Win-It Wednesday + Cover Stories: All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

*Update! Travis reminded me that I forgot to pick last week's Copper Sun/Incarceron winner (and did you hear that Fox picked up the film rights to Incarceron?!). Anyway, the winner is JenP! Send me your address, J. Now back to Anna J.*The lovely Anna Jarzab is here to talk about her novel's cover. All Unquiet Things, which The Compulsive Reader called "[A] complex, smart, and disquieting debut." Plus, Anna's giving a copy of her book to one lucky commenter, whom I'll choose at random next week (announced on Weds as usual). Take it away, Anna! "It surprises me now, considering how obsessively I thought of this book, how little I thought about what the cover might look like. I had dinner with my editor and my agent a few months after we sold All Unquiet Things and my editor asked, 'So do you have any ideas about what you might like to see on the cover?' I was totally stumped, so I blurted out the only thing that came to mind: matryoshka dolls. One is crucial to the plot and they've always seemed sort of an apt metaphor for people and mysteries. I don't know whether or not the art department at Delacorte found that suggestion helpful, but they didn't go with it, which was fine because then I used it as a theme for my website, which has worked out pretty nicely. "I got my cover in January 2009 and was totally stunned by it. I mean, absolutely, positively, 100% in awe of how elegant and captivating it is. I had absolutely no input except '!!!!!'. I didn't even try to play it cool. The cover never changed from the comp I saw, which was just fine with me. "The cover photo was shot specifically for the book by the brilliant Eva Kolenko (who according to her blog just did some shots for a Rubio's commercial, which is pretty much the coolest thing ever; as all Californians know, Rubio's is delicious). The model's name is Lauren, and a couple of months ago I heard from her lovely mother, who dropped me a line to tell me that was her daughter on the cover. I was excited and asked her to see if Lauren could write a little something about her experience being a cover model for the book. You can read the full thing here on my website, but here's a snippet: Lauren: "It all started with an email from a casting agency asking me if I was interested in a photo shoot for the cover of a book...I pictured myself - hair blowing from the oversized fan behind the photographer, fake eyelashes, colorful wardrobe - I would be like a celebrity...However, when my mom received an email from the photographer that said, 'Lauren will be playing dead, and will probably be getting a little muddy. Just wanted to give you a heads up on that,' my celebrity hopes vanished... "First they had me lay down on a hill of prickly grass. I was a tough girl, I could handle it. It was wet and scratchy, but I tried to focus on appearing dead. The next spot was on top of some thick roots near a tree. This time it was muddy, and the designer dirtied my shirt with grass and dirt beforehand for effect. The roots dug into my back, but I had to appear relaxed, you know, being dead and all. It was still freezing cold, but, of course--perfect timing--the glare from the sun was in my eyes while I had to stare directly into the camera. Eva was great, always encouraging me and trying to get the best shot possible... "When we were done shooting, Eva showed me some of the pictures on her laptop. When I saw them, I was so excited. It was worth being uncomfortable for an hour... This experience was amazing! I would not trade it for anything. It was so cool to go to Borders and see my face (actually half of it) on the shelf. I felt so honored. I couldn't help but tell the good news to an employee there. He surprisingly was quite impressed." Back to Anna: "What a trooper! I'm the whiniest person ever, so I probably would've been like, "Why is it so COLD?" in about five seconds. But the photo is amazing, and I think Lauren is a perfect Carly--also, perfectly dead-looking. By the way, you may only be able to see half of Lauren's face on the hardcover, but the audio book has a fuller photo, right (they had to use it because of sizing). "There are so many things I love about the cover. I love how incredibly green the grass is, and how transfixingly blue Carly's eyes are. I love how she's staring at you, like she's daring you to find out what happened to her, or she's trying to draw you in--also helped by the half-beckoning way her arm is positioned. I love the horizontal lines of the cover, with the way the photo is trimmed and Carly's arm. I also like that Carly's hand is what's in focus, and everything else is slightly out of focus, like she's offering to take your hand and guide you into this world. Am I thinking too much about this? Maybe. But I've stared at it a long time. "Anyway, I absolutely love the cover and am so grateful to the design department at Delacorte and Eva and Lauren and my editor who surely had a lot to do with this. It's such a beautiful package, and perfectly captures the essence of the book I wrote. I couldn't be happier." I found the cover to be really mesmerizing, which is why I had to ask Anna to join us for Cover Stories! And that full-face audio book cover? SO MUCH CREEPIER!! I love that Lauren the model got to share her story too! (I loved doing that with Molly, the Violet books' cover model.) So what do you guys think of this cover? Drawn in? Comment below and you're entered to win a copy of the book! Oh, and here's the trailer:

Cover Stories: We Were Here by Matt de la Pena

I really loved Matt de la Peña's We Were Here, and I had to ask him about its unique and somewhat dreamy cover. Here's Matt:"I never really had a vision for my We Were Here cover. I just remember thinking, Man, I hope my cover looks cool. That was my only thought. I kind of wanted it to be gritty. But covers and titles are the same for me - I don't think I deserve to think about them until I've done the heavy lifting and finished the book. "This is my third book, and it's the first time I got to bring in my own guy (or at least recommend him). Nick Haas, a very talented graphic artist in Chicago, did all the art for the movie version of my first book, Ball Don't Lie. My editor, who has a really good eye for jacket art, dug his stuff and Random House agreed to give him a shot. They really liked what he came up with. He also redid the cover of my second book, Mexican WhiteBoy - it's SO MUCH BETTER. Check out both versions, the old is on the left, new on the right: "Anyway, the first time I saw the We Were Here cover I was like, Damn, man! Finally! I really liked it right away. Now, my first reaction to the hard cover version of Mexican WhiteBoy (above left) was a different situation. I believe I threatened to leap out of my editor's office window at Random House. "I didn't have any say with the first book. I think I was so happy to have a book I didn't care what the hell the cover looked like. I don't even remember having an opinion (though I do like it). Now they're starting to send me drafts of the covers. They're running ideas by me. Which is really cool. It's fun to see the directions they go. I've seen about three versions of the cover of my book that comes out next year (I Will Save You). They're going in a very different direction. I really like it. "The cover for We Were Here is about four photos sort of blended together. The guy who did it, Nick Haas, loves to overlap and blend and stick together. It comes out looking really different. The photos are from some shots he took in Chicago and LA. "My favorite thing (and this probably doesn't mean anything to anybody else) is that you can vaguely see letters that spell out 'UNDO CITY' in the background. I thinks that's a really cool idea. This is a pretty urban novel and the main character, Miguel, has been sentenced by the system, which operates in the city, and maybe Miguel would like to 'undo' the system which would ultimately be undoing the 'city,' so if you think about it that little subliminal message is totally relevant to the story, even though it was unintended. Do you follow? Actually, I have no idea what I just said. But I do like that it says 'UNDO CITY.' "In general I think my job as an author is to write as good a novel as I possibly can. I don't want to spend too much time thinking about covers or reviews or sales or potential groupies (well, maybe potential groupies). On the other hand, it's so incredibly cool to get that first look at your new cover. It makes you think, Holy crap! I wrote a damn book! I actually pulled it off!" Thanks, Matt! I didn't notice UNDO CITY until you mentioned it. How cool! I also think the second cover for Mexican Whiteboy has so much more depth and color to it. I can't wait to read the rest of Matt's books. What do you guys think of these covers? PS-Here's the trailer for Ball Don't Lie, the movie based on Matt's book that comes out this summer. Awesome.

Cover Stories: The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Over on Barnes and Noble's Unabashedly Bookish blog, Matthew Quick told me the story of his debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook. It has two very different covers, and he has quite a tale to tell.Here are the covers: Check out the full story here. Which cover do you like best?

Cover Stories: Fallen by Lauren Kate

I want the dress on the cover of Lauren Kate's Fallen. Okay, I know I'm not original, but it's the truth. How gorgeous is that?! I had to ask how it all came about. Here's Lauren:

"Before I was writing full-time, I worked as an Associate Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books, so I got to spend a lot of time with the art department there and I realized a) how bad I was at visualizing cover concepts that represented and helped promote books, and b) how absolutely excellent the art department was at doing just that. Writing a story and visually representing the story are really very, very separate skills. In my experience, even when authors come into a project with a clear idea for the cover, they often end up groveling at the feet of the talented designers and artists who can get at their books in a really different way and bring something entirely new and fresh to the package of the book.

"This is all to say that it did not even occur to me to try and visualize what the Fallen cover would look like. I left that in the hands of the experts from the beginning! And that was a very good idea.

"They really didn't come to me beforehand, and I didn't expect them to. Of course, if I'd had a specific idea about the cover, I would have brought it to them, but again, I feel lucky for my experience as an editor because I came into this endeavor understanding what a collaborative process publishing a book really is. I was excited to let the art department do their thing. And what they came up with was just so stunning.

"I was living on a farm in northern California and I didn't have internet access, just my phone, which downloaded images about as quickly as grass grows. I saw this email from my editor with the subject line 'Cover Comp!' and then it wouldn't load and it wouldn't load and I paced my house and when the tiny jpeg finally opened on my cell phone screen, I just about collapsed on the couch. It was like nothing I could have imagined for the book--and yet it was perfect. Beautiful, haunting. It evoked an entire world in one image, which was exactly what I wanted.

'Oooooh, ahhhhh.' That was about all I had to say.

"This was the only version I saw, so I never imagined that a whole battle had gone on in-house. I found out later that after some discussions at my publisher, several other cover comps had been proposed and argued over in many loooong meetings. It wasn't until the very last minute that they decided to stay with the original. I think what finally tipped the scale was that Random House polled a group of teen girls and asked them which of a few covers they liked best. The results of the survey were pretty overwhelmingly in favor of the first--and current!--cover.

"I *think* the cover is a painting based on a photograph, or a photograph somehow doctored to look as rich as a painting. All I know is that there is a genius in Brazil who delivers these beautiful pieces (we're using her work for Torment, the sequel, as well) to the art department at Random House and they do some manipulations and it comes out looking pretty fab.

"When I first wrote the book, there was no scene that described this exact image. No big flowing black dress, no forest escape. Actually there still isn't quite that scene... but something about this image evokes the essence of the story, even builds on it. I went back and revised the scene where Luce finds that first photograph of one of her past lives. I wrote in the black dress. I gave Luce wristlets and very long hair. The cover takes on her past lifetime, though this exact image (her being alone in a forest) happens off the pages of this first book. I like that, I think it's provocative that even the cover image suggests there's more to this story than is told in Fallen. I'm looking forward to speaking to all of that mystery in the later books.

"I did have an idea for the model's pose on the second book's jacket (Torment, which comes out in the fall) and I proposed this to my publisher. The cover is still a work in progress, but they're working with the idea I proposed and I think it's turning out really well."

Thanks, Lauren! Fascinating. I wonder if that genius in Brazil can make me a dress like Luce's, and the gloves, too. Just for around the house, you know.

What do you guys think of this cover?

Cover Stories: Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Courtney Summers is awesome, as many of you guys know. She agreed to do a double Cover Story with me, so here's part one. It's about her debut, Cracked Up to Be. I loved this book, btw.Here's Courtney: "When I found out St. Martin's was going to publish Cracked Up to Be, I was really eager to see what they'd make of the cover. I secretly wished that: 1) there would be a girl on it and her face would be obscured, because I like covers that leave character's faces to the imagination and 2) it would be awesome (what author doesn't want that, though!) "When I got the first cover for Cracked Up to Be, I loved it. It had a faceless girl laying on some bleachers set against a field and I thought it was awesome, so I was 2 for 2! Unfortunately, *cue ominous music*, it was not meant to be. There was a hiccup with the stock image of the girl, so my cover was pulled (trivia: you can see the girl on the cover of Daniel Ehrenhaft's Dirty Laundry and Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's Leap of Faith--and she looks great on both!). I was a little bit bummed about this; no author is guaranteed a cover they'll love. I really adored that cover and was slightly nervous the new version wouldn't capture my heart in the same way. "St. Martin's ended up doing a photo shoot for the new cover, which was really exciting. They wanted to match it as closely to the original as possible. Pretty soon after, I got my new cover, which is as you see it today EXCEPT... "The colours were different and I did not love them. "I can't fully articulate why I didn't like them--I just knew that I didn't. I disliked the blue bench and found the red in the skirt very off-putting. A little too neon Christmas. My agent passed along my concerns and the art department and my editor were very receptive to them. The colours were changed to what you see now. When I saw the revision, I LOVED it without reservation. I think it's much stronger than the original. Green is my favourite colour, so it was neat that it was featured so prominently on my debut. (See both covers side by side): "In hindsight, though I still heart Cracked Up to Be's cover muchly, some people commented that it didn't reflect the grittiness of the actual book, so when we started to work on my next book, Some Girls Are, my editor told me they were going to try for a gritty vibe and I was thrilled..." UPDATE: the Cover Story for Some Girls Are is up on Barnes and Noble's Unabashedly Bookish blog. Oh, and Alea did a great Lookalikes post on this cover (from which I grabbed the ARC photo -- thanks!). Thanks, Courtney! I like the greens and the darker bench in the final cover, though I have to admit I didn't know this was a different photo shoot from the other books. I can see how readers would want the cover to be a little grittier, but I think it's lovely nonetheless... What do you guys think?

Cover Stories + Win-It Wednesday: Year of the Horse by Justin Allen

The winner of last week's contest for a signed copy of Lisa McMann's GONE is... Mitzy! Send me your address, M.This week, author Justin Allen is here to share his epic Cover Story for Year of the Horse, and to give away a signed copy of the book! Read on, and give us your thoughts below--then you're entered! Here's Justin: "What many readers don't realize about cover designs is just how little input authors officially get. Heck, most times we don't even get final say in the book's title. Really! That's true! By contract, the cover and title are both part of the marketing of a book, meaning that final say goes with the publisher. Authors get to cast their two cents in, and I suppose you could cry and stamp your feet if you REALLY hated something. But the design is mostly out of your hands. More often than not, that's probably for the best... "The story behind the cover of my latest novel, Year of the Horse, is sort of unusual. Overlook Press went through 5 - count 'em, FIVE! - completely different cover designs over the course of a year, searching for exactly the right image to hopefully make the book just leap off the shelves. Did they succeed? Time will tell. "A lot of what goes into cover design is determined by whose eye your publisher is hoping to catch. This is the first cover design for my book, right. It is all my fault, I'm afraid (see, maybe authors SHOULDN'T get too much say.) Overlook asked me what I had in mind, and I described a gunfight in front of a saloon. They took this image from an old painting. It is exactly what I asked for, from the title (pay attention to that title!) to the scene, to the coloring... Does it suck? Oh, Lord! "Fortunately, in their infinite wisdom, Overlook saw that the book just COULD NOT stay like that! So, they hired an artist to fashion a cover image depicting the main characters. Now this is more like it! Depicted are the protagonist, Lu (he's the boy on the right), and his friends Jack Straw (the gunfighter at center), and Sadie (the girl on the left). As the drawing was coming together I made lots of observations. For instance, I mentioned that Jack wears a blue coat (it originally came out gray). I also thought it was odd that Lu was carrying a stick of dynamite, but that didn't actually bother me much. And to me Lu and Sadie looked a bit young - in the book she's 16, and he's 15 - though again this was not really a huge deal to me. I also asked whether Sadie's hair couldn't look more blond. All in all, the artist did a pretty great job, I'd say. Unfortunately, a new problem crept up on us - The Title. "Imagine you're looking for a book, but want to find out more information about it before you buy. What do you do? Me, I google it. You too? Small world! Now, just imagine what happens if you google "Justin Allen The American." Do you think you'd get anything OTHER than my book? Go ahead, try it. We can wait. That's right, millions of unrelated hits. So another change had to be made. A NEW TITLE! We wanted something that would stand out just enough - without sounding completely made up - something that would refer to the main character's Chinese heritage, and hopefully add just hint of mystery. I suggested Year of the Horse. I suspect any number of you have seen the problem that was to follow. That's right, NO HORSE!!! You have a book called Year of the Horse, without a horse on the cover. Aiyeee! So, back to the old drawing board. "Once again, a completely new cover idea was hatched. Saints be praised! Right? Right? There's the horse, right on top of that canyon. This is a fine image - and astonishingly, Barnes and Noble still features this image on their website, despite the fact that this is NOT what the book looks like. What's most astonishing about THAT fact is that Barnes and Noble is one of the reasons that this is NOT the cover of the book. For whatever reason, Barnes and Noble did not like this cover. In fact, they hated it. Maybe they didn't like the canyon, or the fact that the cover is mostly black. Maybe they were just having a bad day. I don't know. But I do know that they really hated this cover. I bet most of you out there didn't realize that bookstores have a say in all this, too... I know I didn't realize that. So why does Barnes and Noble feature the cover they hated on their website? I'll bet that even they don't know the answer to that! "So, at long last we get to the actual cover. Horse? Check. Nice and bright? Heck fire, it's yellow! Pretty girl with vampire? Not so much, but I guess you can't have everything. "Do I like the final cover? You know, I really do. I have a poster-size image of it - one I used at some readings out west this winter - framed and on the wall next to my desk at home. I like that the horse is galloping, with streamers of dust behind him. I like the type-face and the teaser at the top. I like that the rider could be ANY of the characters, even Sadie. And I like the fact that the title is featured much more strongly than my name. I have always figured that a book, once bought, belongs to the reader. It's her imagination that will fill in the world, give life to the characters, and power to the words. The writer is no longer important at that point. It's the reader! "Are there things I don't like about the cover? Well, let me put it this way. There are aspects of the book that this cover doesn't show. For instance, large parts of the book are actually fantastical in nature. It features sorcerers, fire-demons, a were-coyote, magical bullets, the headless horseman, and even the devil himself. But just imagine a book cover that included all of that! I'm not sure it'd be on my wall. "One last thing that has occurred to me about this cover, in the wake of Bloomsbury's white-washing fiasco of the past few weeks, is to note that the rider on my cover is race-less and sex-less. And you'll note that I LIKED that the rider could be ANY of the characters in the book, from the African-American Henry Jesus to the white Sadie MacLemore. I'm not sure what this has to tell us about covers, book sellers or book buyers, but I think it is at least interesting. "I'd love to know what you all think about the cover. I bet Overlook would as well (This isn't rocket science, we can all learn more!). And if you have ANY pull at all with Barnes and Noble, and can somehow get them to switch to the actual cover of my book, 'Please! for the love of all that's holy, do so now!'" Oh man, Justin makes me LAUGH! I really like his observation about how, on the final cover, the character could be anyone. How freeing! And I actually do think I like it best--there's action in the cover, but also a calm stillness to it because of the shadows. Which cover do you like best? Leave your thoughts below and you're entered to win a signed copy of the book of 1000 covers, Year of the Horse.

Cover Stories: Heist Society by Ally Carter

Ally Carter and I shared a cover model once! The model on the cover of Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy also posed as Violet on all three of my Violet covers! (Read that story here.)This week her latest novel, Heist Society, is out, and it's got a fantastic cover, in my opinion. Here's Ally with the Cover Story: "I am not an artist -- not even a little bit. Plus, my wonderful publisher, Disney-Hyperion, has always blessed me with such fabulous covers before that I didn't spend a lot of time trying to come up with a specific concept. The only thing I felt certain of was that it should have a lush, rich feel and feature art in some way. "When researching art and famous art heists I, of course, heard the story of the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston which many consider to be the largest single art theft in history. Twelve paintings were taken in that heist, but Mrs. Gardner's will indicated that the collection was to never change -- no paintings could be sold or added -- so the museum left the empty frames on the museum's walls, waiting for the missing paintings to be returned. That image (above) was always very vivid in my mind, and I shared the story with my editor. When I saw my cover, my first thought was 'Wow!' My second was 'That's Kat.' The sunglasses and reflection were fabulous, but, to me, the best part is the little smile. That little smile says it all. "My editor is Jennifer Besser with Disney-Hyperion and she's absolutely amazing (she's the powerhouse editor behind series like Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan and Bluebloods by Melissa de la Cruz.) She is always open to talk and brainstorm and do whatever we can to make things even better. But I have to say all my suggestions were little things -- trying to make the model's eyes the shade of blue I'd always imagined Kat's to be, tweaking the cover copy -- little things like that. "This was a difficult cover to do because, in a way, Heist Society is my most complex book. It's (hopefully) a fun, funny book that takes place in a lot of glamorous, exciting locations, but it's also touches on some very serious issues. Those complexities were tough to summarize in one image, so my publisher tried many, many different treatments before finding the image that we all knew was just right. That final image changed very little from the first time I saw it. "At first, they worked a lot with stock photos, playing with different ideas, trying to capture the perfect concept and, believe me, they went through dozens of them! I knew they were getting close when my editor started saying things like 'I think we may have one.... I think this might be the one....' At that point they sent me a very rough mock-up using stock photos and I immediately agreed. "Next, they sent me shots of several potential models, and we all agreed on Olga, a Russian model living and working in New York. She simply was Kat. They did a photo shoot with Olga then, and the rest, as they say, is history." "I absolutely love this cover. It does what I didn't think was possible: capturing the total essence of the story. Every time I look at it I find something else I'm drawn to -- especially that little smile." Thanks, Ally! I love this cover, and I think the smile captures such mischievousness and the sunglass reflection works so well. What do you guys think?

Bonus Cover Stories: Dirty Little Secrets by CJ Omololu

I have great news! Barnes and Noble's UNABASHEDLY BOOKISH blog has asked me to write some Cover Stories for them, and I'll be doing that every Tuesday. Today, I'm featuring CJ Omololu's Dirty Little Secrets (a.k.a. the YA Hoarder book!). Here's a teaser from the story:"When I thought about the cover for Dirty Little Secrets, I was actually thinking of something more graphic, although I had no idea what. We'd seen so many Twilight-esque covers that are cool -- books like The Dark Divine that are spare and striking -- so I thought it would be more like that. Good thing my publisher didn't ask me, because somehow, the image of a bag of garbage or a stack of National Geographics probably wouldn't be as eye-catching as what Walker came up with...." Read the rest at Unabashedly Bookish, and I'll love you forever if you comment over there and make me feel popular. Thanks! Happy Tuesday!

Cover Stories: The Naughty List by Suzanne Young

Suzanne Young is one of the most fun authors around. Proof: She does a dance when she gets a new book contract... publicly! Her latest title is The Naughty List, and here's what it's about (summary from indiebound):

As if being a purrfect cheerleader isn't enough responsibility! Tessa Crimson's the sweet and spunky leader of the SOS (Society of Smitten Kittens), a cheer squad-turned-spy society dedicated to bringing dastardly boyfriends to justice, one cheater at a time. Boyfriend-busting wouldn't be so bad . . . except that so far, every suspect on the Naughty List has been proven 100% guilty!

When Tessa's own boyfriend shows up on the List, she turns her sleuthing skills on him. Is Aiden just as naughty as all the rest, or will Tessa's sneaky ways end in catastrophe?

And now, here's Suzanne with a little bit about the cover:

"I had a cover idea! I wanted a cheerleader peering over a fence. Or a cheer squad holding spy equipment behind their back. Instead, I got a sneak peek inside a window. It looks great for the entire series.

"Okay, truthfully, I laughed when I first saw the cover. It was way more scandalous than I envisioned. But I had a good friend that promised me it would be a popular cover. I hope he was right.

"It is a stock photo and then they really wanted to make something special to tie the series together--that's the window pane (I adore it). It also comes in red and purple!"

That photo is totally risquee -- I think it's the black bra that puts it over the top for me. And, I snooped around and found the cover for So Many Boys, #2 in The Naughty List series (out in June). It's great when a series has such a unifying icon, like the window pane, to ID it. What do you guys think?

PS-Update! Just found Cover #3 on Suzanne's blog:

Bonus Cover Stories: The Babysitters Club Redesign

New Babysitters Club covers... what do we think? vs. the old? (I couldn't find the original Stacey cover for some reason--sorry!). I'm torn. I like the simplicity of the new, but my heart is with the old painting-style covers. Of course, this is for a whole new generation... thoughts?