The lovely Amanda Ashby is here to talk about the cover of her latest book, Fairy Bad Day (read a review from Supernatural Snark), which, as you can see, has tons of personality.
"I had no idea of what the cover would be like when I was writing it (hahaha—most of the time I was pretty sure it would never even reach the stage where it would have a cover!)
"My publisher asked for input, and I went and looked at a whole heap of covers to give me some inspiration. I found quite a few adult urban fantasy books that had headless characters who were leaning on a sword and I really loved them so I mentioned the idea and then, to my complete surprise, that’s what I got!
"When I saw the design, I was stunned! I had no idea that they were considering the idea I’d sent them but of course they made it so much better than I ever could’ve imagined. My favorite part, apart from the sword was the wonderful little white stars that sort of spiral up. They really pop on the real cover!
"My agent wasn’t convinced of the outfit and thought it was a big dowdy but since I quite liked it (my heroine is definitely not into fashion) in the end we just asked for the skirt to be shortened. My editor was totally fine about that (she actually seemed a bit amused that that’s all we asked for!). I’ve always assumed that that they shot it, but I guess there are stock photos of everything. I actually only learned quite recently that it was designed by the same person who did my Zombie cover, right [read that Cover Story here], which is pretty cool!
"The original tagline was 'A boy, a girl and on giant invisible killer fairy.' However, we always knew that we were going to tighten it and in the end we came up: 'One cute boy. One tough girl. One giant invisible fairy. What could possibly go wrong?'
"I’ve just received one of the Australian copies (my US copies haven’t arrived yet) and it’s soooo much cuter than the arc covers. It’s deliciously glossy and the stars really seem glittery!"
Thanks, Amanda! Glossy and glittery--you're singing my tune. Plus this cover made me laugh, always a good thing. What do you guys think?