Nov 252009
For those who’re curious to know how I’ve been getting on with the book cover project for Em’s charity fundraising project. Here’s a draft cover of Beatrice Chase’s The Lady of the Moor.
Since it’s a 1950s-era tale of the supernatural (well, that’s as far as I can understand from Em’s terrible handwritten notes), so I used a classic portrait of a 1950s-era woman with her face distorted to hint at the macabre. I used a font that were once popular with 1950s literature.
My view of this draft is ‘meh’. Will have to start from scratch. Am stumped, though. Feedback & criticism welcome!
When I first saw the cover it was from a distance, and I wondered if it was a horse’s face. They have large nostrils, large teeth and mobile upper lips, so it looked horse-ish to me. On closer inspection, it possibly looks more like someone with a cleft palate and an injury to the eyes.
It’s kind of saying “this deformed person is a monster roaming the moors.” And given what you’ve written about disability, I really don’t think that’s what you were intending anyone to think.
Do you know anything about the “terror” and who it terrorises? Does it actually look like a lady?
I know! You obviously know my stance, so it’s no surprise I hate the picture and its implications. I already asked if I could have a different picture, but Em wanted this.
I admit I have a low-blow plan to get her to opt for a different image: I’ll point out that some people have facial disfigurements due to cancer. Knowing her, she’ll back down and opt for something else. It’s a dirty move, I know, but sod it – I just hate that picture.
As for the terror and the tagline, I haven’t the foggiest! I haven’t read the book so I only had her notes to rely on. She wrote, “TAGLINE: Terror prowls across the dartmore.” (I guessed she meant the Dartmoor so I went with it.) Pfft.
Thankx.
@Laura
Eep. I should point out that she had three offerings for this title: the first is a black-and-white photo of the Dartmoor, the second – the one I used, and the third – a ruined brick building in a Yorkshire-type landscape.
Hmm. Could you do anything with just her hands? Perhaps have them reaching across the black and white photo of Dartmoor? It would look weird, but perhaps still horror-ish?
Or could you cut off her head and put part of the moor in its place? Probably a silly idea, but depending on what’s in the photo perhaps it could work?
These are probably really, really silly ideas, but given that you only have 3 photos, I thought that possibly a collage of them might be a way round the difficulty.