My Hat & Changing my Mind about my Cover
January 3, 2010 at 12:20 amIf you’ve missed taking parting my Book Cover Design Challenge, you can still see the seven covers by clicking here.Even if you did receive one of the one hundred and fifty five I.D. numbers that I sent out to each entrant, you might want to remind yourself of the other pictures.
This afternoon I spent a happy couple of hours in Hudson’s Coffee House in the middle of Birmingham, drinking hot chocolate and chatting with a group of Bookcrossers. Because five of those I.D. numbers were going to be randomly selected, I wanted to make sure that all the entrants would know that everything had been conducted in a fair and proper manner,
so five of the group each drew one number out of the nice warm hat I’d been wearing:
From left to right: Matth3w, LyzzyBee, Heaven-Ali, Paraglider(that’s me!) Megmac and Nordie. (the little strips of paper they are all holding are the winning ID numbers)
With a big THANK YOU to Beckydore for volunteering to take this photo!
The winners (who will receive a free copy of Paper Lanterns as soon as it’s ready in a few weeks’ time) are:
ID no.16, Marilyn Ricci from Soundswrite, Leicester poetry group)
ID no. 27, Giles Osborne (from Cannon Poets, where I first ‘came out’ as a poet)
ID no. 51, Helena Brooke Carter (a friend from our long-ago school days)
ID no. 66, John Payne (latest book: The West Country: a cultural history )
ID no. 153, Sarah Jakeman, a gifted novelist and friend
When I set up this challenge, I didn’t want to ask people to vote for their own favourite, because I already knew which one I was going to use. Therefore, the only fair question seemed to be, ‘Which cover do you think that the author likes best?’
As an after thought, I added (truthfully) that I’d also be interested in hearing their views. Although I also said, ‘I might need to think again if enough people choose a different version!’ it honestly hadn’t entered my head that I might have to do just that!
Although I was delighted by the quality and thoughtfulness of the responses, I was becoming increasingly uneasy with each new entry – the cover which I had liked the least was leading the field from the start with seven out of the first ten entries.
I tried to convince myself that this would change as more entries came through, and I clung to that hope while 17 out of 30, then 22 out of 40, 26 of 50 and 32 of 60 consistently followed that preference. By the time the 100th came through, and 56 people had selected that same one, I knew I had to take notice of what was being said.
‘It’s your book, you should use the one you want,’ my friends said, but my brain doesn’t work like that. I can start off by being very clear about my own opinions on all sorts of things, but when I’m presented with other views on the matter, I look more closely at the basis for my decision in the first place and try to weigh up the various pros and cons.
In this particular case, one of the things I hadn’t fully considered was the importance of the instant impact: one of the main purposes of the front cover of a novel is to attract the attention of the viewer - either in the bookshop, where they’ll pick up the book itself, turn it over, read the blurb and the first page, or on-line, where they might scroll down for more information, and maybe click on Paypal, and add it to their basket.
I’ll be posting more soon about the different choices and comments, and why I had to change my mind, but didn’t mind it.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:33 am
We had a lovely time helping you pick the winners - thanks for including us!
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
It was fun, wasn’t it? I must now send emails to the five winners
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Sorry I had to leave early, and missed you!
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:13 pm
What a shame I was late! I was hoping to see you there, but I got side tracked, lured by the sales into buying a pair of almost knee-length leather boots with rubber soles like Wellington’s. Just right for these slippery pavements, and there’s room for a pair of thick socks too.
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
How interesting that there was such unanimity in the response. I’m agog to know which one was most popular - and if I agreed!
(Love the hat btw.)
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Yes, I was very surprised about this to start with, but I gradually realised why!
I’m currently working on my next post, in which all will be revealed. (It still takes me quite a long time to sort out the pics and get everything in the place I Iwant them to be in. I’m just beginning to get the hang of making (some of) the text wrap itself around the images.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:22 pm
PS Linda
I very rarely wear hats, as my head is too big, (physically, I mean, though some might say metaphorically) but I love this one as it’s soooo warm in this icy weather and it actually fits me!
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:29 pm
[...] you haven’t yet read about the Bookcrossers taking the winning numbers out of my hat, click here, or scroll down to read the previous post. (If you haven’t been aware of my Book Cover Design [...]