Dear Lovely Supporters,

A special treat today. The cover for love lay down beside me and we wept has been finalised and I am really excited to share it here first. Without further ado, here it is!

 

 



I’m delighted with it. It was designed by Mark Ecob, the same designer who came up with the brilliant cover for The Backstreets of Purgatory. I’d love to share with you a bit of background about the thinking behind the concept and how we arrived at the final design.

Although Mark is the designer, the whole team (editing, marketing, sales) has an input into the design. The cover of the book has to do more than just look beautiful. Among other things, it has to appeal to buyers for bookshops so they will stock it. It should give the reader a reason to pick a book up in a shop or click on a link to buy it online. It also serves to give a clue to the content of the book. And, importantly, it should be distinctive.

Now, most of you will know that I was very attached to the temporary cover that we used for the crowdfunding campaign (another of Mark’s). Despite my fondness for it, it was only ever intended to be a provisional one to use on the website. Although it was a stunning image, there is no getting away from the fact that it is the portrayal of a dead bird. Perhaps a little too dark, both literally and metaphorically, to serve the book well.

The new cover moves away from the concept of the bird to something more human and relatable. The figure is falling, and the rigid lines of the pages of a notebook are bending under her. I love the theme here. Writing, both academic and literary, has been a constant in my life. Are the lines going to break or will they provide a safety net? It is the perfect balance of jeopardy tinged with hope.

It took a couple of rounds of back and forth before we agreed on the figure. Because love lay down is a memoir and not a work of fiction, it felt important to me that the figure was someone I could relate to (without it necessarily being me). In an earlier iteration, while very striking, the falling woman was too glamorous for anyone to possibly think she could have anything to do with me. And I had a weird thing going on with the feet. But this one is wearing trainers, and I can definitely put myself in her shoes (pardon the pun).

The lower-case lettering and the clear space around it really let the title sing. And there aren’t that many books with such pale covers, so I’m sure it will stand out. I’m trying to imagine it on the shelves of a bookshop, and getting excited and nervous all over again.

A big thank you to Mark and the rest of the team.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back in touch again soon.

Very best to you all,

Helen xx