Drum roll please…. Here are the three cover ideas for Ellen A. Wilkins’ entry, Follows Direction.  Once again I learned that what I read, misled me. I read into this entry a bit more humor than was really there. (I guess I am wanting some funny books!) And for sure next time I am asking for genre and a little more of a sample right up front.

Here is Ellen’s synopsis and excerpt.

Synopsis

Mick is promoted to management within a large computer software corporation. She finds management challenging and rewarding, but her insecurities come to the surface when she inherits the employee from hell. In dealing with disciplining this new employee, she takes all of the human resource courses that the company offers. Nothing seems to help get the employee on track. She gets to know one HR trainer who encourages the young woman to attend the Column, a training seminar that the HR manager has graduated from. Heedless of the cult-like nature of the Column, the young woman becomes heavily involved, at first gaining success and happiness, which quickly turns into exhaustion, stress, and mind manipulation. Her Vice President, Bill, who she has made a strong work connection with, becomes concerned about her and the practices that HR used to manipulate her.  Bill discovers that the head of the company’s HR department, Vladimir Vost, moonlights as a trainer at the Column. While Bill investigates his own HR department, Mick stops seeing her friends, boyfriend and family because she is too buys with Column activites. Meanwhile, the company’s CEO is in hot water with the FBI for his connection to the Column, which has been under investigation for violation of labor laws.  Will the company survive the bad publicity? Eventually with the help of her boyfriend, best friend, and Bill, Mick gets out of the Column.  But will she ever be the same?

Excerpt

Vladimir sat in front of the room of students. It swelled his heart to see so many devotees. He would convince them to spend their money and to bring their friends and family.

“Are there any questions before we take a break?” Vladimir turned toward his left. “Remember, you can choose to stay for the rest of the seminar or not. It is totally up to you.” He paused and then looked to his right. “This is your only opportunity to change your mind. After this, you will have committed to the entire weekend.”

A woman stood up, and he gestured to one of his helpers to get her the microphone.  ”Why do you harass me?  Why does your organization harass me?”

“We do not harass as a policy.”

“You have called me several times a day since I said I would come to this seminar.”

“You may experience it as harassment, but it is not harassment.”

“Yet you badger me about coming to this seminar.”

“Were the phone calls all the same?”

“No.  One talked about this seminar. Others encouraged me to bring a friend.”

“They were not harassment, then.”

“But, I –”

“You just experienced it as harassment because you wanted it to be harassment.”

“Will you let me speak? I –”

“You have not committed to being real. You are wasting our time and acting like an asshole to the rest of the people who really want to be here.”

Ellen tells me that Follows Direction is mainstream fiction. Cool, that means almost anything goes. I know that the novel addresses some serious stuff, though it “might” have some comedic moments — I hope, all this seriousness is bumming me out! — and it’s set in the present day. It’s about the business world, and self-improvement, and mind control, and cult-like groups. The main protagonist is a woman, who finds herself trapped in this cult and of course we know she needs to get out.

Follows Direction 1

Follows 1: With this cover I represent the nature of cult-like mind control with the image of people like lemmings jumping off a cliff. Who among us hasn’t had a parent-figure say to us, “If everyone else jumps off a cliff, do you have to do it too?” The somber colors tell us that this is serious business, giving your free will away to somebody who may not have your best interests at heart.

I chose a simple modern sans serif typeface that is businesslike. The arrangement on the page mimics the shape and direction of the line of “lemings” with the little “a novel” tag slipping over the edge of the horizon, symbolically. I decided to go with all lower case, just because I like the way it looks.

Follows Direction 2

Follows 2: For this cover I found this nifty photo of a woman trapped in a box. Here I wanted to show that feeling of being trapped literally. I like the expression on her face. She looks surprised and a little frantic. I imagine that if you one day “woke up” and found that the group you belonged to had brainwashed you, you’d be both surprised and frantic. She looks like she wants to get out. Boxes are also symbolic of containing, controlling, and being “boxed in,” so it’s an apt metaphor in that way too.

To keep with the theme of rigid control, as in a cult, I chose this schoolbook penmanship font with literal directions for how to write it properly “according to the rules.” I picked red as a background because it’s a hot color, and I wanted to keep the heat on the gal, so she gets outta that box!

Follows Direction 3

Follows 3: This one is a little bit of a parody on all the business improvement books out there. Here we see the line of workers mindlessly following direction, while one of them (our heroine?) is escaping. I like the very “post modern” feel of the business graphic used for a fiction cover. It’s a bit unexpected, but not too “out there”.

Again I chose a crisp straight font, and kept it in lower case, partly because I like d the look and mostly because I could do something cool with it to reinforce the message of the title. Whenever I can I like to do something “custom” with the title typography—because it’s just neater.

I think all of these are pretty clean and simple. And that is usually my preference in cover design in general, but a lot of times that just isn’t what gets chosen. We have to design with a lot of “needs” in mind. Not the least of which is what the publisher tells us they want.

Aesthetically simple always wins out, but that’s my opinion. What’s yours?

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