Category:Avon Books, Blog

A Day in the Life of an Art Director

By: Erika Tsang
September 24, 2010

Avon Books has some of the best covers in the industry, and one of the people responsible is Gail Dubov, our associate art director.  Gail has generously agreed to give us a glimpse into a day in her life…   

6:43 am  Have run off with a tall, handsome Duke to his manor house on the coast of Cornwall. Sun rising, wind blowing, muscular arms holding me tight. He pulls me closer as the waves crash around us. I look into his eyes, our lips parted, and then…

6:45am   Alarm rings.  Wait, it was all a dream? No English coast, just West 83 Street. No Duke, no manor. No hot Regency romance.

7am   Jump out of bed, boyfriend hands me a cup of cappuccino. My romantic hero. Not quite the Duke, but oh can he cook.

9am  Finally get to office. Sit down to emails, coffee in hand. Good news. Editor and agent love stock photograph I found for cover.  Bad news. Author doesn’t. Maybe some tweaking (bigger muscles?) will make everyone happy.

9:30am   Call illustrator about sketch for historical romance. Heroine’s dress all wrong for Regency period. Too much lace, not high waisted. Hero too contemporary looking. Any respectable Duke wouldn’t look like he stepped out of the East Village. Needs longer hair, five o’clock shadow.

10am   Cover conference. Run to 5th floor and meet with editors, copy and sales people to discuss future covers. New Susan Elizabeth Phillips book. Come up with something fun, quirky, sexy (not so easy). Paranormal romance. Heroine in leather, in cemetery with lots of mist and the shadow of a flying bat (easier). Change James Grippando novels to premium size and keep old art (piece of cake).

12pm  Lunch with artist rep. and European illustrator. Years of working together via email and I finally get to meet him. Very Italian and very charming.

2pm  Back from lunch, a pile of cover mechanicals on my desk. Check before they route to editorial.  

2:30pm  Tom (Egner) pops in to tell me Patrick Lee AND Sales love our cover for Ghost Country. We are jubilant (and relieved).

2:45pm  Illustrator sends images from today’s romance photo shoot. Great chemistry between models. What a difference it makes. Spend the next hour going through hundreds of shots to find *the* one. But all are pretty hot. Male model a real hunk. 

3:45pm  In-house designer and hand-letterer shows tissue sketch of the type for Sarah MacLean’s new romance, Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord. Type looks beautiful.

4:30pm Run down to Carrie’s office to get sketch approval for the front cover and step back art for above title. She loves it. Going to be a gorgeous package! 

5:00pm  Start looking for stock photographs online for Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Get bleary eyed after 45 minutes. Will continue in the morning.

6pm  Leave office, head downtown to gallery show of photographer, Christine Rodin.  Beautifully shot images of hers are on Dorothea Benton Frank’s Full of Grace and Barbara Delinsky’s More Than Friends.  Can’t wait to see her new work.

7:30pm  Walk into apt. greeted by my own Duke making dinner.  There’s something about a man in an apron. Maybe a sunny apartment on the west side can be more comfortable than a manor house. And a real life boyfriend more fun than a rich, handsome fantasy Duke. But can’t hurt to dream…isn’t that what our romance novels are all about?

For fun, here are a couple of photos from shoot for the cover of Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord…

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for the finished covers:

OTHER DISCUSSIONS HAPPENING IN AVON BOOKS Romance

  • Kiersten says: September 27, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    Gail! Still at Avon w/Tom and still making the very BEST covers in Romancelandia! Sarah’s cover is absolutely gorgeous – but of course!

  • Nancy says: September 27, 2010 at 11:15 am

    Where do you find your models for the book covers?

    • Gail says: September 27, 2010 at 1:36 pm

      Our illustrators usually send us head shots of models (usually from agencies) after we get character descriptions from our editors. Romance heroes are usually tall, dark and handsome (what else?) though at times we do have some lighter haired heroes. Our heroines can be blonde, redheads or brunettes–so we ask for models with that approximate coloring. It’s not that easy showing up for a photo shoot and getting into a sexy pose with someone who may be a stranger. But there are a number of models who work well together and models who have been doing romance covers for years. They just know how to move and relate to their partner. It makes for a much hotter cover.

      • Marian Pearson Stevens says: September 27, 2010 at 5:47 pm

        Love the day’s account, Gail! Thanks for sharing!

        Interesting to see what goes into those beautiful covers. The cover art for Sarah’s is stunning! Such rich colors!

        I totally agree about the guy in the apron . . .

  • Gayle Callen says: September 25, 2010 at 11:52 am

    People always compliment my Avon covers, and my response has always been, “The cover gods have been good to me.” It’s nice to “meet” the real people involved. Thanks, Gail!

  • Terri Garey says: September 25, 2010 at 11:20 am

    Wow, what a great peek into what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to those awesome Avon covers! I’ve loved every one of mine, and while I knew a lot of thought had gone into them, I really had no idea how MUCH!

    Thanks for the insight into your day, and “Way to go!” on your Duke. :-)

  • juliana stone says: September 24, 2010 at 6:41 pm

    I love reading all of these! Seriously you guys do a wonderful job….can’t wait to see what’s coming down the pike!

  • Rachael Herron says: September 24, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    Hand-lettered! I’m so impressed. And Avon’s covers ARE the best in the industry; I know this is true. :)

    • Gail says: September 24, 2010 at 11:04 pm

      With few exceptions all of our romance covers have hand-lettered title and author type. Our department has an in-house designer who also does handlettering. She first does pencil sketches of the author name and title in a romance face that she creates, then scans it in to the computer and finishes it up. Some type is more curvy (swashy) and slanted, other type is straighter (more Roman). It’s another element that adds to the sense of romance on our covers.

  • Sabrina says: September 24, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Thanks for this great post.
    Your job seems to be very interesting but also quiet hectic. I think that the cover for the new book by Sarah MacLean looks beautiful.

  • Brooke says: September 24, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    Great blog post!

    I was wondering who paints the cover art? Is it computer art or actual art on canvas?

    • Gail says: September 24, 2010 at 2:33 pm

      Romance art is a very specific genre and there are a handful of illustrators who are really good at it. Most of our covers are painted by the best in the industry–Jon Paul, Jim Griffin, Richard Jones, Ricky Mujica, Victor Gadino, Diane Sivavec and a few others. Prior to the computer, all cover art was paint on canvas and arrived in our offices smelling of last minute touchups. But many illustrators have gone digital, now paint on computer, sending us finished art via email. Often you can’t tell the difference. Good question–thanks!

  • Gail says: September 24, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    We never intended our Regency heroes to resemble Englebert Humperdinck! That being said, we want to signal that the cover is historical and keeping shorter hair won’t do that. We ask our illustrators to give our heroes “collar length” hair and longer sideburns so they don’t look contemporary.

    As far as fashion trends go, we all try to forget the ’70′s. And tell your sister to leave you alone!

  • Kerrelyn says: September 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Hi Gail! The Avon Art Dept. rocks!!! Thank you for all the lovely covers!

  • Sarah MacLean says: September 24, 2010 at 10:57 am

    I love love love my covers. LOVE them. Thank you for being so awesome, Gail!

    • Gail says: September 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm

      Thank you Sarah. It’s a joy to work on your covers. But it’s a group effort. Ricky Mujica is the illustrator extraordinaire who brings his talent to every cover he works on. There’s always a lot of back and forth until we arrive at something we think is perfect. Tom (Egner) and I work on getting the foil colors just right. The models for your stepback worked really well together which always helps too.

      Wait until you see your next cover!

  • amy says: September 24, 2010 at 10:32 am

    A real man who can cook is better than any fantasy duke! LOL!

    Maybe you can tell me, Ive always wondered, why do the hunks on historical covers have mullets? My sister makes sooo much fun of me for reading (and loving) the books bc the guys on the cover look so 70s.


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