The cover Story of the Action Thriller Novel "Enemy in the Ranks"

After I completed my action thriller fiction book, "Enemy in the Ranks" and my publisher accepted the book, I thought the rest of the process would be a breeze. It was not. Even deciding on the cover was a major task. So let me tell the story of the cover of Enemy in the Ranks.

As you all know that it was about the Navy, so I wanted the cover to depict something of the Navy like a ship or a soldier and moreover since it was an action thriller I wanted that too be reflected on the cover.

Anyway since I was all too tired of the book at that time, I decided to rely on the publisher. He came up with the image below



The picture was bright and interesting, reflected the naval service, but somehow seemed more suitable for perhaps a coffee table book. I didn't dig it and asked my editor for another one.

So he sent me another one. This one with a ship seen through crosshairs. It was very dark and again it was not really projecting the theme of the book. Have a look..



This photo aptly showed the naval scenario and also went with the title of the book with the silhouette of the man, but somehow I was still not impressed and told him to get another one. My editor complied but the Artist obviously was not amused at my being so choosy. So the next one he sent me was a plain photo. Have a look




This photo was good with ships moving in a formation, but again there was no action being reflected. Moreover the lower portion of the photo reminded me of the Pirates' End of the world. So it was a no-no. After rejecting so much I was getting fidgety and asked one of my artist friends to paint something. He came up with something brilliant and at the first look the editor also liked it and after the publisher's artist had touched it up, it looked even better. Here is the photo




Ships, explosion, man in uniform, crosshairs and bright colors, we thought it had everything. We finalised it and were sure we were going through with this one, I even put it up on all the websites and my book trailer.

The book was sent to the Printers and while the inside pages were being printed the director of the publishing house called and told me that though the cover was excellent, somehow he was not sure that it would come out as well in the Print and just may look like blotches of paint here and there. He requested me to reconsider. I told him that I was not happy with the ones they had sent to me and that's why came up with the Painting. The director told me to give him a day. Next day I had five draft covers in my mail. Quite obviously the head honcho had decided to intervene himself. I selected one and after a few touch ups the cover was ready and this is what it looks like



Bright skies, dark silhouettes, guns, boats and a neat clean picture it sems to reflect everything I wanted. It has come out beautifully on the cover including some colors which you can't see on the computer.

Ultimately I was happy that the Director had decided to change the cover photo. The earlier one was a wonderful painting, but I guess it did indeed have too much of paint. Now let's just hope it was the right decision.

You can visit my official website at http://www.taprial.in

You can buy the book at http://www.pustakmahal.com/book/book/bid,,9519C/index.html

and

http://books.rediff.com/bookshop/bkproductdisplay.jsp?Enemy-in-the-Ranks-Books&prrfnbr=83143349&multiple=&frompg=_