Me, I'm the kind of person who usually goes into a bookstore in search of a specific title. (For instance, I need to visit the bookstore to pick up John Twelve Hawk's The Traveler right now. Anyone read it? Looks great to me, and it's getting some good coverage.)

According to industry statistics, however, a large percentage of folks wander bookstores without specifically knowing what book they'll be going home with--or even IF they'll be going home with a book, for that matter. The book cover, then, is an important hook. Like the title, it has to identify the genre, set a tone and mood, and ideally make a promise about what's inside.

More than that, the cover can largely determine your reception in the trade. Buyers, merchandisers, book store employees and everyone else along the chain are all motivated, at least in part, by a book's cover: if it ain't up to snuff, it ain't gonna get recommended, displayed, or hand sold.

Did I mention covers were important? Of course they are. You knew that. And so, my Monday afternoon meeting at Bethany House, in which we discussed the cover for Waking Lazarus, was an important next step on the path to publication.

Dave (my editor), Paul (Bethany House's Art Director), and I talked about Waking Lazarus in detail, of course. But we also talked about similar titles and their covers.

I keep getting lumped in the same category as Dean Koontz (no complaints from me there, although I'm sure Mr. Koontz suffers a bit in the comparison), in that we both write thrillers with a touch of the supernatural. Two Koontz covers we talked about were Odd Thomas and From the Corner of His Eye. Between these two, I like Odd Thomas best--the cover feels odd because the image is unexpected, and the "legs without a body" motif hints at the ghostly subject matter of the novel. (As an aside, I like the cover for Forever Odd, the forthcoming followup to Odd Thomas, even more: a hand reaching out from the ghostly mists. Again, I think it sums up the subject matter well.)

I mentioned covers for a set of supernatural thrillers I've quite enjoyed: Stephen Wodworth's "Violet Eyes" trilogy, consisting of Through Violet Eyes, With Red Hands, and the forthcoming In Golden Blood. I'm a big fan of the first two covers (and the books attached to them); the third for In Golden Blood is less successful, I think, but still quite interesting.

Other covers discussed included Eric Wilson's Dark to Mortal Eyes, Frank Peretti's Monster, and the Circle Trilogy from Ted Dekker.

Was it fun having my name bandied about with such heady company? You bet your bippy. And, it was just as fun to start talking about possible images for the cover on Waking Lazarus. My quick pitch for the book (which should give you enough information to envision covers) is:

A man who has died and returned to life three times must unravel the mysteries of his own deaths to stop a killer.

The first chapter ends with the main character (Jude Allman) waking up in a hospital morgue. Dave suggested showing a corpse--complete with the tag on the toe and a sheet over the body--sitting up on a gurney. Neither Dave nor Paul felt this image would be ultimately selected, but hey, God bless Dave for saying it. I like the way he thinks.

My suggestions centered around visual aspects of Jude's deaths (lighting and drowning, most notably). I also like the idea of a tombstone in a cemetery, reading: JUDE ALLMAN, b. 1974 d. 1982, 1990, 1998.

Will any of this ultimately be used by the design team assigned the project? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm quite excited to see what they come up with--I saw other designs they've done, and loved, loved, loved all of them.

I'll keep you posted.