The winner of last week's Sarah Dessen contest is... Mishel (who, ironically, has never read a SD book! WHOA.) Start here, M. Send me your address! Today, the fabulous Lucienne Diver is here to talk about the cover of her new release, Vamped. I love that it looks like a Vampire Lipstick ad! Here's Lucienne:
"I didn't have anything in mind when writing the book. When asked, I took a look at a bunch of YA covers I thought 
worked and sent them off in a file to my editor. It included Rachel Vincent, Rosemary Clement-Moore and Rachel Caine covers. Now that I've seen A.S. King's Dust of 100 Dogs cover, that one would have been there as well.
"I also put out a call on my blog. There were some fabulous ideas thrown out, and one of my authors e-mailed me separately (I'm a literary agent by day) with a wonderful concept: Have what looks like a photo out of a yearbook that someone has drawn fangs on. It would have captured the fun feel of the book, but might have been a little too cartoonish, ultimately, since Vamped has its dark moments as well as light.
"Anyway, I browsed a whole host of YA covers and sent a file of the kind of art I most wanted to emulate. Flux blew them all out of the water. I still think all those covers are great, but Flux managed to truly capture the tone of Vamped with the cover: Fangs and fun!
"I don't know if the girl on the Vamped cover was hired specifically for this photo shoot or whether the art department used a photo from their arsenal which they modified; hard to come by natural fangs, at least in a model that actually shows up on camera!
"I was traveling and first saw the cover when I checked my e-mail at an internet cafe. I paid to print it out and had to show the guy behind the counter, who looked a little bemused. I then proceeded to show everyone I encountered, whether they knew me or not!
"I thought it was pretty much perfect. About the only thing I had to say was, 'Do you want to see my taglines? I promise, they're nothing like my etchings!' Anyway, when he said yes, I sent him off three or four to look at and they chose to go with Eternity needs an entourage, which I love. It now appears in the upper right hand corner of the cover.
"The only changes were the length of the fangs, which they extended to make them stand out more, and the addition of the tagline.
"I really like my cover. My name's a little small (*grin*) but I can live with that. Vamped is all about Gina, my heroine, and she really hates to share credit. After all, I only channeled her. She did all the hard work. (Kicking butt and taking names is hell on her couture.)"
Like I said, I'm all about vampire beauty. I also like that it brings up the red-and-pink question that Sarah Dessen mentioned last week in her Cover Story. And I love the tagline! What do you guys think of this cover?