Friday, 21 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Proofs

The final step of the process is for proofs to be made, that is some examples of the final cover printed in the same manner and on the same paper as they'll appear on the finished book, to make sure everything works properly. The main difference here, apart from the colour balance being slightly changed, is that any 'specials' - that is features like foil and embossing - will be present for the first time. On this cover the sword and the coins are embossed (they stand out a little from the paper) the title and author name are debossed (stamped into the paper), which gives the whole thing some added depth. It's quite a subtle effect, in fact, almost more impressive to the touch than to the eye, but it certainly adds a little something, and it continues all the way round the book, which is sweet.


The foil they've used this time around is pretty damn cool, from most angles it looks almost black, but hit it just right and...


Oh, yeah. You want it. You need it. You MUST have it.

But I'm afraid you'll have to wait until June...

Labels: artwork, process

Thursday, 20 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Design

Now that the elements were in, it was time for Laura Brett, designer par excellence, to work her magic and combine the whole thing into a classy yet pulpy, genre yet mainstream, commercial yet literary cover. I mean, how hard can that be?


This first effort already demonstrated the idea was going to work, which was a great relief, and the sword and map sit together and look good, but the scales were wrong, the map too big, the sword too small and square-on which made the whole thing look a bit disjointed, rather than an actual 'scene', if you will. So we played about with the arrangement. Or Gillian and Laura did, anyway, and the next version I saw was:


Now we were really getting somewhere. Already it looked pretty damn good. Laura had resized the map so it fitted on the front and back cover, which made sense, then added some extra atmospheric parchment down both sides where the blurb and obligatory moody author photograph would sit. I'd thought at one stage we'd need some table or backdrop for the map to sit on, but this worked just as well and was less intrusive. The sword now looked like it was sitting on the map, which until that point I'd feared it wouldn't. The wine stains we weren't entirely sure about, though. And by a freak of chance the sword blade was sitting over Talins, which is about the most important location on the map, so it needed to be moved a tad. Plus I felt, in an understandable push to make the title as readable as possible we'd whited out too much of the map behind. And, much though it amuses me to frustrate you map lovers out there, I thought it would be nice to make it usable as a map, and make the six key cities visible. I also wanted to add some coins, partly because it's not just about murder, it's about money as well, and also just to add something to the layer above the map, if you will, to balance up the sword and make it more of a scene. Therefore...

Laura just lightened the map around the lettering rather than whiting it out altogether, which allowed for a lot more of the map to be visible while still maintaining legibility. She also closed up the leading on the title (pressed the lines together somewhat) and removed the little spacer between the name and the title. In this version the blood seemed a bit static, the coins a bit of an afterthought, so some more coins were added and Laura got some much more dramatic, active looking spatter on the blood, giving the impression the sword had just been tossed onto the map following a gruesome murder...


At my ill-conceived urging we also experimented with the lettering, trying various colours and having a stab at a style that was closer to the lettering on the map, but that didn't work at all, it just looked messy. With the background being a lot busier than it had been on the First Law covers, it was a lot better to go for something simple and bold, with maximum readability. Hence back to good old Casablanca Antique, which is the same font we've always used on the chapter headings on the inside of the books. I also felt we'd maybe gone a bit too far on the blood now, it was getting a little bit ... Saw VI. I mean to say, it's a very, very violent book, but even so. We dialled that back a tad, maintained the energetic spatter while removing some of the bigger blobs, shifted some of the coins around to balance the whole thing a bit better and...


Bingo. That is design.

Labels: artwork, process

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Map

Now, if it was key that the sword should hit the right note, it was much more key that the map should. Plus the map obviously had to reflect the facts of the text. So first of all, obviously, I had to provide my own childish scrawl which the artist, Dave Senior, would then art-i-fy and render beautiful and atmospheric. So the squared paper, retractable pencils and ultra-fine drawing pens were broken out with great relish. Styria looked something like this:


Apologies for the faint names, it's a photocopy of the original.

I've talked a bit in the past about the pros and cons of maps in fantasy, and the reasons why there was no map in the First Law. I think the main thing I didn't really discuss was that, if a map's going to be included, I want it to be right. I want it to punch its weight, and look the part. I think maps in fantasy series are too often lazy. Lazy in terms of the authorial thought going into them, and lazy in terms of the artistic execution. A map is artwork, and if you're going to include it, it needs to look authentic, it needs to help set the tone and create the atmosphere for the world as well as simply describe it, or it's a wasted opportunity. Or worse, it's just stuck in there to say - "this book is epic fantasy, like that Lord of the Rings that made everyone so much money. Man, I hope this makes money too."

So I was very keen that a map should a) be accurate within reason, b) have artistic merit, and c) communicate something about the setting just in the way that it's drawn. To feel part of the setting. This was extra-specially true given that it was going on the cover, rather than just sitting forlorn, split in half over the first two pages. So the brief that went to the artist, Dave Senior, who draws a lot of maps for Gollancz books, was to aim at something like the work of Gerardus Mercator, the famous 16th century Flemish cartographer. Work along these lines (those links are pretty hi-res, so they may be demanding of processing power, but they are pretty damn cool for those of us who like maps, which, let's face it, is pretty much all of us).

Our map would obviously be a lot simpler than Mercator's, 'cause there's NO WAY I'm thinking up that many names, and monochrome so as not to distract too much from the other elements that make up the cover. I particularly liked the way the cities were depicted as little groups of buildings vaguely appropriate to the city in question. That was particularly apt for Best Served Cold, since the action is centred around six cities, each with its own feel, so I gave some descriptions of those key locations as well that some sense of them could be conveyed in miniature on the map.

Couple of weeks later a rough version came back, which honestly was already pretty exciting. The general look, the lettering especially, was spot in. It felt classy. It felt authentic. One could believe that it was a map that the characters in the book might consult. There was a bit of tinkering to do, plus a few extra details - towns and towers and what have you - were added to fill in some of the white spaces. Laura Brett, the designer, then applied her ye olde parchmenty effect and we ended up with this:


Click on it. CLICK ON IT. Delighted with the results, I need hardly say. Excellent work, Dave Senior. In fact we like it so much we might attempt to incorporate it as a background on the title pages to the parts, as well. I've always liked the idea of extending some artwork into the book proper, to give the whole thing a bit more visual identity and make the experience of reading it that little bit richer. We will see how that goes.

And here's one more, of my original guide with the final artwork beside...


What's that you say? You think my version has the greater artistic merit?

Yeah, right.

Labels: artwork, process

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Sword

Burned and spattered papers, such as the ones on the First Law covers, are pretty much universal, but a sword has to hit the right note, especially since it's meant to be the one the main character uses in the book. So it has to be the right era, and have the right feel. Since the feel for the book is kind of renaissance Italy-ish, more baroque than medieval, the brief we gave to Didier Graffet, a French artist who specialises in weaponry, was something roughly along these lines (and no doubt those of you interested by historical weaponry, which is, let's face it, pretty much all of you, will now spend some time exploring that site), but possibly with a bit more heft to the blade. So it needed to look beautiful, but functional, without any fantastical flourishes. Steely, not gilded. It needed to look dangerous.

This was the first sketch we got back:


Which was already looking pretty good. We messed about with it a bit, shortened bits, lengthened bits, talked ricasso, knuckle-bow, quillons, and fore-ring, cause, you know, I talk fluent sword, and ended up with something actually pretty close to the original, though somewhat weightier and shorter in the blade, a bit less graceful and a bit more brutal:
Happy with that, it went back to be coloured, and damned if it didn't turn up but a few hours later looking bloody brilliant:


Click on it. You know you want to. CLICK ON IT. Possibly you can't entirely see it on this version, but the detail is amazing. It has that quality of accentuated reality that great graphic novel art has. Real, only more so. So my thanks to Didier Graffet. If you ever need a sword painted, I might just know a guy...

Labels: artwork, process

Monday, 17 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Concept

People occasionally ask me how much input authors have into the cover art, and I guess it varies greatly, but contractually, the publisher usually has no obligation to involve the author at all. For the vast majority of books, the cover will be the main selling tool at the publisher's disposal, and that's far too important an area to be left in the hands of an author who, let's face it, most of the time doesn't know shit about selling books. A lot less than their publisher does, anyway. And let's not forget, this isn't necessarily about making something pretty, or classy, or even relevant to the content of the book, this is about making something that the greatest number of people will want to buy.

This is particularly true with foreign rights deals. I've had no input whatsoever into the covers of any of the foreign editions of my books. Title changes either, for that matter. The feeling is, and I think it's probably a wise one, that tastes and traditions vary from one territory to another, and the publishers in that territory, having bought the rights, are the people best equipped to know what's going to sell.

Things are somewhat different in one's home territory, however, and in general it behooves a publisher to at least run their ideas past an author (in much the same way as it behooves the author to give serious consideration to their editor's recommendations about the content) if only because they will understand the language in which the author is complaining. Enjoying, as I do, a fantastically close relationship with my UK editor and publishers (Gollancz are like FAMILY, man, at least until I get a better offer), I am lucky enough to be consulted at every stage. It's a collaborative effort. They provide the talent, I provide the complaints.

Now I'm not that brilliant on concept - I think that's a very particular and valuable skill, one that you develop partly through long experience, and I don't have it. Once I see something I get a feel for whether it's right or not, and I get ideas for how to improve it (at least from my point of view), but I rarely have any sort of notion in advance of how I think a book should look. So when my editor Gillian picked my brains to see if I had any brilliant notions about what to do for the cover of Best Served Cold, I didn't really. We considered going for a different look, since it's not part of the same series. We floated a few things back and forth, but nothing was very compelling. Vague talk of graphic novels. Some mention of snow, and a female main character, but, you know, not that obvious, but, you know, not that un-obvious. I mean, a bit like that book what's-it-called. Well, not like it, but not UN-like it. You know. You don't know?

Simon Spanton, meanwhile, who is one of the two editorial directors at Gollancz, and who'd been responsible for the cover treatments for the First Law, was pretty intent on continuing that blood-spattered parchmenty theme, which had, after all, proved pretty successful. Possibly upgrading it by having a dagger stuck into it. I forget exactly whose idea it was to put a map on the parchments. Either Simon's or Gillian's, so let's say mine. I have an idea we'd been discussing some recent impassioned chat from readers about maps in fantasy, and the absence of them from my books, so the issue was on our minds. Simon is, shall we say, not the greatest fan of the knee-jerk inclusion of maps in epic fantasy books, so possibly the idea of putting the map on the outside, then setting it on fire and spraying it with blood and vomit amused him. I think it was Gillian's idea to go for a sword rather than a dagger, possibly because she was aware of the work of the artist in question. So there you have it. Map. Sword. Blood. Bingo.

Initially I was a bit worried, I must admit, about whether the map and the sword could be made to hit the right note, and whether they'd bind together into a consistent whole or just look like two entirely separate and mismatched bits of art dropped onto a page. In a sense it's a much more complicated and specific idea than the more abstract covers for the previous three books had been. But I'd been pretty unconvinced by the cover treatment for The Blade Itself, when I first heard it (what, a load of burned paper? You sure that's going to work?) but have ended up really liking it (and in the end barely making any changes at all, aside from incorporating the magic-circle thingy on the back) so I didn't object this time around, having nothing much to offer as an alternative, and having learned the lesson that I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to concepts for covers and I'm better off doing what I'm told, at least in the early stages. Later on I would have earth-shaking impacts on the design process, as we shall see over the coming week...

Labels: artwork, process

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Best Served Cold Artwork

Take THAT. Pretty much the final cover for the UK edition of Best Served Cold. I should point out it's a hardcover release, though, and you really need to see the whole wraparound, which looks like this:


Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Click on it to see it in all its glorious detail. Go on. Click on it. You know you want to. Even that's a long way from doing it full justice, though, I have to say. The final version will have the title and the edges of the author-name foiled, probably in chilly gun-metal grey, then the sword and coins embossed and the text debossed. Plus it will be printed on that textured paper for which my previous books have won most of their acclaim. You really have to see it wrapped round a book to get the full effect. You have to handle it, stroke it, caress it, lick it. Well, not the last one, necessarily, that's just something I like to do.


And that's not even a proof cover, it's just a good printout. The book isn't actually Best Served Cold, in case you're wondering. It's Julia Gregson's East of the Sun. Long story. Anyway, it's designed to be of a piece with the new covers for the mass-market editions of the trilogy, that they may all beckon to prospective readers from the shelf, together.

In case you're wondering, I fricking love it. I feel that it expands on the tone set by the previous covers, and establishes something of a unique identity for the books as a whole - a brand, even - which has got to be a good thing. It communicates a lot about the feel and the content - and a real sense of action and violence - without straying into the difficult ground of literal cover art. It manages to be classy and pulpy at once. I think overall the covers achieve the extremely difficult trick of being entirely un-generic, striking, and standing out from the crowd of fantasy artwork while at the same time not seeming to be deliberately NOT FANTASY. I think that's what fantasy covers need to try and achieve, these days, ideally - to not alienate the hardcore fantasy fan while still appealing to the more occasional reader.

It involves the work of no less than six people. Original concept from Simon Spanton (I believe), expanded upon by my editor Gillian Redfearn, who then put the brief together and assembled the team to carry it out (kind of like the A-Team, but with more artistic accumen and less mercy), and co-ordinated the project. The sword was painted by weapons expert Didier Graffet, the map was drawn by map-master Dave Senior, adapting my own scrawl, then the whole was combined and made to live by designer Laura Brett (also responsible for the First Law covers), who added the spatter, coins, parchmenty effects, and lettering. At various stages a pedantic asswipe interposed himself and made everyone's lives a misery. I won't say who, but there's a clue on the cover itself...

The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that it features a map quite prominently. But Joe! I hear you cry. Aren't you the anti-map guy? Is there a whiff of hypocrisy about this blog today? Well, maybe. I've always had a foot in both camps on this issue, and with a tighter and more defined setting for this book it seemed to make sense. Plus I don't hate maps, I just hate rubbish maps, and this time around there was the opportunity to make sure it was done right, both factually accurate and with some artistic flair. But more discussion of this later, maybe, because for those who give a toss, next week will be Best Served Cold artwork week, in which I will discuss the evolution of cover from twinkle in publisher's eye to fully-realised proof in exhaustive detail...

Labels: announcements, artwork, news, process

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Dutch Edition

Rejoice, good people of Holland, for The Blade Itself is available in Dutch translation, in hardcover, via the good people at Mynx. It goes under the title, De Macht van het Zwaard, or "The Power of the Sword" and it looks a little something like this:


I like it. It's unashamedly a fantasy cover, but it's a nice one. Satisfyingly un-cheesy. Doesn't relate too closely to the precise content of the book, maybe - but the mood is really pretty nice, and the mood is way more important than the specifics, far as I'm concerned. It's a good sense for the harsh and rugged North. Windy up there, huh? As far as the Logen goes (I'm assuming he is a Logen) - it's always weird to see your characters represented in the flesh, as it were, because with literal cover art there are an infinite number of ways it can go wrong and a much narrower band of right. Still, I think this (in spite of the arcane stick with the mysterious glow) hits a lot more than it misses. So thumbs up...

Labels: news

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Midwinter Fair On - Aetherica Cancelled

The lord he giveth and the lord he taketh away...

Sorry to say Aetherica, the new convention in Chester that I was due to be guest-of-honouring at in June 2009, has been cancelled. Poor economic circumstances and some unforeseen problems with the venue are apparently to blame. And not at all outrageous demands on the part of the guests of honour, I assure you. I would have made those as the lights went up and the people were waiting, like Chuck Berry used to. A shame, but these things happen. Thanks to those who worked hard to put it on, apologies to those who were planning to attend.

But on the upside, it appears that I'll be guest-of-honouring at the Midwinter Fair at Alphen aan den Rijn in Holland, on the 13th-14th of December this year (so in a mere month), partly to promote the Dutch edition of The Blade Itself, which is out this week. Not totally sure what I'll be doing there, but some combination of reading, signing, and answering questions will almost certainly be involved. More as I hear it...

Labels: appearances, news

Monday, 3 November 2008

The Wire Season 5

Well, those of you who haven't seen the Wire are probably bored of hearing people spout off about how it's the best thing on TV. But it really is the best thing on TV. I've already said so here.

Nothing touches it for realism, for characterisation across a simply immense cast, for depth of investigation. They never rest on their laurels either, always looking with each series at a new area of the system that makes Baltimore work (or more often, fail to). The first series looked at crime and police, the second added the docks and urban decay into the mix, the third correction and rehabilitation, the fourth politics and education. The fifth brings in the newspaper system, the news, the role of truth and lies in politics, and the way that people use stories for their own ends. It's incredible the way that within a few scenes in the first episode, they sketch out the staff and structure of the Baltimore Sun newspaper with the deftest of touches, and create enough to make a compelling show on its own while simultaneously advancing the plot and shining a light on all kinds of other areas of the city.

I wasn't completely convinced by this final series at the half-way mark, in fact after the seventh episode of ten I was concerned they might have lost their way - some elements of the plot seemed a little far-fetched, a couple of the characters they were focusing on had become a little irritating (McNulty in particular). Then the last three episodes were absolutely fantastic once again, and brought the whole thing together as they always seem to do. It's grim, it's hard, it's wonderfully pessimistic about the nature of power and the workings of politics, but at the same time it's not at all without messages of hope. No character in it is simple, no problem has simple answers, people who are utterly destructive in some circumstances can be heroes in others. There was a brilliant circularity to the whole story, as seen in five seasons, as characters come and go, but the roles they play in the great scheme of crime, policing, education and politics are eternal...

Recommended pretty much beyond anything else ever.

Labels: film and tv