PLEASE VOTE for the one SLANT OF LIGHT cover concept you like best. From the very abstract to the photographic to the historical, we’ve got very different design ideas to consider. Please feel free to share your comments–we’ll take all votes and comments into consideration. And if you vote and leave a comment (tell us in the comments which cover you voted for and why), you’ll be automatically entered to win a copy of the book when it’s released.
First, here’s the summary of the novel:
With the nation moving toward Civil War, James Turner, a charming, impulsive writer and lecturer, Charlotte, his down-to-earth bride, and Henry Cabot, an idealistic Harvard-educated abolitionist are drawn together in a social experiment deep in the Missouri Ozarks.
Inspired by utopian dreams of building a new society, Turner is given a tract of land to found the community of Daybreak. But not everyone involved in the project is a willing partner and being the leader of a farming community out in the middle of nowhere isn’t exactly the life Turner envisioned.
Charlotte, confronted with the hardships of rural life, must mature in a hurry to deal with the challenges of building the community while facing her husband’s betrayals and her growing attraction to Cabot. In turn, Cabot struggles to reconcile his need to leave Daybreak to join the fight against slavery and his desire to stay near the woman he loves.
As the war draws ever closer, the utopians try to remain neutral and friendly to all, but soon find neutrality is not an option. When war finally breaks out, Missouri descends into its uniquely savage brand of conflict in which guerrilla bands terrorize the countryside while Federal troops control the cities, and in which neither side offers or expects quarter. Ultimately, each member of Daybreak must take a stand—both in their political and personal lives.
Remember, these are concepts–not finished covers. Let us know what you like and why, what would make you pick the book up, turn it over and read the back cover or thumb through the pages, and what would make you pass it by.
To see a larger version of the covers, click the cover.
And…now you can pre-order your copy of SLANT OF LIGHT and have it delivered to you as soon as the books are available:
We’re gearing up to release our very first title: The Samaritan by Fred Venturini. We’ve been working with designers to come up with cover art that is at once arresting–i.e. that will make you pick the book up–and that conveys the feel, tone, mood, and essence of the book. This is no easy task because The Samaritan is one helluva book! And, because each of us here at Blank Slate Press has a favorite concept (arrgh!), we’re depending on you to help us decide. We started with 14 concepts and have had members of our Editorial Board weigh in with their picks. Now, we’ve narrowed it down to five. So, here’s what we’d like you to do:
1. vote on the cover that STANDS OUT the most, i.e., the one that you’d be most likely to pick up when browsing at a bookstore
2. read the short synopsis below
3. revisit the covers and vote again if you’ve changed your mind.
4. REMEMBER…these are just concepts…based on which concept wins, we’ll still tweak and fiddle a bit more…and who knows? We may even have another brilliant brainstorm of an idea that we all love so much there’s no question it will have to win.
PLUS – if you go to www.blankslatepress.com and sign up for our newsletter, you’ll be entered to win a signed hardback copy of The Samaritan. You can also read an excerpt from the book here.
(CLICK A COVER TO SEE A LARGER VERSION)
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- the toaster
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- the hands
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- the heart
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- the man
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- the fridge
The Samaritan – A Synopsis
Dale Sampson is a nobody. A small town geek who lives in the shadow of his best friend, the high school baseball star, it takes him years to even gather the courage to actually talk to a girl. It doesn’t go well. Then, just when he thinks there’s a glimmer of hope for his love life, he loses everything.When Dale runs into the twin sister of the girl he loved and lost, he finds his calling–he will become a samaritan. Determined to rescue her from a violent marriage, and redeem himself in the process, he decides to use the only “weapon” he has–besides a toaster. Although his “weapon” leads him to fame and fortune as the star of a blockbuster TV reality show, he learns that being The Samaritan is a heartbreaking affair. Especially when the one person you want to save doesn’t want saving.
The Samaritan is a searing and often brutally funny look at the dark side of human nature. It lays bare the raw emotions and disappointments of small town life and best friends, of school bullies and first loves, of ruthless profiteers and self-aggrandizing promoters—and of having everything you know about human worth and frailty questioned under the harsh klieg lights of fame.
Now…If you need/want to change your vote, go back up and vote again.
I don’t think many serious readers would refuse to read a book JUST because the cover is bad, but I do believe that many readers pass right on by well written books if the cover is atrocious. And for people like me, people who operate in a left/right brain world and who are visually inclined, good cover art can stop us in our tracks.
As I’m browsing the shelves at the bookstore, I will always pick up a book with a beautifully designed and intriguing cover. That doesn’t mean I’m going to buy it, but it does mean I’ll give an otherwise unknown quantity a chance. After I look at the cover, I then turn it over to read the blurbs on the back. I try to connect the “feel” of the cover art with how the blurbs characterize the book. If the two don’t seem to have any connection, then I wonder what the publisher was thinking? Did the designer read the book or even a synopsis of the book? Did the writer have any input in the cover? (Chances are, NO!)
I’ve been through the process of trying to influence a major publisher on dust jacket design and it didn’t go well. On one of the books, the cover art, in my humble opinion, was okay but the type was too dark and too hard to read and, when reduced for online booksellers like amazon, nearly illegible. What was the publisher thinking? And why didn’t they listen to the author or the author’s marketing representative?
Blank Slate Press will be different. Every author will have input into cover design. Every cover will be designed by a professional graphic designer who has either talked with the author and read a detailed synopsis or read the book–and often all three. And every cover will be legible! Every book designed so that even if you only see the spine on the shelf, you’ll want to stop and take a look.
Because while everyone knows you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we also know that you only get one chance to make a first impression.
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