Brandon’s art director Isaac here. The Mistborn series book covers have had a colorful history of different illustrations: the beautiful originals by Jon Foster, Chris McGrath’s iconic renditions that we can probably thank for some of the paperbacks’ success over the years, and of course let’s not forget Sam Weber’s fantastic covers for the young adult editions. Then there was that one cover with the grim reaper. Yeah, we don’t talk much about that one.

Book design, just like fashion and automotive design, goes through phases. Thankfully we’re not quite getting a different “book look” with each season of the year, but the way a book cover is illustrated and designed can definitely tell you about how long it’s been on the market.

Sometime last year, we got into a discussion with Brandon’s agent Joshua about the Mistborn mass market covers. They’ve been on the paperback books for over a decade now, and it was time for a refresh. This is a testament to the Mistborn series’ longevity that it’s stayed in print long enough to even need new covers!

After a few brainstorming sessions, we were drawn to some of the symbolic book cover illustrations that Sam Weber has done recently. His work on Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities trilogy is beautiful. (Please note, City of Stairs is one of my favorite fantasy books ever. It’s got more swears than Brandon’s books, so be aware of that, but oh man, can I get a leatherbound version of it someday, please?) Sam’s work for Kiersten White’s And I Darken series has resulted in some of my favorite book covers in any genre in any era. And have you seen his painting for Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology? Wow! And Sam’s cover for the YA version of Mistborn clearly showed that he really groks the series. So we asked Tor if Sam was available. We cheered when he was.

 

Here are the results. Symbolic paintings that hopefully convey the feeling of each of the books in the series. We hope these will reach across genres and capture readers’ attention. We hope they will stand out on the shelves and woo new readers at airports. Ultimately, we also hope the fans will like them. Hats off to Tor, and to Sam Weber, for putting these together. You have done the Cosmere a great service.

One more thing to note, Tor has redesigned the interiors of the mass market reissues, basing the text on the preferred versions found in our Dragonsteel leather editions. The result is a clean, very readable text, with fixes for the few typos and continuity glitches we’ve discovered over the years.

Please enjoy!

Brandon’s assistant Isaac here to talk about the process of creating the ebook cover for Sixth of the Dusk.

We knew from the beginning of the Shadows Beneath anthology project that at some point we wanted to release Brandon’s story by itself, especially for those who just wanted the story apart from the extra content about the writing process. Even as I searched artists and images for the anthology cover—and eventually settled on the now-Hugo-Award-winning Julie Dillon’s lovely kaiju illustration—I was on the lookout for something we could eventually use for Sixth of the Dusk.

For the anthology interior, we commissioned a black-and-white illustration from the talented Kekai Kotaki, so in looking for a cover image, I wanted to find something that could complement Kekai’s vision of the story. We’re not quite looking at a tropical paradise here, so I wanted something that said beautiful, lush, and tropical, yet rugged and adventurous at the same time.

Often we commission art for our interiors and covers, but in this case during my search for the Shadows Beneath cover image, I’d set aside an image that I thought might work. I showed it to Brandon, and he agreed, and afterward I contacted the artist, Jorge Jacinto, who let us license the image from him. Going above and beyond, Jorge also touched up the illustration to match the text, adding Dusk and his birds as the foreground figure. This bit of customization only improved upon an already wonderful painting. In the final cover I wound up tilting it a bit to 1) fit all the elements in that I felt portrayed the story and 2) add a few dynamic diagonal lines to the final cover composition.

Typographically I wanted to tie Sixth of the Dusk to its mother publication, Shadows Beneath, so I returned to those earlier files and lifted the style we’d created for the anthology and began adapting it to an ebook-only release of Sixth.

Sometimes we create two different covers. In the case of Shadows Beneath, we altered the text size from the print to the ebook version in order to make the image and title more legible at thumbnail size. In ebook covers, bigger, bolder, more contrast, and less visual noise often work for a more successful image. The thumbnail needs to be attractive and legible to readers looking for a particular book, or a particular kind of book. Here you can see the difference between the print book and the ebook.

Hardcover:

With Sixth of the Dusk, I jumped right into the “make it big and legible” mindset. I wanted readers to see the title and be intrigued, I wanted Brandon’s name prominent so that his fans would recognize that this is a story for them, and I wanted those same readers to know that this is a story that takes place in Brandon’s connected universe, the Cosmere.

The straight porting of the beveled text wasn’t quite working for me. It was looking too busy visually, and I didn’t like what was going on with the bevel on the X in particular, so I stepped back. The fonts worked fine for me, so I returned the text to its raw form and began building up from there, eventually settling on a flatter, cleaner look, which I think links the story to the original anthology while at the same time working well within the world of the new illustration.

I haven’t mentioned yet how much I love Sixth of the Dusk. It’s a beautiful, engaging story, that not only expands Brandon’s Cosmere, but also poses some interesting questions worthy of contemplation. I hope you enjoy reading it!

This post originally appeared on Tor.com.

Michael Whelan, The Way of Kings

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve always wondered who “They” are, and if—by chance—they’ve never heard of Michael Whelan. Because my experience in life has been very different.

It’s been almost twenty years now since I first discovered Michael’s work. I was fourteen when it happened, and I was not a reader. I’d been handed a succession of novels about young boys living in the wilderness and taking care of their pet dogs. (Which would die by the end of the book.) I disliked reading with a passion. So, when my eighth-grade teacher assigned me to do a book report, I did everything I could to get out of it.

That failed. In fact, it failed so solidly that the teacher—unwilling to let me choose my own book to read, for fear I’d choose something not up my reading level—steered me to the back of the room, where she kept a group of ratty paperbacks to loan out to students. You probably know the type—ripped, stained by spaghetti sauce from cafeteria lunches, pages folded and worn. I was told I had to read one of these and had to do a book report on them—and she’d read them all, so she’d know if I tried to fake it.

Dragonsbane, cover by Michael Welan

Sullen and annoyed, I began to sift through the books. Most looked terrible. I resigned myself to another dead dog story, but then one of the books actually caught my eye. It had this vivid painting of a dragon standing in the mists, a woman held limply in its hand. Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly. The painting was so beautiful, so realistic yet imaginative, that I snatched it up, actually a little eager to look through the pages. I ended up taking it home with me.

I read that book in one day. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever tried reading before. (I had never been introduced to fantasy novels.) Dragonsbane was amazing, challenging, imaginative, gripping, and beautiful all wrapped up in one. I remember a severe bout of disappointment upon finishing the book because I thought surely there couldn’t be anything else like it in the entire world.

Still, hopeful, I visited the school library the next day. I looked through the card catalog, and picked the next book—alphabetically by title—after Dragonsbane. It was called Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey. I went and pulled it out, and was once again captivated by the cover. I took it home and read it.

Michael Whelan, Dragonflight

My life changed. Now, we throw around sentences like that in writing, using them over and over again until they become as worn as the shoes of a traveling salesman—hardly capable of holding meaning any longer. But let me say it again. My life changed.

I devoured every Anne McCaffrey book in the school library. Suddenly, what I’d discovered in Dragonsbane wasn’t a single, freak event. There was a pattern. If two authors could do this, perhaps there were others. Hungry for more, I went to the bookstore and discovered there was an entire fantasy genre.

There were so many books. Which to choose? Dragons had treated me well so far, so I looked for some dragon books. And there, right on the shelf, was a beautiful book called Dragon Prince. I consumed it, and then everything else Melanie Rawn was writing.

Michael Whelan, Dragon Prince

What do these books all share? It wasn’t just the dragons; it was the covers. Each time, there was something dramatic and special about them. I now own prints of Dragonsbane and several of Melanie’s covers. All were painted by Michael Whelan.

By the time Tad Williams’ Dragonbone Chair came out, I could recognize Michael’s art on sight. And I also knew to trust it. It didn’t seem logical—you really shouldn’t be able to judge a book by its cover. But a Whelan cover became a seal of approval to me, a sign that the publisher trusted the book so much that they got the best person available to do the cover.

I can’t tell you all of the authors Whelan’s art led me to over the years: Patricia Mckillip, Joan D. Vinge, Stephen Donaldson, and even Asimov. (Yes, you read that right. I first picked up Asimov because Whelan had done the new Foundation covers.)

I remember when winter 1993 rolled around. My local bookseller noted to me that Whelan had a new art book coming out, one half dedicated to covers, one half dedicated to his fine art. It was the only thing I requested for Christmas, and my parents bought it for me despite the cost. I spent hours leafing through the wonderous, fantastic art. Those imagines sparked things in my mind. I was an author in embryo, absorbing, thinking, dreaming. One of the very first stories I ever wrote was a fanfic based on Whelan’s Passage series of fine art prints.

Michael Whelan, The Snow Queen

The years have passed. There are other wonderful fantasy artists out there—and, in a way, the market has finally caught up to Whelan (much as the fantasy genre itself needed time to catch up to Tolkien.) I’ve been lucky to have some of those incredible artists paint covers for my books. But I’ve rarely felt as much excitement, wonder, and awe as I did the when I got to open an email and see the cover for The Way of Kings.

Irene Gallo (Tor’s art director) asked me to provide a quote about how I feel having a Whelan cover on one of my books. My editor, Moshe, noted “Surely you’ll mention how it’s a dream come true for both you and your editor.” But ‘dream come true’ is another one of those phrases we use so often it has lost its meaning.

Michael Whelan, Otherland

How do I really feel? Well, when I was a senior in high school, I was forced to take a life-planning class. In that class, we had to write down ten ‘life goals’ we wanted to achieve some day. #1 on my list, which I still have somewhere, was “Publish a book someday that is good enough to deserve a Michael Whelan cover.”

It has always been a deep-seated desire of mine to one day have a Whelan painting on one of my works. Without this man’s skill and vision, I might never have discovered the fantasy genre, and I might not be writing novels today.

You might say I’m a little bit pleased.

The Way Of Kings, cover art by Michael Whelan

View more of Michael Whelan’s work on his website.

For a behind the scenes look at the making of The Way of Kings cover, click here.