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New Moon cover not what author intended
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People may tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but we all know they do. As an aspiring author, you might think you’ll have direct input into the packaging of your work, but the truth is, you rarely will.
Case in point: New Moon, book two in Stephenie Meyer’s crazy-bestselling Twilight series. She has this to say on the New Moon FAQ page:
Q: What kind of flower is that on the cover, and what does it mean?
A: That is a ruffled tulip. As for the meaning... If you've read the Twilight FAQ , you know that the apple cover had a lot of meaning for me, and I was an active part of the covering process. However, that experience is more the exception than the rule in the publishing world. Something to keep in mind if you intend to embark on a career as a writer: lots of things you might expect to be under your control are not. Covers, for example. Those are mostly up to the publisher and the marketing and sales departments. So I don't know what the tulip means—I didn't have anything to do with this one.
So now you know… the tulip doesn’t have any symbolic meaning. It just looks cool. 
Of course, now that the movie version of New Moon is scheduled to come out in November, the book is being rereleased in September with a new, movie tie-in cover. Prominently featured are Bella (Kristen Stewart ) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Jacob looks stoically forward. Bella,tightly ensconsed in his arms, looks off to the side, seemingly mesmerized by the difference between his dark, bulging bicept and her skinny white one. Meanwhile, poor Edward (Robert Pattinson) has been reduced to a hazy, barely recognizable floating head in the background. I think it’s safe to say the author wasn’t involved in the production of this cover, either.
As a newly published author, I’ve been pretty lucky with my books so far. For my first, The Love of His Brother, I was able to give input to the design team. They then sent me the final cover image, which turned out great.
My next book, The Pastor’s Wife, comes out Spring 2010 but the cover is already done. Not only was I able to give input, but I was shown the cover in various stages of production and asked what I thought. I couldn’t be happier with the final result.
But what if I hadn’t liked the cover? What if I saw it and it made me cry? Some authors have the clout to ask for changes, but unless it’s really awful, I wouldn’t cause a rucus. If you do feel the need to challenge the graphic designer’s artistic vision, do it politely and with good humor.
In the end, there’s a whole team of people working to put out the best book they possibly can. As the author, your main responsibility is to draw readers in from page one and make them forget there even is a cover. Take a look at New Moon… the cover confounds even the author, but that sure didn’t affect the book’s sales figures.
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