Elise Allen, who co-wrote Hilary Duff's books (did you know that?) is here for her GCC tour, and she's telling tales about her cover, naturally.
"I got very lucky. I loved my cover the first time I saw it.
"While I loved it at first sight, the more I looked at it, the more I had issues. My biggest issue was the model’s lips. In the first draft of the cover, her lips were ginormous. She looked like she had a fish allergy, and had just sucked on a carp. I mentioned that to Harcourt, and they agreed, so the lips were shrunk to normal human size.
"Flush with that tweaking success, I gave the cover to my husband, a trained artist who does graphic design for a living. I asked him to give notes as if it were one of his work projects, and he came up with twenty very specific changes: tweaks in font, in placement of the image… he even comped up a version of what the cover should be, and said he could send the file to Harcourt if that would help. I was elated, and passed all the information to my publisher… who was very kind as they patted me on the head and said (and I’m paraphrasing), 'Sweetie, we did the lip thing. That’s all you get. Settle down now, okay?'
"The cover was shot with a model, and they actually made the Populazzi necklace for the shoot. I’ve been trying to get my hands on it ever since, but alas, to no avail!"
Thanks, Elise! I actually know how you can DIY a necklace like that. Cool, huh?
Now here comes the Win-It Part: To thank everyone for their support with the paperback launch, Elise is doing a giveaway on her blog where commenters can win a pack of five books -- Populazzi plus books from the four authors who blurbed it. Go enter!
PS-Check out the trailer for Populazzi below: