This is a PDF of the cover layout that went to print for my 2013 Science Museum novel Shackleton’s Man Goes South. (The various ‘paste-up’ marks visible here don’t show in the finished print.) The front cover components had been discussed at length and comprise: the background colour gradient, Jake Tilson’s ‘melting’ Shackleton’s Man Goes South logotype, the Science Museum logo, my name, a clear message that this is a novel (an unusual proposition for a book published by the Science Museum), and Marina Warner’s advance quote.

The Museum designed this as a ‘cover kit’ rather than a single, fixed-format image. The idea was that these components could be adapted to different online situations, being easily reconfigured to generate cover images that would be compatible with letterbox, square and other default profile pic and thumbnail formats. The colour gradations, of course, suggest warming.

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Press about Shackleton’s Man Goes South

An exhibition accompanying the Science Museum’s publication of Shackleton’s Man Goes South is on show in the Museum’s Atmosphere Gallery until at least 24 April 2015. Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD. Nearest tube: South Kensington. Open seven days a week, 10.00-18.00. Entry to the Museum is free.

Read about publication of Shackleton’s Man Goes South on Publishing Perspectives

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