The process of selecting a book cover can be quite stressful. Authors usually have some idea of what they want or don't want, but much of the process relies on instinct, intuition, and commonsense. Yet there is also the much thornier question of love. 

Every author I have ever talked to wants to absolutely and unequivocally LOVE the cover of their book. For many reasons, though, sometimes you just don't love the cover that the editorial and/or marketing team finds to be amazing. 

As the author of four non-fiction books and three edited collections, let me tell you, it is not easy to tell the book designer, or your editor, that you think they should go back to the drawing board. Thankfully, I have only had to go toe to toe (and successfully) with a publisher once when I found the design not just wrong for the book but actually offensive. And no, I won't tell you which of my books it was! 

I had the good fortune to love three of my book covers right off the bat with zero changes requested. However, for the other five books (no, I don't have fuzzy math--I'm counting the UK edition of The First and Last King of Haiti, which has a separate cover), I did have to ask for slight changes: a color or font tweak here or there, or a different orientation (or version) of the image, which, again, can be a bit awkward.

I have found that the process usually goes more smoothly when the author can suggest an image for the cover before the design process has begun, at least for non-fiction. With more historical writing, a portrait from the era can  provide an anchor for the designer to work around. A particularly apt example of this is the cover of Haitian Revolutionary Fictions: An Anthology.

Suggesting a work of contemporary art can also yield an amazing design. However, in that case, it is sometimes the author who will be tasked with the job of securing permissions. I felt so honored that both Edouard Duval-Carrié and Firelei Báez agreed to allow me to showcase their art on the book covers for Tropics of Haiti and Awakening the Ashes, respectively.

Ok, but now, let's get to the real reason you are here! The alternative cover!

With The First and Last King of Haiti (US edition), I had the good fortune, but also the dilemma, of trying to choose between two completely different designs. You know the one we ultimately went with (see the image at the top of the post), but below, I am publicly revealing for the first time the one we did not:

There is much to like and that remains interesting to me about the alternative cover, not the least of which is the portrait in the background. Dating from 1823, it is the little-known work of a minor French painter from an illustrious family of painters. 

I will be publishing a separate blog post about the painter and his interest in King Henry's world soon. For now, I will say that I primarily did not select this cover because it looked more like a movie poster to me--indeed, I had a large movie-size poster of the image made and framed, and it now sits in my office. But I also thought that for this cradle-to-grave biography of Haiti's first and only king, a book meant to draw in new readers, many of whom would be totally unfamiliar with Christophe and his life, the king should be not just be alive, but looking his regal best.