Everyone will tell you that when you sell a book, you don\u2019t get to pick the cover. I know this, and I am fine with it. I don\u2019t know much about selling books, and my publisher does nothing but sell books, so I trust they would know what makes for a good cover. But I was flattered when they asked me for ideas about what I\u2019d like on the cover of my book, and I knew right away: Emily Anderson.<\/p>\n
Emily Anderson is a wonderful artist who paints scenes from nature in Minnesota. Unlike many northern landscape artists, her work is never dreary. Her scenes of the natural world just exude joy and a sense of discovery and\u2014it might sound odd, but it\u2019s true\u2014humor. Her work makes me smile. I want to be in whatever place she has painted. And so, when they asked what I wanted, I said, \u201cEmily Anderson.\u201d<\/p>\n
But of course, it was just to give the publisher an idea. I never told Emily anything about this. I don\u2019t know her personally. The closest I came to speaking to her was writing to ask her permission to use one of her pictures on my website when \u201cLoon Point\u201d was looking for a publisher. She was very kind and said I could use it. I never told her I recommended her art because I never in my wildest dreams thought they would contact her.<\/p>\n
Then I heard from my editor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some cover mock-ups for you to see,\u201d my editor said, \u201cbut we\u2019ve had a hard time reaching one of the artists for permission.\u201d I looked at the mock-ups and was astonished to see\u2026 Emily Anderson!<\/p>\n
I was over the moon. But why couldn\u2019t they reach her? I found her number and immediately dialed her up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, Emily! I don\u2019t expect you to remember me, but several months ago you let me use one of your pictures on my website for my book.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence. I could tell she had no idea who I was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the book sold. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard a sharp intake of breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd my publisher has been trying to reach you\u2026\u201d Now, I heard laughter starting on the other end of the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, no,\u201d Emily said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you get an email? They said they reached out to you by email and on Instagram. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
There was more laughter. I had never spoken to Emily before, but I could tell I liked her. Now she was really laughing. \u201cI thought it was spam!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, no!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes! I even asked a couple of friends. \u2018Do you think this is spam?\u2019 I asked them. \u2018Totally spam!\u2019 they agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now we were both laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will get back to them right away!\u201d Emily said.<\/p>\n
I had to wait a few days, but I learned that my publisher had licensed Emily\u2019s work to use on the cover of \u201cLoon Point.\u201d It is not just similar to the cover I wanted\u2014it is exactly what I wanted and never imagined I would get. Emily is delighted to be a part of it.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s one more thing. The painting has a name. The name of the painting is \u201cAlmost There.\u201d I imagine (although I\u2019d have to ask Emily) that it refers to the image of the lakeshore and a canoe that has almost landed, perhaps to camp for the night.<\/p>\n
But it seems to me, a first-time novelist, writing this book late in life about the things that matter most to me, having a cover called \u201cAlmost There\u201d is about as perfect as it gets.<\/p>\n
Till next time,<\/p>\n
Carrie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone will tell you that when you sell a book, you don\u2019t get to pick the cover. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,1725,88,8306,1767],"class_list":{"0":"post-88341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-columns","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-open","12":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}