STATUS: There’s a lot of cool stuff going on today but I’m only allowed to talk about one of them. See below.
What’s playing on the iPod right now? PRIDE & JOY by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
Sometimes a Publisher will put together a really cool promo for an author. And in general, I have to say that the Orbit team is one of my favorites to work with—especially publicity guru Alex. He’s the one that came up with the SOULLESS paper doll promotion. (I’m not biased or anything as he was NLA’s marketing director Lindsay Mergen’s assistant back in the day….Grin).
He, Lauren and Eric of the fab Orbit team (huge thanks!) came up with this just incredible promo—a video montage that compresses hours of labor into 2 minutes on the making of the cover for BLAMELESS—Gail Carriger’s third book in the Alexia Tarabotti Parasol Protectorate Series.
Love Orbit! Galley Cat and Huffington Post have already picked it up.
Check it out.
And for fun, here’s the ‘oops’ first draft of the cover. If you watch, you’ll learn exactly what was the mistake in draft one.
Ha ha. Love it, esp. the ‘Ooops’! Looks like a gorgeous cover and I’ll defintely put this on my TBR list! Loved Soulless and am eagerly awaiting Bk 2!
Wow, that was fabulous to watch.
I loved the first book and am eagerly awaiting the next two–and it’s rare that I continue series!
Wicked! Thanks for sharing. I absolutely loved this.
As a person who has had to work with adobe illustrator and photoshop for cartography, I can so respect all that work. And it looks beautiful!
That is great! The whole time I was watching it I kept thinking, “Are they going to take out the Eiffel tower because I don’t think it was built…”
I’ve always wondered how they make covers look so fabulous. I’d love just to hear the brainstorming sessions for them.
That’s an awesome video! I wish I knew how to do that. 🙂 I didn’t realize how they took parts of many different images and fit them together.
At first glance, I thought the Notre Dame (upon which that gargoyle is) was too close to the Luevre and not the view she would have of the Eiffel, but then I thought, “wait a minute… the Eiffel was at a World’s Fair WAY after this…” and I was right! Amazing. I’m almost never right.
Very cool.
I experienced a bit of a, “That’s too bad,” frown when the artist made her face thinner and her hands smaller (Happy International Women’s Day!), but I am telling myself it was to make the woman look more like the character.
I still haven’t read Soulless, but am looking forward to it from what you have already posted on your blog.
Warm Regards
Fascinating! Love the “oops”. Someone gets the prize for that catch.
Thanks for sharing this! LOVE it!!!
Wow. I am in awe. Nice ornithopter!
Ooh, what fun! Thanks so much for sharing this. “Backstage” peeks are always exciting.
Very creative appproach to promotion a book!
Ok so when I get to book design and I think (as I do about most things) I’ll do it myself – ‘how hard can it be?’ – Now I’ll know. Pretty hard. Great clip.
You had me at “third.”
My husband is a graphic designer – I watched the video and then handed my laptop to him. He laughed out loud to see the process he goes through to develop a piece compressed down into less than 2 minutes… including fixing a mistake. This is a fun entry; I love your blog!
What amazing, talented people there are in the world. Such a beautiful cover and such an exciting series of books!
LOVE the video – wish it were slowed down just a smidge – really want to see more!
Third book?! But . . . but . . . I just finished the first!
to Stephanie: Just so you know, they weren’t narrowing her face, hands and body to give the woman a thinner look. They were removing the green pixels leftover from the original image (it had a green background). If left it would give an almost green halo or shadow effect on the face, hands and dress and make the cut and paste quite obvious.
That was amazing. As much a promo for the design tools as the book, as well – the designer was a true pro.
Very cool! I love that they actually bothered to go back and take out the Eiffel Tower. One hears so much bad news about cover designs, such as publishers going ahead with white models for books about black characters.
Mind = Blown
that’s so cool. I need to get that software so I can doctor some unfortunate beach photos;)I just read Soulless and then my MIL read it too. Great read!
Now THAT was one of the coolest promo presentations I’ve seen in a long time. It was like being in a live audience when they tape a television production; fly-on-the-wall perspective. The “oops” about the Eiffel Tower told me a lot about the time setting for the novel as well. I’m not so sure if the promo tells me anything else… but it was cool to watch! Thank you for posting this.
Wow! That is so cool! Gail posted her pic on FB and I thought it was WICKED COOL!! I can’t wait for the next one!
Now I see why people need graphic design majors and most self-published covers are doomed.
David,
Link fixed! Thanks for the heads up.
I love the suspenseful feel of the music.
What an amazing trio of covers. Definite home run!
Love the oops.
The music is an excellent accompaniment to this informative promo. What’s it called? Or who recorded it?
Victoria Corfield
Ha, ha! That’s an awesome montage of the process.
In fact, that’s exactly what I have to go do for a client right now!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Found the music on the Orbitbooks website. It’s HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH by Ilya Kaplan. Fabulous.
Victoria Corfield
Mesmerizing to watch! I love the gorgeous imagery, and whoever chose the music did a stellar job 🙂
Erin
this is fascinating! and the music is fantastic, to boot.