Every book cover has a story, the behind the scenes, trying to stay true to your vision, hoping not to alienate your publisher kind of story. Sometimes, the story has a happy ending.
Sometimes the story turns into a drama, a collision, a disappointment, especially when working with traditional publishers whose marketing concerns often take precedence over authenticity.
In the perfect situation, the choice of cover image, design, and style, is a co-creative, inspiring process. Here at BAB, the process is always a co-creative. Our authors love looking at their books!
Over the next month, I’ll share the process of cover-selection for my first two books. One process felt like a drama of mythic proportions, and to this day I’m ambivalent when looking at the cover. The other process was a delight, and I smile whenever I view that cover.
A God Who Looks Like Me: Discovering a Woman-Affirming Spirituality (Ballantine Books, 1995)
The first cover image chosen by my Ballantine editor was not appropriate at all. It didn’t match the content and intention of the book. It was more of an art history cover reflecting the dark, formal religions of the past. At some point in the preparation process, the sales and marketing team had its say about the cover. They agreed with me that they couldn’t sell my book to the bookstores “wearing” that art-history-esque regressive cover.
My editor then chose a Rossetti image of a young white woman. I was livid, ready to break my contract with them. The book invites women to sort through the names and images of the divine that fill their spiritual landscape and to imagine the divine in their image and likeness. The book doesn’t suggest replacing the while male god of traditional religion with a white female version. I wanted a more inclusive image and suggested Miriam Fabbri’s “The Goddess Trinity.” They said, “No.”
The women’s spirituality circles, out of which the book was born, were made up of women of every age, color, and ethnicity. I brought the proposed Rossetti cover to the circle. The women of color encouraged me to allow the book to be published because they felt that its message was too important to be set aside based on the cover image. They invited me to trust that the women who were meant to read the book, would.
They encouraged me to dialog with the Rossetti image and in the process “she” said, “Allow me to draw women into the book. Once they open its pages, the words and reflections will lead them to love themselves as they imagine the divine in their own image and likeness. They will forget about my image, and encounter themselves.”
I’ve received notes through the years from women of color, sharing the challenge they faced, being both drawn to the title and put off by the image. Most of them felt a stronger pull toward the book than away from it, and allowed its words to support and inspire them to design a woman-affirming spirituality for themselves. See the cover here: http://www.imagineawoman.com/home/a-god-who-looks-like-me-discovering-a-woman-affirming-spirituality
Be Full of Yourself: The Journey from Self-Criticism to Self-Celebration (Conari Press, 1999)
Inspired by Eve and the courageous community of women who have gone before us, Be Full of Yourself invites us to journey from self-criticism to self-celebration by assuming intellectual, theological, and personal equality with the traditions that have shaped our self-critical attitudes. To take our place in the noble line of self-possessed and free-thinking women by committing the forbidden act of designing a personal and communal spirituality based on our experience, wisdom, and authority as women.
For over a thousand years, women have been biting into the Genesis texts and reinterpreting them from a woman’s perspective. Beginning with the unnamed women of the heretical Montanist sect who claimed Eve as their champion, women have recognized that their destinies were inextricably bound to Eve’s story, and that to reclaim themselves, they must reclaim her. These women laid the groundwork for us. Their rebellious spirits inspire our forbidden acts.
Because my business Open Window Creations published Be Full of Yourself, the process was much simpler and authentic to the material. I knew an apple needed to be on the cover! I received a cartoon from a friend: a snake is coiled in the proverbial tree of life, attempting to convince Eve to take a bite with these words, “Take a bite – what harm can there be? It’s organic.” The Be Full of Yourself cover apple is organic. I bought a basket full of apples at a Sonoma County apple farm on the way to the cover photo shoot!
The apple has tremendous mythic, historical, political, and personal meaning for women, reaching into our collective unconscious. As my beloved cousin Paul said, “It’s a genetic thing…that’s why women reach for the apple. They’re Eve’s daughters.” Bite into your life and the fullness of its possibility today. Do the Eve-thing!! See the cover here: http://www.imagineawoman.com/home/be-full-of-yourself-the-journey-from-self-criticism-to-self-celebration
Your Cover Story
In the next BAB blog, I’ll share the cover stories of the next three books! If you have your own cover story, share it here or on BAB’s Facebook fan page. If you’re ready to step onto the path of publication culminating in a published book with a cover of your choice, book a Strategy Session at the website for our Summer special of $50. www.birthAbook.com
Patricia Lynn Reilly is the founder of Imagine a Woman International and BAB Publishing Services. In her role as publishing coach, she reminds her clients that they are individualized expressions of creative intelligence, idea-generators fueled by the creative powers of the universe. Supported by the BAB Team, her clients take their tenacious ideas, propelled by their own strong YES, to the publishing finish line! Visit www.birthAbook.com for more inspiration and support to take the next step with your tenacious idea. Visit www.imagineAwoman.com to be inspired to author your own life!
