The Cover for The Seven Second Kiss

First off I think it's too dark. I don't know what to do to change that.

I think the thing that a cover for a book or a poster for a story should answer the question, "What is this about?" without giving it all away. If the cover or poster does its job it will give the prospective customer some clue as to whether what's between the covers would potentially interest them or not. (So maybe a cover tells people what's not in the book as well as what is. I'll have to think about that.)

I may do another more generalized piece on covers at another time. Right now I'm dealing with the cover I finally came up with for my novel, The Seven Second Kiss. So let's put it up here so you can see it and then I can discuss it.

First off, I don't know if I have enough text on the cover. I tend to learn by blundering around and making plenty of mistakes. Fortunately I have survived despite my ignorance and stupidity.

So what is this? This is the centre of a 78 rpm record with a label on it. The title on the record label is the title of the book, and a song within the book. I have not written lyrics for that song but if the book experiences any degree of success, I will do that.

On the label is one view of the New York City skyline in 1934, which is where and when the story takes place. The saxophone outline tells you music is involved and it is also the instrument that Jordan Cropper, Connie's love interest, plays.

Now that I describe all that I'm thinking the cover is actually pretty lame. I have not captured any of the crises or conflicts within the story. Perhaps I'll have to rethink this and change the cover. Having said that I think the cover does tell the potential reader some of what the book is about.

Let's take a look at some of the other ideas I had for a cover. My initial image was a small town residential street at night just after a rain and lit with a street lamp. A young woman, Connie, is walking away from one of the houses carrying a suitcase. In the darkness is a transparent image of a young black man, Jordan, playing his saxophone.

Here's a sketch for that.

I also got a friend who has a saxophone to let me take pictures of it, as I thought I could just use an image of a saxophone with the text over it. That looks OK but it really doesn't tell the story. This is one try at that one.

  

I think the cover I am using right now is the best of this lot, though it may not be the best possible cover. Now that I've shared some of this, I have some new ideas to think about.