions. The 'cover conference' process started with my editor asking for suggestions, then visuals of some aspects of the book -- the antibellum mansion where the book club meets, the antique weapon used by the murderer, etc. She also wanted my input into the cover blurb. And then, I had to write a bio. The result of this collaborative effort is what you see before you. And I'm delighted. The two Siamese cats even look suspiciously like the two that run this household.

It's been a wonderful process and I'm very grateful to my editor and the staff at Berkley. As I said, I know that the process is different with each publisher. I hear complaints from some authors that they have no input whatsoever into the cover design, which leads to an unhappy writer.

I'm counting down now to the April release and have enjoyed every minute of it. Well, maybe not so much what Barbara Fradkin calls 'the horrible' (see Dec. 1st blog). That happens to us all.

So, what do you think? Is my cover a winner?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April 3, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime