Have a look at this cover:

Believe it or not, this beautiful front cover wasn’t the original planned cover for Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. In fact, you can even find the original cover online, through a Google search. However, to save you heading off to look for it, here is the original cover:

Which do you prefer? Hopefully, like me, you prefer the final cover. I love the colours, the brightness, and the appearance of Sage, the hero of the series. Every time I look at this cover I smile.

But, I must confess, that when I saw the other cover, which was the first I saw, I was also happy. And if the new cover hadn’t been decided on at the publishing house, I would have not only been content, but also not known that something else had been considered.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post. An author is rarely (if ever) the best qualified person to make decisions on every aspect of the final book. Few people have the complete skill set to write, illustrate, design, typeset, edit, copyedit, proofread, market, distribute and hand sell a book.

In my case, because Sweet Escape (and, of course, the whole Sage Cookson series) is traditionally published, my chief role is to write the book. Of course I also work with editors and have some input into illustrations and covers, but really once I’ve written the book I have to relinquish a great deal of control to the publisher – not only because they are funding the book’s production, but also because they have, either on their staff, or through the use of freelancers – staff with those varied skill sets. Together we bring the final book to life. If I was self-published I would become the publisher, but I would still need to consider either obtaining those many and varied skills or using other people to help me get the book out there into the world.

Back to the cover. The chief reason for the change was a marketing one, and with Sweet Escape selling well, I think it was a good decision. So I’m glad that my publisher, New Frontier, went with the cover they did.

What do you think?