When I saw the email in my inbox this morning, I daren’t open it. I left it there until I had dealt with every other email before I clicked on it. The TimeSplash cover art had arrived at last and I was too scared to look.
One of the first things I noticed about the Lyrical Press list when I went to their online book shop was the gorgeous artwork. It was graphically striking and very sensuous. I showed the site to my daughter, who is herself a talented artist, and she described it as ‘soft porn’. Which made me notice just how much of it featured beautiful people in various degrees of undress. And then I started wondering what kind of artwork they would do for TimeSplash. It’s true that my main female protagonist is breathtakingly beautiful, and the young man who falls hopelessly in love with her could probably be drawn with hard abs in soft tones. Yet TimeSplash is a sci-fi book, and a thriller. That kind of treatment just wouldn’t be appropriate.
In my own imaginings of the cover, I had zeroed in on the time travel thing. At one point, my main characters are running around Edwardian London, creating havoc and looking like Hell’s Angels in frock coats. The picture in my mind of an elegant Edwardian gentleman wearing a full-face crash helmet and carrying a submachine gun, was a long way from soft-focus nudes draped langorously across one another. So I opened the JPEG with extreme trepidation.
The image I saw was nothing like what I had imagined – in my wildest dreams or nightmares – but I liked it! In fact, I like it a lot. If you want to take a peek, it’s down below. It’s also over on the TimeSplash website, which I have just updated in its honour.
I think what I like most about it are the fonts. They give just a hint of past times, a subtle intimation that there may be something steampunky going on. It’s also very brooding and tense.
So, tell me, do you like it too? Would this cover pique your interest in the book, or not?
TimeSplash
Oh nice! I admit I paused a moment before scrolling down, but it’s fine! Very subtle, very British
Oh, the irony – I would SO pick this up in a bookshop!!!
I don’t think I’d really appreciated the importance of design to an e-book (which is shamingly Luddite of me) until right now. This sets me straight. Brooding and subtle, yes. Though one slight disagreement with Merrilee. This is 100% English, not British. And Landseer would be proud of that lion.
Love, love, love it!
Definitely the sort of cover, in which would pique my interest. A double-decker bus rumbling through misty London, with a proud lion watching on. Perfect mix
Cover art is really nice, GREAT photo, although I’m not too sure about the colour blend – here at the bookshop we’ve all noticed a phenomena we’ve dubbed the “brown effect”, in which books with a predominantly brown palette sell significantly less than books by the same authors with different colour covers.
I also think you really hit the nail on the head with your first tag-line, this one doesn’t have the same punch. Can you still fine-tune that tag-line?
beautiful! would look great in a bookshop, too. so is this a steampunk novel? excuse my ignorance.
J-A, ‘steampunky’ is a better description. I like the definition of steampunk that says it’s an alternate world genre in which certain scientific and technological advances have been made one or two hundred years ahead of their time. You also get a weird fantasy version of the genre in which there’s a kind of clockwork magic going on (like Golden Compass or Perdido St Station). My book is like neither of these, but it does put some time travellers from 2050 into Edwardian London, juxtaposing the technologies – and manners – of the different times. So there’s a bit of a steampunk flavour to parts of the book.
Thank you one and all. I’m so relieved that you guys like it! Since I have almost no control over the cover art, it’s really down to the publisher to get it right. In this case, they surprised me with something I wouldn’t have thought of, but still did a good job.
Ruzkin, thank you for letting me know about the “brown effect”. Now, if the book doesn’t sell, I’ll have something to blame it on.
Haha, no probs. I really do hope it sells well, can’t wait to secure my own digital copy. I really should properly document the ‘brown effect’ some day… maybe that’s a good idea for a blog post!
Well, having just finished reading the bonus story you wrote for the blog tour, I can tell you right now Mister that there better be some QUESTIONS ANSWERED in the novel, because if I don’t find out what happened to Major Tom and Grayson and Rylan I will be VERY peeved!
Yikes! I think I just remembered I have to leave the country on Feb 15th.
!!!! In that case, there had better be a prequel, part two!
So, apart from making you want to stomp on my head, was it OK?
Actually, I think I’ve just had an idea for prequel 2…
Oh yes. It got me caught up, all right. Very intriguing!
I *love* it. Of course, I love London as a setting anyway ;o) I agree that the font makes it – it makes me realise how much font makes self-published books look amateurish. Wheeee! It’s so exciting!
Looks fantastic!