The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is one of my favorite novels. I read it once every three or four years, just to remind myself of how one particular author did her wonderful work. If you want to write a novel, forget about how-to-write-fiction courses. They are a waste of time that keeps you from your writing. If you want true guidance, read the novels that have moved you, and figure out how it is that you’ve been moved. The novels you love are everything you need. See what works for those authors, learn why it works for you, and then use what you’ve learned in your own work.
But I digress….
Edith Wharton’s books have often had the happy fortune of good design. Substack writer Caroline Weaver’s most recent post features a fine collection of cover artwork for The House of Mirth. The tastefulness of many of these designs shows us how important a good cover can be to the reader’s opening of that book and taking a look at the first page of text. That moment is the most fruitful to the success of a book’s purchase, and the cover has a great deal to do with it.
Click here for Caroline Weaver’s fine post.
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