In Darkness Bound

Publish America, the publishing house responsible for putting out my novel In Darkness Bound, permits authors to design and submit covers for their books. There are specifc criteria that must be met, and there is, of course, no guarantee the publisher will accept what you produce. I suspect that in many cases authors are only too happy to have this task assigned to others. However, when I wrote In Darkness Bound I always had certain images in mind, and as an artist as well as a writer I was determined to take a shot at designing my own cover. In this respect I was fortunate to have a few programs on hand and a drawing tablet (Wacom Graphire). Both greatly facilitated the process--believe me, there is no pleasure in trying to draw with a mouse.

In beginning the process of creating the cover I knew immediately that I wanted something stark. A predominance of black--which ties in somewhat with themes addressed in the book--was always foremost on my mind. Even before I began rendering the images, I had a very clear picture of what I wanted as an end product. It was then only a matter of crafting the various parts and assembling them as a whole, a process made much easier by the technology I had at hand. And while I certainly cannot boast of having very up-to-date equipment and software, what I did have sufficed.

The painting on the cover was executed using Painter Classic, an old but very serviceable program. This image was then ported to an older version of Adobe Photoshop, where text was added. The spine was similarly crafted, with a portion of the front cover image selected to be placed beneath the text. This is the only part of the cover the designers at Publish America altered, marginally changing the text alignment and shifting the image down slightly and shrinking it somewhat. The latter is unfortunate in a way, because aesthetically I thought it better when the spine image lined up -- top and bottom -- with the front cover painting. However, the change does not detract from the statement I was hoping to make with the cover, so I can't say I'm displeased.

On the back cover of the book I used Painter Classic once more to create an image of a shoulder patch made of embroidered cloth. The placement of the teaser text and the brief author bio was at the discretion of the publisher.

I am never so happy as when I am creating, and it was certainly a pleasure to be able to design the cover for the book I had spent so much time writing. Only in this way was I assured of getting the sort of understated look I wanted. I specifically did not want the rather garish and patentedly fantastical sort of cover that is too often the norm for science fiction books. What I wanted was something that would stand out on a book shelf without proclaiming too loudly its SF pedigree. It's not that I'm ashamed of science fiction or the fact that the book is part of that genre, but I hope the cover will attract people who might otherwise breeze past such works. It's probably a hopelessly naive notion. On the other hand, the covers of books are important. Whether they can make or break a book is debatable; a novel that is genuinely good will likely find an audience in time. But a great cover just may make that happen all the sooner.

I hope what I have designed will be of a nature to convince you that In Darkness Bound is something you would like to read.

Lindsay Brambles, Ottawa, 2007

Front cover

Back Cover

An image of the spine may be seen in the Sample Chapters section of this website.