Shooting a book cover involves a lot of folks.
Most of the Abingdon Fiction covers are composite layouts designed using stock photos, appropriate type fonts, and graphic elements. We employ some of the best designers in the business, but one element that they often have trouble finding are photographs that work with a book's story. Especially historical romances.
There are some things Photoshop just can't fix.
So this season we decided to shoot our own models for two of our covers: Myra Johnson's Whisper Goodbye (featured today) and Karen Barnett's Out of the Ruins (next time).
Whisper Goodbye is set in post-WWI Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Myra's heroine is a young, girl-next-door redhead named Mary. Pamela Clements, Associate Publisher for Abingdon's Christian Living and Fiction lines (and thus my boss), recruited one of her daughter's friends, Grace, to place the role of "Mary." Grace was perfect!
We hired Jason Dodson of Created Images as the photographer. I met Jason when I was teaching American Lit at Nossi College of Art a few years ago, and his portrait and fashion work impressed me (and continues to do so). He hired a make-up artist and hair stylist who had worked with him on previous fashion shoots.
Then I went to a local costume house, Performance, that I had worked with when I was doing community theater. I pulled a WWI nurse's uniform and cap. On Monday, July 1, we all went to work.
Hair and make-up took about 90 minutes. Then Jason begins giving his assistant Jeremy and Grace instructions. Jeremy, also a skilled photographer added some helpful suggestions as well.
This is Jason, our make-up artist (who was AWESOME), Pamela Clements, and Grace.
The hair stylist responds to the request to make Grace's up-do fluffier. Mary has thick curly hair that she has to keep pinned up on the job.
More instructions to Grace about what to do in order to produce the right facial expressions. Jason is extremely good with suggestions on what to think and how to tense certain muscles to render the right look.
A make-up touch-up. Mary didn't need to look TOO made up. Lighter lipstick shades weren't readily available in the early 20s, and the darker shades would make "Mary" look too "tarty." We wanted a look that said, "I care about my appearance, but I'm not vain or crazy about make-up."
Jeremy performed all kinds of gyrations to hold reflectors in just the right place to produce the right shadows on Grace. Notice the big clip at Grace's waist? She's TINY! We had to clip her uniform so that it would stay in place and fit her correctly in front.
Everyone's watching.
Of the dozens of shots Jason took, we chose this one as our final.
And how it looks on the cover.
And here are the first two books in Myra's "Till We Meet Again" series.
This is a series that we're really excited about launching. Set just as the First World War is ending, it follows what happened to the people who struggled to return to lives and loves forever changed by what they'd been through.
Next time: Out of the Ruins!
