Creating the cover
Every book needs a great cover. It's normally the book's biggest advert to the public, the image we show the public on a bookstore shelf or on a website will determine whether or not they show an interest in the book.
When we decided to make The Heart of Frankenstein the focus of the collection of horror scripts, it was clear we had to focus on something from that tale. We mulled going for a very art deco stylised cover or for something akin to a horror classic from Universal or Hammer but in the end we chose to show Baroness Frankenstein. She was the focal point of the story and she was what we felt would work as a cover image.
Once we had decided on that, we handed it on to our designer and photographer.
We started with a photograph of the beautiful young woman who would become Baroness Frankenstein... after a few mishaps and a little bit of grave-robbing and some morally and ethically dubious surgery.
We started adding scars to the image, following guides placed on the model's skin by the make up artist.
Looks painful, doesn't it? Honestly, no models or 19th century Baronesses were harmed in the making of this cover.
Once the scars were in place we pared the colour back to just two colours - black and white, creating a stark image with the scars showing vividly on the Baroness's skin.
Background details were painted out except for a few hints around the Baroness's head so that we retain the shape of her head.
We then dropped this image onto the cover template.
The image was resized inside the template so that we would have space to fit in the title and cover wording.
We then put two effects over the image. First, we added a pale green wash over the cover. Green is an unhealthy colour for skin and has often been used as a hue for Frakenstein's monster in the past. We then added a lighting effect, which darkened the far side of the Baroness's face, giving the image a far more mysterious look.
The final task was to add the title and cover text.
We chose to keep the look clean and quite spartan by using white text, though there is a hint of blood red in the shadow behind the title. Well, it is a horror story...
Cover photography, make up and design by Dorina Petco.