I don’t know about you - but I LOVE book covers - and just how much work, care and attention goes into them. Having worked in publishing as an editor, cover meetings were some of the best - and hardest - meetings we used to have. It wasn’t just a question of getting a decent cover - but of making sure that everyone - sales, marketing, PR and digital liked it and had a clear vision of the marketplace the book - and cover - would attract.

Coming at it now from the agent side - I still like to get involved with covers and offer feedback, and the authors do get a say (although not a final one) in how their books get to look. At the end of the day it’ll usually be a sales call as to whether they think retailers will go for it. So it’s really fascinating to take a look at one book and how three publishers across the world create different covers from the same material.

AFTER THE FOREST is Kell Woods’ debut novel publishing simultaneously in the UK, US and ANZ in October this year, with three different publishers.

Set in the Black Forest of Wurttemberg during the mid-17th Century, it’s a stunning meld of love-story, fairy-tale, magic and history - the story of Hansel and Gretel, and what happened to them after they survived the witch in the forest.

Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour.

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war.

Greta has a secret, though: the witch's grimoire, secreted away and whispering in Greta's ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you've ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat.

But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion.

And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta's magic—magic she is still trying to understand—may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn't kill her first.

Tor US, Titan UK and HarperVoyager ANZ picked up the rights for the book, and each of them have come up with a cover that’s a perfect fit for their marketplace. I thought it might be interesting to see why they’ve gone for the versions they have.

Tor US wanted a book that bought in the elements contained within the story: the fairytale, botanicals, the creatures. Something that would be as beautiful as it was representative of the story. They showed us a selection of illustrators who they thought could do this and, in the end, everyone decided that Andrew Davis seemed like the perfect fit for the book. We went through a few different cover designs going back and forth on small details like the cottage style, the shape of the bear - the fox mask (originally a moth) and tweaked different versions until Andrew delivered this absolutely GORGEOUS cover…

Titan UK had a slightly different vision for the book - they wanted to concentrate on Greta - on the sense of darkness and mysticism of the forest. Katie Dent, the editor there said:

There are so many gorgeous motifs in the book and, when briefing, we pulled out a few of these - particularly the black bear and Greta's gingerbread - as well as the seventeenth-century Black Forest setting. When we saw the cover options, we all loved this image for the sense it gives the viewer of being led into the woods - and into the story - by Greta. The darkness of the forest luring this lone figure in, and the gold detailing on top capture the book's beautiful gothic magic, showcasing the story's fairytale roots and the luscious quality of Kell's writing.

Roberta Ivers, Kell’s editor at HarperVoyager Australia had similar thoughts to the US as to what kind of cover they wanted:

For an extraordinary book like Kell’s – brilliant, lush, dark and magical, a gift to a book publisher! – I really wanted a cover that spoke to that sense of magic, but also to the deep nature of her story, the Black Forest of Württemburg. I also wanted to pay tribute to the compelling, powerful characters Kell has created as well and their connection to that deep nature too, and the magic that pulses through them all. After bouncing some thoughts around with Kell, and then with our award-winning design team at HarperCollins Australia, we knew that UK designer Andrew Davis was the perfect person to bring After the Forest to life – his illustrative work is always stunning and so thoughtful as well. Some of my all-time favourite books in dark fantastical feminist literature are by Naomi Novik, Bridget Collins and the peerless Angela Carter and I wanted a sense of that sharp darkness to shine through in our cover for After the Forest, and Andrew took the ideas and ran with them, creating this beautiful, magical cover with Greta, the protagonist, at its heart, and of course the other characters who feature in After the Forest. I can’t talk about them without giving the story away, but it’s enough to say that the way they are bound sinuously with the forest is a perfect illustrative incarnation! There are other little tips of the hat to other parts of the story too – again, I won’t way what – but it’s no secret the story (in part) is a retelling of the Hansel and Gretel story, so the little gingerbread house is a cheery little motif there; so charming. I absolutely love how the characters are connected so clearly to the forest, and also the darkness of this cover – the dark blue midnight sky pinned with stars, but perhaps more tellingly, the blood red tinging the figures that suggests that perhaps magic often requires something more than just intent to do its work. Perfect.

This is an absolutely fabulous read with amazing quotes coming in from authors already:

‘With one foot in history, the other in folklore, After the Forest is a love song to fairy tales. Replete with secrets, magic, witches and wolves, bears and whispering books, Greta's world is one where enchantment can become a curse on the turn of a tongue. At once sweet as gingerbread and bitterly dark as heart's blood, After the Forest is reminiscent of Juliet Marillier at her finest.’ A.G Slatter, author of All the Murmuring Bones
‘So rich and affecting, you can’t help but savor every single sentence. With characters that leap off the page, world-building that immerses you completely, and a perfectly paced plot, Woods’s clever retelling of the popular Hansel and Gretel fairy tale succeeds in giving us something novel and authentic.’ T. L. Huchu, USA Today bestselling author of The Library of the Dead

So three publishers. Three covers. One book. Which is your favourite?!

Three covers - one book

Julie Crisp