We usually try and work out a book’s front cover very early on; it helps focus minds and give everyone something visual to work with.  And also it’s usually needed for sales information too.  The problem is that inevitably small changes will need to be made but hopefully the basic design stays the same.  After that the rest of the cover can wait as energies go into the inside pages, but we’re now trying to get the artwork for the Fire In The Sky cover prepared.  The cover is a bit of a strange beast as it needs to be laid out flat but you have to keep in mind that it will be folded and creased to form a front, spine and back. Plus we like to have those wrap round flaps which sort of echo dust-jackets.  The spine is often a bit of a guess but normally the rest of the book is prepared, and then if the spine needs to be made slightly bigger to fit I have to drop everything, adjust the artwork accordingly and get a new production files over to the printer within half an hour or so.  Any of our titles which have a music theme, we use an image of album sleeve spines for the book spine. The idea is that if people have a few of the book titles, it will end up looking a bit like a mini vinyl shelf. It’s perhaps a little ambitious but our designer likes the concept!

The inside can look a little strange when viewed flat as the art needs to match up to whatever is happening on the first page of the actual book.