The art for this Book Cover/Movie/Video Game/etc. doesn’t match what you wrote about that person/thing or scene. How do you deal with that? Artists for covers and other visual renditions of characters in my work are given the artistic license they need to create their vision of the characters and…

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve always wondered who “They” are, and if—by chance—they’ve never heard of Michael Whelan. Because my experience in life has been very different. It’s been almost twenty years now since I first discovered Michael’s work. I was fourteen when it happened,…

Cover art is interesting because it’s as much a marketing tool as it is an illustration of something specific in the books. I have a lot of influence over cover art these days, but I didn’t always have that power. The original Alcatraz covers were pretty terrible in my opinion…

I think adding a visual aspect to novels helps create a more complete and immersive experience. You’ll notice that art has been important to one extent or another in all of my books. Elantrishad its map and the Aons; Mistborn had its maps and the Steel Alphabet. The Rithmatist, has…

Sometimes. For instance, on The Way of Kings, we asked for colored endpages. At first Tor was hesitant; they’re very expensive. We kind of begged a bit, then showed them these cool pages and talked about how great the book would be with them, and eventually Tor decided that they…