Monday, November 24, 2008

Writers Judging (Their Own) Book Covers: Discuss


I know, you'd think – if, like me, your work has yet to appear between two hard covers with only your own name on the front – that once you get to the point when a publisher is running proposed cover designs by you, you would be so darned happy about having a firm upcoming publication date, you just might be in a pretty agreeable mood.

Or, not.


Ken Whyte, editor-in-chief of
MacLean's magazine, got into a cover art tug-of-war with Random House for his upcoming first book (Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst) and shares the brief mess in an earnest and ultimately self-chastising piece on his magazine's blog. An excerpt:

"I went on strike. I quit answering emails from my editor’s production staff and announced that I was no longer in a mood to promote the book upon publication.
A few days went by.
My agent called: “Are you an idiot?”"
Read the whole (short) story
here, and learn more about the book and Whyte's writing process in this interview.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! Came over here from Ask Wendy's blog.

Thanks for the useful links. I'm shocked that he's done that to the editorial staff. I would so not do that (that's how hard I'm craving for a book deal. I'd probably keel over and walk on fire just for that). There must be a pretty good story behind it.

I'm really liking your blog so far. I'll be dropping by again. :)

Michelle O'Neil said...

Oh to be in a position to negotiate on covers!

Very funny story.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.