Jon Foster on Cherie Priest’s Dreadnought, once and again

Here’s a situation where we got a great image from Jon Foster but...Marketing felt it was missed the steampunk mark a bit. I hated to admit it, because it is a great painting, but it does feel too solidly placed in actual history. So, giant steam robot to the rescue!

And through the wonders of the internets, the first still gets to live in the world.

For Cherie Preist’s Dreadnought, sequel to her Boneshaker. You can see another Foster-Priest collab set in the same world on Clementine, published by Subterranean Press.

UPDATE: For author squee.

Julie Bell and The Path of Daggers

This month’s Wheel of Time ebook release features the fabulous Julie Bell!

“In the end, Julie created strong and individual characters, each one looking as competent in their own right as the next, clearly working together for a greater power.”

Check out the Tor.com article to read the whole story, including a video interview with Julie.

Tor Books turns 30!

Last Friday was our birthday — Tor turned 30!

To commemorate the occasion, I put together a “walk through the halls” photo essay. Come on by and say Hi. It’s a peak inside the offices along with a quick introduction to some of the people behind the books.

Facelifts: Virga

Jamie Stafford-Hill, design
Stephan Martiniere, art

It’s always fun to re-consider designs when books move from hardcover to trade paperback. Even just a few years can make you want to update a bit.

I started playing around with the color translucent panels and then, as always, meetings took over my days. Once the mechanical was labeled “Late!” I threw it off to designer Jamie Stafford-hill and said, “Kinda like this only, you know, good.” And, as always he delivered.

Cities in the Air is an omnibus of the first two novels in Karl Schroeder’s Virga series. Pirate Sun being the third volume. Two more (for now?) to come. I look forward to seeing the whole set in my favorite format.

Sam Weber’s Ender’s Game ebook cover

I am very excited to release Sam Weber’s ebook cover for Ender’s Game. This was a blast to work on.

For the whole skinny on the how the cover came about, Sam’s thoughts, and a some process pictures, check out the Tor.com article.

Mélanie Delon and A Crown of Swords

Alas, our latest Wheel of Time ebook cover reveal! A Crown of Swords

This one by Mélanie Delon. (She of the Spectrum 16 cover.) If you head over to Tor.com, you can get the inside scoop on how we got here, including a nifty progression through various stages of the painting.

Mélanie Delon’s work is exemplified by utilizing detail and soft focus, creating images that blur the edges between realism and fantasy. It was a great match for a moment of surrender and rebirth, a moment when Nynaeve must disengage from her usual character traits and, if just for second, open herself up.

Metatropolis

Just showing off our latest from Peter Lutjen.

Greg Manchess’ Lord of Chaos extended video, the artist-edition

Because the awesome Megan Messinger is awesome, she has created a slightly extended version of Lord of Chaos video which includes “real-time” painting footage. Enjoy the artist-edition:

Greg Manchess on the Wheel of Time Lord of Chaos ebook cover

The next of our Wheel of Time ebook covers is up! For Lord of Chaos we present a signature battle of the series, Dumai’s Wells, as portrayed by Greg Manchess.

As usual, all the details can be found in the Tor.com post, including our groovy “sliding” cover, Greg’s thoughts on composing the image, and a
super-cool time-lapse video of Greg working on the painting from beginning to end.

RELATED:
All Wheel of Time ebook posts are archived here.
Which include:
David Grove on The Eye of the World
Kekai Kotaki on The Great Hunt
Donato Giancola on The Dragon Reborn
Sam Weber on The Shadow Rising
Dan Dos Santos on The Fires of Heaven

Micahel Whelan’s cover for Brandon Sander’s The Way of Kings

A new Michael Whelan book cover doesn’t come around very often so I am super excited to present his artwork for our upcoming fantasy series,The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson.

If you click over to Tor.com you can see progress shoots and read what Michael had to say about working on the project.

Dan Dos Santos and the Wheel of Time ebook cover: The Fires of Heaven

Presenting!...The next of our Wheel of Time ebook covers: The Fires of Heaven with art by Dan Dos Santos.

Dan had the unenviable task of having to paint a preternaturally beautiful and ageless woman. He did a wonderful job of it, I’d say.

Head over to the Tor.com post to see his sketches, progress shots of the painting, and our initial thought process.

RELATED:
All Wheel of Time ebook posts are archived here.
Which include:
David Grove on The Eye of the World
Kekai Kotaki on The Great Hunt
Donato Giancola on The Dragon Reborn
Sam Weber on The Shadow Rising

John Jude Palencar wins the Hamilton King!

I am proud to announce that John Jude Palencar has won this year’s Society of Illustrators’ Hamilton King Award for his artwork on Charles de Lint’s Muse and Reverie.

The Hamilton King is arguably one of the most prestigious awards in the illustration community. It is given to the best painting in the Illustrators annual, as judged by past Hamilton King award–winners. While given to a specific work, it has, unofficially, come to signify a mid-career achievement award. Previous winners include Bernie Fuchs, Leo and Diane Dillon, James McMullan, Mark English, Brad Holland, Greg Manchess, Bob Peak, Donato Giancola....A “who’s who” of illustration since 1965.

The award ceremony and black-tie dinner will take place at the Society of Illustrators in June in conjunction with the Illustrators Fall of Fame inductions.

Not only is John an amazing artist, he is a caring individual deeply dedicated to his craft. I am thrilled for him and proud of Tor’s small part in this honor.

Vance Kovacks and Michael Morcock's Hawkmoon

Since I have shown off volumes one and two, I thought I’d share the latest Hawkmoon cover from Vance Kovacs.

Only one more to go...I’ll be sad to see them go.

Idiots' Books complete Makers

A huge congrats to Idiots’ Books for finishing up 81 illustrations for the 81 segments of Cory Doctor’s Makers.

I have to admit, when Pablo Defendini first brought up the idea of serializing the book in so many chapters, I never thought we’d be able to get something visually interesting for that long a haul. Liz Gorinsky suggested Idiots’ Books and, 6 months later, they have created a beautiful, engaging, funny, wall-of-imagery that looks just as good together as it does in its parts. The fact the you can spin and rearrange each segment is mindboggling icing on the cake, but really, I love seeing the passages as they created it. Awesome, guys!

Sam Weber on The Wheel of Time and The Shadow Rising

Sam Weber and The Shadow Rising

I’m very excited to present the next of our Wheel of Time re-packaged ebook covers: The Shadow Rising with art by Sam Weber.

When we started this project I knew we wouldn’t have an artist more primed to be involved than Sam. He’s a huge fan of the series and it shows.

If you are fan of Sam’s and/or The Wheel of Time, head over to Tor.com to see him interviewed on video, read his essay about his cover and the motivations of the character he chose to depict, and see process images of the painting.

RELATED:
All Wheel of Time ebook posts are archived here.
Which include:
David Grove on The Eye of the World
Kekai Kotaki on The Great Hunt
Donato Giancola on The Dragon Reborn

The covers that got away

I got batch of cover designs in today and immediately regretted that the one I liked the best, visually speaking, would never fly for the cover. In this case, with good reason — it looks freat but isn’t quite suited for the audience. Luckily, there are others in the batch that also also very good and more appropriate for the book.

Also today, I got sketches in for another book. Here we are clearly we are making the less interesting choice because it more closely resembles familiar territory. The artist is no dummy and will likely reuse the pose on someone else’s very successful book cover. (And I will be jealous!)

This happens a lot in the job. Many times I agree with the final outcome, in some cases I don’t. Below are two older examples of covers that “got away.”

The Mystery of Grace
Illustrator John Jude Palencar and designer Peter Lutjen have been the dynamic duo beyond many many Charles de Lint covers. It’s amazing how well their sensibilities work together, even more so when you consider that Charles, Peter, and John have never met.

When Mystery of Grace came up, when we knew a general outline of the story. John Jude sent in a series of sketches and I was blinded by how much I loved this puppeteer drawing. It makes for a great painting, and even a great cover, but when the author and editor brought up the fact that it was much too dark for the book, it was hard too fight it. It certainly is macabre. This is not the artist’s fault. If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have asked for other sketches. In this case we got as far as printing Advance Reading Copies with the puppet cover before we were able to about-face and start over. (I’m told you can find those advance reading copies on eBay every now and then.)

Since we do have such a long and wonderful history of Palencar covers on de Lint books, there was never a question of what to do — I went back to John, described the book more fully, and gave him a clearer understanding of how we wanted to position it. It was a whole second commission for him — a pricey mistake on my part but, thankfully, not one that I make too often. In the end, the second cover is just as lovely in a different way.


Blood Groove
In this case, it was tough to get the marketing tone right. The initial copy and the title made it sound a bit campy and hipstery. When talking to the editor, the book sounded much more gritty than that, and it sounded much more grisly than the current slew of hot Twilight-y vampires. Designer Jamie Stafford-Hill went to town on the idea of a truly horrific, old school vampire. What you can’t see here is, he even requested a slightly textured varnish to make the cover just a tiny bit pebbly your hand. We did an advance run on the jackets and they looked great. Really great. In the end, though, Sales and Marketing felt that we should try to hit larger audience an go with a “movie-poster” style cover.

Selling more books is good for everybody — everyone from the author, to the bookstore clerks, to the truck drivers moving inventory around — so it’s difficult to say that going more commercial is a bad thing...But truth be told, this was example where I wish we could have stuck with something that was a bit more unique and engaging. While I certainly like the re-do, quite a bit actually, I’ll always wonder which cover really would have performed better.

The Great Hunt ebook now available. And Kekai Kotaki desktop wallpaper.

Tor.com is giving away Kekai's Great Hunt wallpaper as a means of announcing the ebook release of The Great Hunt, now available.

Kekai Kotaki and The Great Hunt

The second Wheel of Time ebook cover is now released, this one by the amazing Kekai Kotaki. You can read a behind-the-scenes post and see lots of progressions on Tor.com: The Great Hunt ebook cover by Kekai Kotaki.

RELATED: David Grove's ebook cover for The Eye of the Wolrd

Just in: Idiot's Books still amazing!

The good folks at Idiot's Books continue with what is one of the most interesting works of illustration I've seen come through Tor -- the 81 part serialization of Cory Doctorow's Makers. I'll be sad when it finishes up. Here we are at part 45, and suddenly I really want to wallpaper a part of my room with this.

For more background, see this post.