When I was getting close to finishing my new novel Finding Isobel, I began to fret about the cover. If you put “cover design for a novel” into a Google search, an overwhelming number of sites, blogs, videos and advertisements pop up. Ever cautious, I emailed a few other writer friends asking what they do. One person uses a sort-of lottery design website where you describe your book’s theme and make some suggestions as to style. The query then goes out to artists all over the world, and any of them can submit a cover. If you like one, you fine tune the concept with that artist, for a fee of course. It’s a great idea, but I found it hard to come up with a concept that I could put into words. Another suggestion was to go to Amazon and look at covers for recent best sellers in my genre (contemporary fiction, literary fiction, women’s fiction). This is particularly helpful when you realize that most people will only see an image measuring 1x2 inches or even smaller on their computer or iPad. I liked the suggestion of going to a bookstore and checking out covers that caught my attention, perhaps even photographing them. Arcadia in Spring Green, Wisconsin is my go-to bookstore — a truly wonderful Independent local bookstore, plus they have great coffee and cookies! Sadly, I liked almost none of the covers I saw on display with the exception of a poetry collection which is definitely not my genre.
It was during one of those 3-hour sleep interruptions in the middle of the night that it dawned on me: What about the artist who did the cover for A Measured Thread? The moment I saw that painting hanging on the wall in our local coffee shop, Crossroads in Cross Plains, I knew it was perfect. Two years later when I was finishing A Measured Thread, I tracked down the artist, Gina Hecht, and purchased the painting and rights.
Gina’s website showed several beautiful abstract paintings, but most of them were listed as “sold” by the gallery in Chicago where she shows her work. Back to square one. I decided to reach out to Gina personally and see if she had anything in the works. Her response was immediate and encouraging; she had three pieces recently finished. All of them were lovely, but one in particular, a small abstract piece titled “Finding Joy”, lifted my heart.
Gina and I met over coffee in Waunakee which is near where both of us live, to conclude the transaction. We had the most wonderful conversation about painting vs. writing. She talked about what it felt like to shift from painting small to large pieces, as she did during Covid when demand for large landscapes was high. In contrast, during Covid I shifted to writing short stories (Kernels). It was only afterwards that I had the energy to begin writing another novel. I came away from our meeting with a precious box containing what I know will be the perfect cover for my new novel which will be released in March, 2024. I’ll keep you posted.
It was during one of those 3-hour sleep interruptions in the middle of the night that it dawned on me: What about the artist who did the cover for A Measured Thread? The moment I saw that painting hanging on the wall in our local coffee shop, Crossroads in Cross Plains, I knew it was perfect. Two years later when I was finishing A Measured Thread, I tracked down the artist, Gina Hecht, and purchased the painting and rights.
Gina’s website showed several beautiful abstract paintings, but most of them were listed as “sold” by the gallery in Chicago where she shows her work. Back to square one. I decided to reach out to Gina personally and see if she had anything in the works. Her response was immediate and encouraging; she had three pieces recently finished. All of them were lovely, but one in particular, a small abstract piece titled “Finding Joy”, lifted my heart.
Gina and I met over coffee in Waunakee which is near where both of us live, to conclude the transaction. We had the most wonderful conversation about painting vs. writing. She talked about what it felt like to shift from painting small to large pieces, as she did during Covid when demand for large landscapes was high. In contrast, during Covid I shifted to writing short stories (Kernels). It was only afterwards that I had the energy to begin writing another novel. I came away from our meeting with a precious box containing what I know will be the perfect cover for my new novel which will be released in March, 2024. I’ll keep you posted.
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