A book’s title and cover design are often the first impression it makes, and in a crowded market, first impressions matter. These elements are not just decorative; they’re strategic, emotional, and in many ways, the most important tools we have to get a reader to pick up a book.
At our small press, we take this seriously. Every decision we make is grounded in a deep respect for the story, the author, and the audience. Right now, I’m working as the project manager for Echoes of the Lost, a gripping mystery by Agatha Award–winning author Cindy Brown (you might know her debut novel, Macdeath). Echoes of the Lost follows retired detective Ster McCaffrey, who is recently disabled and recovering from a traumatic brain injury. His quiet life is interrupted when he wakes in the dead of night to find a child sobbing on his doorstep—leaving him with more questions than answers. After learning that the boy and his missing mother are houseless with no official investigation underway, Ster decides to solve the mystery himself.
Why We Changed the Title:
When this book first came to us, it had a different name: What the River Knew. A beautiful, evocative title. But as we moved closer to announcing it, we ran into a problem—Macmillan’s Wednesday Books had released What the River Knows in 2023, which has done exceedingly well. For a smaller press, standing out is vital. When a reader searches for a title, we want them to find our book right away—not have to scroll past another bestseller with a nearly identical name. So after careful thought and a bit of heartbreak, we made the call to retitle the book.
The new title, Echoes of the Lost, speaks to so much of what makes this story special. The mystery, of course, but also the themes of memory, identity, and the invisible people our world too often ignores. It’s evocative, emotional, and entirely its own.
Designing the Cover
While all this was happening, we were also deep into another huge part of the book’s launch: the cover design. We spent two full weeks researching what’s trending in the mystery genre—typography styles, visual motifs, color palettes, and more. We examined what’s working on shelves right now and what stands the test of time.
At the time I’m writing this, our first round of covers have just been posted and I am so excited by everything all our cover designers have come up with. To give some context about how our cover design process works, we typically have three rounds for revisions for the cover, and then we narrow it down to only three. From there, we hold a democratic vote as a press and we spend an hour discussing the pros and cons of each cover before making an anonymous vote to select our final choice.
It’s one of my favorite parts of the publishing process: seeing how many people care so deeply about getting this just right. Because we’re not just picking what looks good—we’re choosing the visual face of a story we all believe in.