I really think so, because my publisher and I just can’t get the cover design right. I want something edgy, graffiti-ish and grungy and he keeps submitting cover designs with clean-cut, sharp fonts that speak of squeaky clean kitchens on council estates.
It turns out I’m a fuss-pot but I am finding it really hard to accept anything that detracts from the image I have in my head. My husband had enough today and finally said, ‘For God’s sake, what does it matter? They’ll see the cover for one second and it’s almost there!’ So, I have finally caved in (sort of, I’ve asked for one more teensy change!) and we’re an email away from publishing.
Writing really isn’t the hard part. If the story is there it will come out. It is the aftermath of proofing, editing, critiquing, rewriting, designing, etc. that is the real slog and it involves so many othe rpeople! The writing took me all of one month. The rest has taken close on a year! One wonders why I want to do it again, but the compulsion is too great to just walk away. Would you believe book two is ready to go – but once again I have the stumbling block of the cover design?
Obviously covers are a big stumbling block for me and I have to wonder if my husband hasn’t hit the nail on the head, that subconciously I don’t want to expose my baby to the oh-so-critical public. Am I really that unconfident? No, I believe in my book. It isn’t that. I suppose it is that once it is out there it is the same as saying yes, that’s it, I’ve finished, there is no more to do, when my heart tugs and tells me there is something, one sentence, one word, that isn’t quite right…but I will do up its coat, pack its sandwiches, buy it a ticket and wave it off at the publishing station. Soon, it will be one of many struggling books desperate to make its way off the Amazon website and I shall watch its progress with a handkerchief in one hand and my husband in the other…waiting for the postman to post at least one royalty cheque through the door!
Banished by Bea Turvey
