The Birth of a Book Cover

The Birth of a Book Cover

Books are written in isolation, but their covers are born in community, at least in my experience. Here’s the story of how I birthed the cover for LOUISE AND VINCENT. 

Great artist that Vincent van Gogh was, he’d been a terribly lonely man. When I read in his biography that he might have been shot by someone in the village, my creative brain tried to figure out why anyone would shoot him. Maybe a woman was involved….

I worked on the story for several years: rewriting, getting feedback, rewriting again. Always, in the back of my mind, I thought about the cover. I’d started painting, years before, because I loved van Gogh’s art, and I eventually painted a decent picture of a flowering almond tree that was based on one of Vincent’s paintings. I wanted that picture to grace the cover of the novel. I often dreamed about it at night—my name and my painting on the cover of my book.  

In due time, the book was accepted for publication, and after a long wait, I got an email from the publisher asking what I wanted on the cover. The tree, I responded promptly. 

“Nope,” came the even quicker response. They don’t allow original art work for covers—too many problems with copyright. Even though it was my own painting, it wasn’t going to happen. I was instructed to come up with other ideas. 

Without the almond trees, my mind was a blank. Eventually I received a draft of a cover. It was a window in a French inn with sunflowers in a window box. Yes, most of the book takes place in a French inn, and van Gogh is certainly famous for painting sunflowers, so it should have worked. But it was prissy and vague, and it didn’t fit the vibrant, edgy novel I’d written. Erica Lucke Dean, the publisher’s creative director, volunteered to help me come up with a different concept. I wracked my brain for ideas. 

Could I have pictures of Louise and Vincent staring at each other in profile? Nope. Louise was all right, since no one knows what she looked like. (She was a real person, but there are no existing photos of her.) There weren’t any good photos of Vincent taken shortly before he died, so that wouldn’t work. . 

Okay, how about a man with red hair and a woman with brown hair painting in a wheat field, and we only see them from behind? Vincent was Louise’s painting instructor, so that would fit. After searching for pictures from that time period, Erica couldn’t find anything appropriate, so that idea went nowhere. 

Again, I had nothing. 

How about something abstract, asked Erica? Yes, that could work. We looked at stock photos of swirly paintings. They were good. It might work as a concept. But it wasn’t quite there. 

I began to despair. This was most likely the best book I would ever write, and it needed to have a kick-ass cover, not something that would just “work.” 

The next afternoon, out of the blue, I thought about The Starry Night, the most famous painting by van Gogh. It had swirly strokes. To my surprise, photos of the painting were in the public domain. What if we used part of the sky on the cover? Everyone who saw even a small section of that painting would recognize it and know to whom the Vincent in the title referred. 

Erica began to work with it, and we went back and forth several times. Eventually, she sent me a draft of a new idea. Tears welled up when I stared at it. This was it! 

The final cover is Starry Night Over the Rhone. We have a romantic couple who are dressed in period clothing, we have swirly paint, we have a starry night, and we have a river. In my story, Louise and Vincent often stand together by a river near the inn. When Erica sent the cover to me, she said, “It’s like he painted it just for you!” 

Yes, indeed. (Cue more tears.) 

I adore the cover, but my point is that, if I had tried to come up with something by myself, it would have been those flowering trees. Good, yes, but nowhere nearly as good as what collaboration brought. By myself, I would never have dared to consider one of Vincent’s paintings as the basis for my cover. It was too big of a reach for my single mind. It took failing, over and over, for me to feel comfortable enough to reach that far. Eventually, there was nothing left to consider. Why not go with the work of the master?  

Okay, so van Gogh didn’t paint it in Auvers, France, where the story takes place. Nope, he painted it two years before, in Arles. That level of accuracy isn’t nearly as important to me as having a painting on the cover that is easily recognizable as having been painted by van Gogh. How can people not reach for the book when they see that cover? 

At least that’s the hope. Tears still well up when I look at it.  

That feeling of awe is what you want for your book cover. So maybe don’t go with your first idea, and don’t choose it without collaborating with someone who is experienced in creating covers. And be willing to reach for something your heart desires, even if you have to spend a while coming up with what that is. In book covers, as in life, we often have to fail a bunch of times before we succeed. 

Books take a long time to write, so don’t settle for a mediocre cover. Go for something that reflects the spirit of your book and makes you want to cry whenever you see it.

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Diane Byington writes novels featuring strong women characters who do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true. So far, she’s written about marathon runners, time travelers, astronauts, and artists.

In addition to writing her own novels, Diane is a book coach who helps other writers to reach their dreams of publication. She also enjoys painting, kayaking, and photographing sunsets. She and her husband divide their time between Longmont, Colorado, and Dunedin, Florida.

Find out more about Diane on her website https://dianebyington.com/

VINCENT AND LOUISE

French innkeeper Louise Ravoux is struggling to keep her inn afloat while raising her two daughters and avoiding her abusive husband. One afternoon, a scruffy redheaded painter walks in, wanting to rent a room. Vincent van Gogh reminds her of her first love, and he has the most arresting eyes of anyone she’s ever seen. Though attracted to Vincent, Louise still bears the scars her husband gave her the only time she flirted with a man during their marriage. Still, something about Vincent makes her feel alive, and when she sees him painting outside, she stops to admire his work.

Louise gathers her courage and asks Vincent to give her painting lessons, and he agrees. She soon realizes that art and this man are calling her to change her life. Because of her husband’s temper and propensity for violence, Louise walks a dangerous path, but she’s determined to do whatever it takes to find a meaningful life and experience love.

Both a love story and a chronicle of a woman’s awakening, Louise and Vincent richly portrays the last months of one of the most iconic artists in history.

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Category: On Writing