An Interview with Lou Anders

In all circumstances I try to front load the artist with as much as I can give them, not only the specifics of the story, character descriptions, etc… but the type of book it is, the audience I’m shooting for, the reception I want the book to have, the feelings I want it to invoke. I generally see a rough a month before final cover, and depending on the illustrator this can be as simple as a pencil sketch (Todd Lockwood) to a very fleshed out digital underpainting (Jon Sullivan). John Picacio and I will spend hours upon hours on the phone, all through the process, talking about all aspects of the cover in great detail, often arguing fiercely, and I’ll see many many stages before the final. Stephan Martiniere, who layers his work up from deceptively simply shapes and textures, doesn’t work this way, so I’m more likely to talk to Stephan about the cover for a week, front loading him with as much as I possibly can, then turn him loose to see what he comes up with. Artists like Dan Dos Santos, David Palumbo, or J Seamas Gallagher may show me a variety of different angles on a specific scene to choose from – either in b&w painting or pencils. I also tend to believe that whenever an illustrator shows you a choice of compositions, they always have a favorite, and that if you can figure out which that is and go with it, the work will be that much better. Not that any of these guys aren’t professionals who would execute any of your choices to the best of their ability, but if there is that extra spark of excitement it will make the piece “go to eleven.”

There is usually not a lot of changes once we get a final beyond little tweaks, though Christian McGrath was kind enough to recently let us go back and switch a model when our early readers for a project felt the look of the female lead wasn’t connecting enough with their image of the character. And Dave Seeley always continues to work at a piece long after its more than done enough, because he is just a consummate pro and a perfectionist. All of them are fantastic, the best illustrators in the world in my humble opinion.

After the artwork is in, the cover goes to one of three in-house designers, Jacqueline Cooke, Nicole Sommer-Lecht, or Grace M. Conti-Zilsberger. I determine which designer gets which cover, and then I go to work with them, briefing them on the type of book it is, the effect we are going for, perhaps showing them a range of examples from other covers. They are all wonderful and very, very good to put up with the amount of breathing over their shoulder that I put them through. Incidentally, we tag all the cover related posts on the Pyr blog with the designers names, so you can see their work and get a feel for their individual styles: http://www.pyrsf.com/blogpage.html. I encourage everyone to check it out and give these ladies the credit they deserve.

Is there an editor, current or past, that you look to as an example of what you wish to accomplish?
The answer to that question has evolved over time. I used to say Campbell for his impact on the field, but I imagine we differ in a lot of other areas. I’m hesitant to say too much about what I wish to accomplish because I’m still accomplishing it. In the last five years, we’ve grown from a small line of 16 books a year -primarily hardcover, primarily SF – to a broad list of around 32 titles a year. We’ve moved into ebook and mass market, have licensed our books to foreign publishers, are honored to have been most of the major award ballots, including 8 Hugo nominations, and have even made our first Young Adult acquisitions. I’ve personally been nominated for the Hugo four years running and am honored by a Chesley win for Best Art director last year.

I don’t think six years ago when they hired me I could ever have predicted the scope of the impact we’ve had on the field already. All I can say is that we are enormously grateful to our writers, our artists, and each and every one of our readers. Our goal from the beginning was to make “quality” the thru-line of our brand, and we hear back continually from readers, critics, bloggers, distributors, and bookstore buyers that we are succeeding. That’s enormously gratifying.

Tell us something we don’t know about Lou Anders, Editor.
I am quite fond of alligator and snake both. Or is that Lou Anders, Person?

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