{"id":3582,"date":"2014-07-19T11:42:31","date_gmt":"2014-07-19T15:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=3582"},"modified":"2014-07-19T11:55:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T15:55:55","slug":"eye-behind-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/the-vault-of-dreamers\/eye-behind-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eye Behind the Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elizabeth

Elizabeth Clark, Caragh O’Brien, and Kate Jacobs in Beth’s office, July 8, 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

Covers matter, obviously. A good one catches people\u2019s attention, intrigues them enough to take a closer look, and then lures them inside. Getting it right takes knowing the novel, of course, but it also involves a bit of mind reading. Who are the likely readers for this book? Maybe they\u2019re drawn to covers featuring a girl in a flowing dress, or a simple, iconic image. Maybe they want something familiar, or they\u2019re ready for a change. Certainly readers want the cover to be an accurate promise of what\u2019s inside the book. To me, that\u2019s what matters most. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The

The Flatiron Building, NYC<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine, then, my delight with the striking cover of The Vault of Dreamers<\/em><\/a>, my upcoming new novel. It was created by Elizabeth Clark, a brilliant designer and Associate Art Director at Macmillan<\/a>, and I had the chance to meet Beth when I visited the Flatiron Building<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Beth has a warm smile and a direct, kind manner. She works in a tidy white office with books, a computer, framed art, and a plush tiger. When I asked her about how she came up with the cover for Vault<\/em>, she said she knew right away she wanted to work with an eye. She searched stock photos for the one chose. Some of her early efforts involved an eye inside a triangular shape, but she thought they were too much like another cover she knew, so she kept focusing further into the eye until she found what worked. \u00a0Then she added the reflection and other design elements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In short, she nailed it.<\/p>\n

\"An

Cover design by Elizabeth Clark<\/p><\/div>\n

My editor Kate Jacobs and I told Beth some of the comments we\u2019ve heard lately about the cover, particularly from our visit to ALA<\/a>. We\u2019ve heard the eye altogether looks like a super nova, and that the iris colors are like an electrical storm or an explosion. Some readers have commented on how the outer dial evokes a camera lens, or a lock on a vault, or a compass. Quite a few people have told me that they love how clean and simple the design is, and others are drawn to the creepy factor. They\u2019re intrigued. They\u2019re excited to see something different. To me, the overall effect of hyper-awakeness suggests imagination, speed, and cunning. It\u2019s perfect for a book about dreams and art and taking risks.<\/p>\n

Beth said the final version on the hardcover will have a shiny, tactile quality to it, and I\u2019m curious to see how that will look and feel. I like the idea that a reader could be curled up with the novel, sucked into the story, and subconsciously noting the unusual feel of the cover all the while. The cover will be part of the story, too. Just as it should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covers matter, obviously. A good one catches people\u2019s attention, intrigues them enough to take a closer look, and then lures them inside. Getting it right takes knowing the novel, of course, but it also involves a bit of mind reading. Who are the likely readers for this book? Maybe they\u2019re drawn to covers featuring a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[26,490,450],"class_list":["post-3582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-vault-of-dreamers","tag-covers","tag-elizabeth-clark","tag-the-vault-of-dreamers-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3588,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions\/3588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}