What about location - Covent Garden then and now part two

In part two I take a look at the streets surrounding Covent Garden. It's more difficult to find decent prints from the 18th century, but thankfully, I have found some Victorian photographs. Most of the buildings in these photographs were the same in the previous century.

Here's an 18th century map of the area. You can see Russell Street marked on it, and Bow Street coming off Russell Street. Follow Russell Street and you come to Drury Lane. On this map, you can just see the word 'Lane'. if you carry on across Drury Lane, then the next road is Great Wild Street, which is the extent of our journey today.

Okay, so Kitty's brothel is on the corner of the Covent Garden Little Piazza and Russell Street. Here it is again today.

See that street going off to the left? That's Russell Street. Three or so doors down this street was Thomas Davis's bookshop, which was where James Boswell first met Dr. Samuel Johnson, and where Kitty goes first, to ask after the dead man she's found in her bed. The original building still stands. Here it is below.

It's the one with the red awning. The blue plaque explains the Boswell/Johnson thing. I can't find an old picture of the bookshop, but here's a picture of Thomas Davis.

If you follow Russell Street to the end and turn left, then you reach Bow Street. Number four was where the magistrate's court and home to the Bow Street Runners was.

Here it is, and below a picture of the inside with the court in session.

Sadly, today the entire west side of Bow Street has been rebuilt and now forms part of the Opera House.

Below are two photos of Drury Lane, where the Theatre Royal stands.  Drury Lane is named after Sir Robert Drury, who built a house here in 1500. The Theatre Royal, which has been rebuilt four times on the same site, was the main competitor to the Covent Garden Theatre (now the Opera House). In the first photo you can see the columns outside the theatre on the left. They were originally painted maroon and it was given the nickname, Rhubarb Alley, because they looked like sticks of Rhubarb. Prostitutes would gather underneath, to wait for the punters to come out of the theatre.

Watch this space for a blog post about the history of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Looking the other way up Drury Lane. If you look carefully, you can see a building at the far end of the row on the left, just by the lamp post, but past it into the background - this is the same building as in the old photos below.

Now here is an old photo of Drury Lane.

And another of the same buildings, but looking in the opposite direction.

Go one street further east and you come to Great Wild Street, which is where Kitty went in search of the dead man's lodging house.

Great Wild Street today is a mess of newish buildings and the old alley's leading off the street, such as Wild Court, below.

Was this where Kitty witnessed a vicious argument between man and wife?

The pic on the left of this triptych is the same view as the new photo above it. 

Okay, enough for part two. Part three, going north of Covent Garden into James Street and Long Acre can be found here.

Part one is here

If your appetite  has been whetted to learn more of Kitty's life in the stews of 18th century Covent Garden you can find out  more by following this link

Kitty Ives is an 18th century Covent Garden prostitute who must solve a murder or risk swinging from the gallows

www.angelaelliottbooks.com

What's in a cover?

 I designed the first cover The Finish ever had. It was just so that I could get it out on Authonomy and You Write On. Once I'd found a publisher I stopped using it because the image of the woman was a stock photo and, although I bought the licence for a paltry sum, it is being used elsewhere.

 

 The second cover, below, was what the publisher's designer came up with. I deemed it crap. A second design was offered to me, it was so lousy I can't even find a copy of it anywhere.

 After this disaster, I said I would give it another go myself. I started offering up design ideas thus:

 I knew what I wanted it to look like: a little bit ragged round the edges. Covent Garden, silhouettes, a bit Musketeer-like. My publisher said he liked the idea, but it wasn't quite right. I played around some more, going ever so slightly over the top a bit with this one.

It was good, but a bit too classical. There followed several more with women on the front. This was one of them.

I then went totally crazy and tried this out for size.

You have to admit, it's a bit lurid thriller, rather than historical crime.

After my publishers said, yes, I like all of them, but they aren't quite right, I thought I would just put the elements I liked from each of the ideas together. This is what I came up with, and what we used in the end.

Hey ho, I went and did a cover for each of the four books in the series, all along the same lines as this one.

As you can see, it has the idea of the woman on it, plus the map in the background - a bit of the ragged 'fire' remains to frame it, and I put a frieze of 18th century fashionable ladies across the bottom. The image of the women are each by the same artist and are way out of copyright, being from the 18th century as in the public domain. The type was a free to download and free to use font called Aquiline Two. I built the covers in photoshop. The background is the same in each, but with a colour change.

Following the decision to use these covers, I produced them in different sizes to suit the requirements of the different digital stores.

How come I could do this myself? Well, because my first job was as a layout and pasteup artist, way back before we used computers to do it, and because I had done a Fine Art degree and still dabble.

So, what do you do if you've written your opus and need a cover?

If you are self-published, or even indie published, you probably have more control that if you are trade published. That's because with a traditional publisher, they are holding the purse strings, and thus, have control. With Indie and self-publishing you get to say what you want, how you want, and when you want. You might have to shell out a couple of hundred bucks (over here in Blighty we say a couple of hundred quid), or you might get it for free.

One thing though, whether you get it designed by a friend, do it yourself, or employ a designer, you'll want it to look professional.

Yes you will.

Oh boy, and I see so many covers that are just don't come up to the mark. Is yours one of them?

First off, you need to check out covers that you really like. What is it that floats your boat about them? Is it the image, the font, the colourway, or the overall layout?

Secondly, what is the theme of your book and what do you want your cover to convey?

Thirdly, is you idea for a cover in keeping with the genre? Oh yes, go look. Each genre has a specific type of cover - and within, that genre even, there are other styles of cover. It's highly technical.

Once you've got an idea, start to play around with it. Even if you are employing a designer, you should be able to mix up the ideas.

Photoshop and Illustrator are a godsend because they make everything a lot easier. Beware though of making your cover look overly slick - some cgi images are too good and people forget about using gaussian blur to really punch out the type. They rely on an embossed font and that isn't always what you want if you want to look professional.

Add into that, the need for more than just the title and author's name. It's good to have a testimonial on the cover. Maybe a 'from the author of', or some such thing. Perhaps the publisher's imprint. Really go look at covers and decide what you like about them.

Failing all that, I'm here if you need me. For a fee. Lol. It's negotiable.

Read The Finish here
www.angelaelliottbooks.com