My plan had been that I would wait 6 months before The Book of Isabel comes out to debut the cover. I didn’t have a date in mind but I knew that I had to stick the plan. So last week, when I was in Miami, I posted the cover on social media.
I explained in a previous post that I started out with my own vision of what I wanted and when I gave that vision over to a graphic designer, this is what came out. The point of this cover to produce something flashy. I wanted this cover to be very different from Hanging Upside Down and yet I wanted the two books to connect.
First, I want to thank Sam Wilson, a fellow Syracuse Alum, who worked with me on this. He is the graphic designer that deserves the credit for making this cover look so good. After the first book came out, we talked about a possible collaboration and when I had a vision of the book, he took it and made it tangible. I appreciate his patience with all the tweaks and edits that I’ve sent over to him. Sam is a true professional.
The book itself is about Luis (the protagonist from the first book) and his version of who Isabel is. So when the reader gets to know and understand her, it is through his lens which is why she’s bare on the cover. The words in the background are the same words from Hanging Upside Down that sparked her creation in the first place.
The cover was not initially meant to be sexy. I wanted to show the importance of words when thinking about Isabel or any other character in the book for that matter. I consider all my characters to be a blank slate or naked until words fill in the all the blanks.
The Book of Isabel is slated for release in June, you can get more info about the book on Goodreads.
Anthony Otero 