UK site – Gordon Crabb
Alison Eldred – (agent/UK)
alisoneldred@gmail.com

“Speaking of art, this is a series that just begs for fan art. Maybe that’s just because I’d love to see it, but in truth a series about angels, archangels, demon spawn and the humans fated to hunt down the bad guys even gets my all-but-nonexistent artistic juices flowing. Meanwhile, the cover art by Gordon Crabb points imaginations in the right direction with his detailed, step-off-the-page illustrations.”

– Denise Dutton, Greenman Review

Interview with Seth Lerner, Mass Market Art Director of Tor Books
(Questions complied by CrocoDesigns)

Can you tell us about the cover art process for EVE OF DARKNESS from the first time you heard about this book until the presentation of the final cover art?

I was really excited because the idea behind it—publishing three novels back-to-back-to-back—was novel to me. It required us to really focus on something that would set the series tone, and that something turned out to be the lead character, Eve. All the covers needed to look similar, but still be able to stand alone.

Who’s the artist of the MARKED covers? Is s/he an in-house artist or a freelancer?

Gordon Crabb. He is a freelance artist we have used before. He was a pleasure to work with.

The MARKED series is a trilogy, and the books also show their connection through the covers, of course. As all books release back-to-back did the artist work on all covers simultaneously or did s/he approach the creation process chronologically?

Gordon started on the first, set the tone, and when we finalized the concept, he then generated the other two.

How important is it to have a consistent look for the covers of a series? And what do you think, are the reasons then that there are several series breaking this consistency cover-wise?

A series look is very important, but if a series isn’t selling, the easiest thing to do is to change the cover and see if that affects sales.

Who did come up with the initial concept/outline for the covers? Was there a certain ‘trigger’ that led to the idea for the covers – to design them in this way and no other?

From what I remember, the basic concept came from Sylvia (the author), herself. A strong, central figure with varying backgrounds and strong typography to show her off.

The MARKED series belongs to the Urban Fantasy genre. Do you think certain genres require a certain look? If so, what do you think will (should) a reader never see on an UF cover?

I really don’t know. What I know is that many genres have specific types of art that they are known for. In my opinion, urban fantasies straddle the fence and can choose from various elements of various genres and still work.