Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation was published by Stone Bridge Press in 1999. It was the first book on Miyazaki in English and I had so much fun writing it. In 2026, over a quarter of a century later, McFarland & Company, Inc., will publish an updated edition covering Miyazaki’s 21st century works. That, too, has been a blast to write.
The original cover was sensational. Stone Bridge Press did a wonderful job on creating the perfect cover to sell the book in the wake of Princess Mononoke‘s US release. But for the new edition, which embraces Miyazaki’s later works, the book needs a new cover.
Contractually, I don’t get the final say on cover image for most of my books. That’s perfectly normal – although authors know their own work inside out, design teams know what kind of cover will get the most attention for any particular category of book in the current market, and thus boost its sales. But the team at McFarland are very open to ideas, and we’re sharing cover possibilities. I’ve been thinking aloud and making doodles. I live with an artist, so you can probably guess the rest.
My partner presented me with what he calls a rough and I call amazing. He took my ideas and turned them into an image that’s everything I hoped for or thought about, but taken to the next level. Seriously, I would rather have this than a new original Miyazaki cover drawing. (Of course I don’t expect anyone else to agree with me on that, least of all any publisher. A new original Miyazaki cover drawing isn’t within my reach, but if it was you can imagine the sales boost it would deliver.)
It’s going to my editor and they’ll share it with the design team. Until the final choice is made, I can’t share it – after all, it may not be the final choice and I don’t want to prejudice anyone against the book’s published cover. Whatever we end up with will be amazing.