Last night I saw the cover design for my book. I was standing on Princes Bridge, at about 5.30pm, with a photographer, doing a few extra shots. The sky was full-on moody and the wind was wildish. It looked liked this:
I was taking a few snaps on my phone, in between Mark doing his, and I saw two emails had arrived. One from my publisher and the other from my agent. There was an attachment. And text along the lines of here is your cover, hope you love it as much as I do! And my agent saying she loves it too.
Standing on the bridge, in the cold, doing something which makes me feel self-conscious, I thought to myself: If I look at it and don’t like it, then it will show on my face. it’s hard enough to look pleasantly at the camera, to approximate a smile. It could be a mistake to look at the cover now.
As if.
I opened the PDF and my instant response was YES, love, pleasure, excitement, relief, thrill, satisfaction.
It’s an amazing cover, perfect for the book, exactly exactly right. I’d had some ideas about how I hoped it would like, but was trying to keep non-specific about it. Much like when a person wants to buy a Turkish rug, if they have a really firm idea of colours, design and size, then it’s really hard to find something that fits all those expectations. Better to aim for no more than two of those elements otherwise disappointment is certain. I tried to keep this in my head.
But the cover exceeds my wildest hopes. It’s better than anything I could possibly think of because the designers (and the publishers who briefed them) have seen to the heart of the book in a way that I was too close to.
I can’t wait to show it here.
SERAGLIO 
So pleased for you!
Thanks Jane!
Fan-tastic. Can’t wait to see it.
As soon as poss I promise, but won’t be for a leetle while I don’t think.
Yay! Can’t wait to see it.
It’s so beautiful. I love it.
Agghh!!! I’m so excited for you Jen. What a sense of occasion there is in this post. X
Thanks love. (I’m guessing it’s you S?) x
Yes and isn’t WP a bit overbearing and sneaky.
Maybe I was ambushed as a newbie.
Dunno. Moving between them and blogger is tricky.
It sounds so exciting—thanks for the tease, by the way—and I can’t wait to see it!
Hi Louise, nice to see you here. It is REALLY exciting, I’ll show it as soon as I can.
I feel like I shouldn’t be here but I stumbled under via Twitter. I just wanted to send you some very heartfelt congratulations on having your dreams become a reality. Congrats Jen, am so chuffed for you. Wow!
Hi Jo, no it’s good to see you here! This is pretty much the best place to find me, other than twitter and email. Thanks so much for your good wishes. It is a dream come true, it really is. Thanks for visiting! x