ABOUT THE COVER ART

Judge by the Cover

It’s a secret that’s little known outside of the publishing industry— the author of a book has almost no say at all about the cover design. Large publishing houses often seem to feel that market-savvy suits are better qualified to hook readers than the people who actually write the books, and the result is that many novels of enchanting originality and ingenuity are presented on the bookshelf inside of covers that look like detergent boxes. The system works okay if the author is a Clive Cussler or a Nora Roberts, but what happens if the authors are a pair of unknown novices?

We were presented with an opportunity when our debut novel was accepted by a tiny publishing house that had no internal cover design staff. Since the cover art was to be farmed out, we could influence where that work would go, and which artist would do the work. That’s how Darrell Mayabb came to design our cover. He is not only one of America’s foremost automotive illustrators; he is also a personal friend.

Book cover designs can range from simple lettering against a bland background, to symbolic abstractions, to narrative representation. Since we had a gifted illustrator working for us rather than some unknown graphic artist, we decided to go with a cover that tended toward the narrative. The pivotal point in the story is the discovery of a crystal skull during a speed run at Bonneville, and these two elements—the skull and the race car—became the focus of the design. Darrell wanted to design a font for the title that would, in his words, “convey mystery.” And our agent, Donna Jackson, advised us that books with the color, red, stand out well on the shelf.

There is an almost-schizophrenic incongruity in the way Stonecypher Road is written, given its subject matter. Literary fiction writing is usually reserved for subjects of the heart and personal introspection, not madcap pulp-adventures that involve crystal skulls and secret societies. We hope that the bright red translucent skull captures some of that paradox.