Cover Shot

by John J. Miller on May 12, 2010 · View Comments

Here’s the cover of the AmazonEncore edition of The First Assassin, scheduled for release on September 14. I like it.

I’ve written about the art and science of covers:

Covers are tricky. They must convey an idea through an image and they need to do it quickly. When potential readers browse the front tables of bookstores, they probably devote at most one or two seconds to any given title, as they decide whether to pick it up or move on. A cover must grab their attention, let them know if it’s fiction or nonfiction, what genre or category it belongs in, and so on.

My cover needs to say that The First Assassin is a historical thriller set primarily in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War era. It has less time to communicate this message than it took you to read this sentence.

I’m happy with what AmazonEncore has done. It’s a striking visual that ought to catch a lot of eyes.

UPDATE: This is no longer the cover. See the real new cover here.

Kent

I haven’t yet read this book, but if it concerns the actual assassination of Lincoln, was there a modern-era revolver involved?
Steve

I have read this exceptional book. The assassin on the cover appears to be John Lennon. That would explain the modern era revolver. Since Stephen Hawking explained that backward time travel wasn’t possible, that would mean Lincoln traveled forward in time to be assassinated by the Beetles.
Bobby

It’s like The Great Train Robbery. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I think it might be better with smoke as if the bullet had been shot. Or maybe the bullet could be seen exiting the gun.
Kent

My question above was an honest inquiry. I am alarmed by the continuing drift away from fact and into breezy generalization. To most liberals, any “gun” is the same as every other “gun”. I saw some clown on FNC reporting on a Chicago gun turn-in
program the other day. He picked up a .357 magnum and stated that it was “…the gun Dirty Harry made famous.” Wrong. Harry used a .44 mag. Facts matter. I’ve worked close to 30 years in the graphic design field and a layout for a book that purports to discuss the assassination of Abraham Lincoln should have a single-shot, flintlock derringer in the illustration. Anything else shows laziness or willful ignorance. (Both of which, by the way, are probably required to obtain a position with Amazon.)
ek

it seems like they chose a different cover: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1935597116/ref=nosim/kayetechsystems
http://www.heymiller.com JJMiller

Meet the new cover:
http://www.heymiller.com/2010/05/cover-shot-pt-2/

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"An excellent book--it’s like The Day of the Jackal set in 1861 Washington."

--Vince Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pursuit of Honor

"Packed with fascinating information, superb characters, and sublime plot twists, The First Assassin is one of the most exciting thrillers I have read in a long, long time. This is historical fiction at its best and John J. Miller is the hot new author everyone will be talking about."

--Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Apostle

"The story moves with swift suspense, but Miller's real achievement is to take us inside a mindset nearly lost to time, and to create identifiable, sympathetic characters on all sides, including those who are willing to do murder to preserve the Confederacy and its "'peculiar institution.'"

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"The First Assassin knocked me out. Utterly compelling, the novel sweeps the reader along multiple storylines which converge at one point, one moment, where history pivots on its axis. A skilled writer of non-fiction, here Miller uses his knowledge and research to create a powerful thriller that is completely believable. With its accurate period details and pitch-perfect characters -- from house slaves to Washington, D.C. careerists to a mysterious hitman -- there’s not a false note in the whole book. Read it and tell me I'm wrong."

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