A Bloody Head Wrapped In Cling Film

Added on 28 April 2011

Close followers of the sleepy world of Long Midnight Publishing will know how the book cover design works in these parts. (So this explanation is for those who aren't, you know, close followers.) I tell my Polish speaking friend roughly what I want from a cover; she tells my non-English speaking Polish designer Iza what I'm after, and then Iza goes off and designs about six covers. I choose my favourite, we do a bit of tweaking here and there, and eventually Bob's your Builder.

Then, by and by, I usually use those rejected covers in some way or another.

This cover is one that was designed for a reprint of The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson. Didn't really like it at the time, what with it being a bit too gruesome; albeit it does nail that aspect of the book in the head. A head wrapped in cling film. There are heads wrapped in cling film in the story after all. Anyway, didn't like it. Then, last year, when I wrote a short story called Pinhead for a thing that Donna Moore was doing and put it up on the site, I cribbed this cover, changed the title and used it on there.

Yesterday I was looking at the online interview that I did for Nigel Bird's Sea Minor, belatedly wondering a month and a half later if anyone had added any comments to it. Nigel illustrated the piece using the cover of Pinhead. There are three comments, one of which, from an American gentleman, says 'That cover is awesome.' I've never thought of it as awesome, I just kind of didn't like it.

Today I've been looking at it again and I've been thinking that maybe it has something about it. It might be something that I personally don't like, but then, what do I know about book covers? None of the covers that I've ever selected have really grabbed the casual book buyer by the testicles. Laden with this history of abject marketing failure in the past, I thought I might as well give this one a try.

So now the bloody head wrapped in cling film is the current face of The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson on Kindle. A rapid rise up the charts, followed by huge wealth and appearances on Celebrity Where The Fuck's My Toothbrush? are sure to follow.