Win-It Wednesday + Cover Stories: The Aristobrats by Jennifer Solow

First, last week's winners: Kasey won Stealing Death by Janet Lee Carey, and Latisha won Delacroix Academy by Inara Scott! Send me addresses, K and L... This week, Jennifer Solow is here with her new novel, The Aristobrats, out next week. It's got a perfectly preppy cover with gorgeous blues, greens and a grosgrain ribbon! A lot of thought went into this cover, so here's Jennifer to share the story (comment for a chance to win the book -- three winners will be chosen next week!): "It starts something like this: The email arrives in your Inbox. The subject line: The Cover. I love it! What do you think? There's a PDF attachment. You try and breathe, practice mindful meditation, give up all unrealistic expectations, keep an open mind. You say to yourself, I will be positive. I will not react like a crazy person. I will not do the Diva Dance (clutch phone, march around living room, wave color printouts in air, sweat). "Needless to say, I never listen to my own advice! "The best book covers I think look effortless, like they just sort of burst out from the story and landed there on the bookshelf. I adore the cover of this book and its breezy, effortless look. Diva Dance notwithstanding, I was amazed and delighted at how dedicated my publisher was to getting to a solution we all loved. Effortless? Don't think so. Worth it? Absolutely. "The Aristobrats is about four close friends who've been waiting their whole lives for eighth grade. It's finally their big year and they're determined to set a good example for the underpopular. With main characters who are undyingly loyal and, hello...nice, it's a kind of anti-Clique book in my mind. (Mean girls are so two-thousand-and-late!) The uber-preppy world of their story was inspired by my own experience at prep school: Madras plaid, Tiffany lockets, grosgrain ribbon watchbands, L.L. Bean Blucher moccasins, wool duffel coats. I felt like there was something in that world of preppiness that would make for a unique and appealing cover. "Getting the style pitch-perfect was as crucial to the cover as it was to the characters in the story. But while these details were part of my own DNA, they were practically impossible for anyone else to truly understand. I knew it was my responsibility to show the cover design team what I meant. I needed to create a visual vocabulary. "I pulled images from everywhere. Colors. Patterns. People. I used Polyvore to make collages and reached out to the prep-experts like Jill from Tickled Pink and Green and The Preppy Princess for ideas. I sent the designers all the preppiness I could find. Soon things started coming together. "One of the things I love about the final cover is that it has a classic, timeless style without feeling like a prep cliche. I also love that the book itself, with the ribbon around it, seems like a wrapped gift or one of those pretty writing journals I always pick up in line at the bookstore as an impulse-buy. I was delighted when the 2011 Lilly Pulitzer notepads (left) came out a few weeks ago. I felt like we were spot-on. "Now how are we feeling about the photos of the girls? Breathe, Jennifer. Breathe." Thanks, Jennifer! I am a huge fan of inspiration boards, and you totally did it up! (Jenny Han had a great one for The Summer I Turned Pretty, too.) I also am a fan of the girls on the cover. Nice picks! What do you guys think of this cover? Take the Quiz (Which Aristobrat Are You?), find Jennifer on Facebook, and watch the trailer:

Cover Stories: The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk

The hilarious Josh Berk is here to share his Cover Story for The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, which is a cartoon right now but will soon be a real boy... Take it away, Josh!

"I'm not at all good at what you would call the visual arts. I can't draw or paint and I don't have a good eye for color. For example, one time my wife asked me to name the color of the walls in our apartment (we were not in the apartment at the time, but we were living there) and I simply could not do it. I had no idea! Turns out they were bright green and I had been living there for two years and never really noticed.

"You see my point.

"Anyway, so when people asked me if I gave input on the cover of my book or had ideas about the cover or anything like that, I always say 'none whatsoever, and that's a good thing.' I literally had no ideas and I literally gave no input. I figured I'd let the professional cover artists and jacket designers and so forth do their thing, free of input from an author who doesn't even know the colors of his own walls.

"So the first thing that happened once we got to 'cover time' was that my editor sent me an email stating that the artist had been chosen, and it was Philippe Petit-Roulet. I had no idea who that was, other than that it sounded very French and thus impressive. I googled Monsieur Petit-Roulet and indeed he is quite impressive! The first thing I saw was that he did a bunch of New Yorker covers (like the one on the right), which sort of blew my mind. I also saw that he did some work in comics, which made me happy. My editor explained that they were going for a comic-book-ish feel with the cover, which was cool by me (even though the book itself is not illustrated or about comics or anything). My editor explained to me that the cover would show the characters cruising around as if they're on a mission and I said 'Sounds great!' That was all my input the whole time. 'Sounds great!'

"Then she wrote back to me after a while (even a few days is 'a while' when you're waiting for something exciting like seeing your first cover for the first time) and said it was going back to the art department because some other people (in editorial or marketing, I forget which ) said it looked 'too young.' I said 'sounds good to me!'

"Then I saw the cover for the first time a few weeks later and my first thought was 'Oh wow, Ebony will be so happy she made the cover!' I thought this because I am a crazy person. Ebony, Will's girlfriend in the book, is clearly not a real person. But she started out as a minor character (actually she started out as non-existent if you count the first draft) and gradually became more and more a part of the book until I really loved her. And there she was on the cover! And Will looked like Will and Devon (his sidekick) looked like Devon. He had the little ponytail and was carrying a TOP SECRET dossier just like he does in the book.

"Oh, and it's worth looking under the cover sometimes, because they did a really cool thing on my spine! (left).

"I thought the cover looked quite cool and I was happy with it. It has caused a bit of consternation since the book has come out because it still might give off a 'too young' vibe to some people. It's definitely a YA book (as in there's some swears & an act of violence and other PG-13-ish content) and not for younger audiences. So for the paperback we're going to use a photo cover to hopefully convey 'this book is for teens.' When that comes out I'll come back for 'Berk's Cover Story, The Sequel.' Haha. I'm so pushy. Thanks for having me!"

Thanks, Josh! I would love to have you back anytime. This is a great Cover Story. Scoring a New Yorker cover artist is incredibly cool, and I'm into the color and energy of this cover. I see how it might read a little young, but it's so great I also see why it was chosen. Excited to see the paperback!

What do you guys think?

Win-It Wednesday: Delacroix Academy by Inara Scott

The winner of last week's April, May & June Robin Benway contest is... Toreyy! Send me your address, T! This week, I have a Cover Story + Contest combo (must like yesterday's -- enter Janet Lee Carey's contest too!) Today, Inara Scott is here to tell us about the cover of her new book, Delacroix Academy (and she's giving away a copy of the book!).

Here's Inara:

"I dreamed, as all authors do, of having the perfect cover. But I really didn't know what that might be. I knew it had to have gates on it -- the Delcroix gates play a significant role in the book, and they have a high creepy factor. ;-) So I definitely hoped they would make an appearance. Other than that, I didn't know exactly what I wanted. I did know I didn't want a couple of stock models kissing. Especially not stock models without heads. Or faces. (shudder)

"I seem to recall them asking if I had any ideas, and I pretty much said exactly what I said above -- I'm hoping you come up with something amazing and cool, but I have no idea what that might be. LOL.

"When I first saw the cover, I ADORED it. Still do. I absolutely love love love it. Am I gushing? Let me gush some more. It's perfect. I love the colors, the power it suggests, the gates, the danger, and Dancia's face is awesome. I did get to see three different takes on the cover with slightly different gate styles and color palettes. But I didn't have a strong opinion. They all looked gorgeous.

"The style on the gate became more square and less ornate, but that was the only change. I know they used a model just for this shoot, because I heard recently that the same model isn't available for book 2, which had them scratching their heads a bit. I'm not sure who they're going to use for the new cover.

"I think this cover tells you a lot about the book. You can see that this is a paranormal story with a strong, powerful heroine and a certain level of suspense or danger. The lack of a couple kissing on the front should also let you know that there may be romance in the book, but it's much more than just a romance."

Thanks, Inara! I certainly think this cover is powerful. It makes me think of the gates to hell or something. Anyone else? Oh, and here's the trailer (sooo creepy awesome!)! Leave a comment about the cover or the trailer, and you're entered to win a copy of the book (US and Canada only--sorry! But any address here works, so if you have a friend who can receive the book for you, you can win!).

Cover Stories: Stealing Death by Janet Lee Carey (+ Giveaway!)

Janet Lee Carey's Stealing Death is newly out in paperback! In a starred review, School Library Journal called the book "fantasy at its best--original, beautiful, amazing, and deeply moving." (And you have a chance to win it!)Here's Janet to talk about the two different covers:

"I had some ideas for the STEALING DEATH hardback (left); Kipp standing in front of his burning house with his arms out to prevent the Death Catcher from taking his family, or just a hand stealing a black sack (the Death Catcher's soul sack). I'm glad now the artists didn't go with either of those images. Both the HB and the PB covers focused on the characters and the ghost mare, ChChka, Kipp steals to make his getaway.

"The artists for the HB and the PB wanted to capture the right Zolyan clothing for Kipp who starts the story as a farm laborer, and for Zalika who goes from a high class landlord's daughter to escaped prisoner in nomadic dress.

"When queried about their clothing for the PB, I sent links like this one Ethiopian Women focusing on the pics with more traditional dress from the site.

"The Zolyan landscape was modeled on the arid climate in Sub-Saharan Africa. I looked to the more traditional clothing in pics of men and women living in drought conditions. Images speak. The desperate living conditions I saw in the photos spurred me on to get involved with PlayPumps now a part of Water For People. I also challenged readers to get involved on the 'giving back' page on my website.

"My first response to the HB cover = Magical! The night flight on ChChka captured the adventurous aspect of novel, as well as the romance between Kipp and Zalika. It didn't evoke the darker elements of the novel. Later feedback said the image appealed more to younger teens than older teens.

"First response to the PB (right) = Riveting! The paperback cover heightens the sense of danger that drives the novel. I think it will appeal to readers who are ready to take Kipp's perilous journey that unmasks our old cultural taboos about death. We all see violence and death plastered across the media. We grow up consuming this stuff. What if we stop camera, zoom in the shot. STEALING DEATH isn't about easy answers. It is about looking at death and not turning our backs.

"I was thrilled to see Zalika on both covers. Publishing has come a long way since Ursula K. Le Guin's The Wizard of Earthsea came out. Ursula fought for years to get different ethnicities on her Earthsea series covers. The main characters in her Earthsea books are brown skinned. She found it very frustrating that the covers didn't reflect this (left).

"In a Guardian UK interview Ursula said, 'I see Ged as dark brownish-red, and all the other people in the book (except the Kargs and Serret) as brown or brown-red, to very dark or black (Vetch). In other words, in the Archipelago 'people of color' are the norm, white people are an anomaly... what drives me up the wall is cover illustrators - trying to get them not to make everybody white, white, white.'

"Read the rest of the post . . . I have to say it was not just illustrators who were working within the restricted cultural blindness of their time, but change is afoot and publishing is listening. The covers of Ursula's new YA books are good examples (below). Still we have a long way to go. I enjoyed reading author Elizabeth Bluemle's article on race in children's literature in a recent Publisher's Weekly post.

"In the end, for my covers, I love the terrifying image of Kipp and Zalika approaching ChChka engulfed in flame. The flaming horse is not burning to death, but alive within the inferno. For me the image evokes the sense of life and death existing together in the eternal now, something essential and mysterious touched on in STEALING DEATH.

"Can we stop death? What would happen if we did? The question took me on Kipp's amazing quest."

Thanks, Janet! I agree that the hardcover is magical, but that it does have a younger-reader feel to it. The paperback cover has a heightened danger to it--and the fire horse is pretty riveting. I'm also glad that the cultures in the book have some place in the covers. Kudos to Egmont.

What do you guys think? One lucky commenter will win a copy of the paperback version of Stealing Death!

PS-Check out Janet's DreamWalks blog here.

Cover Stories: Fat Vampire by Adam Rex

Adam Rex's Fat Vampire cover appealed to me immediately. Plus, the tagline, "A never coming of age story," made me laugh out loud. I had to have Adam stop by to tell its tale. Here's Adam:"I had a lot of ideas for this book cover. I have a sketchbook filled with them. I'm an illustrator as well as an author, so I'm in the happy position of always assuming I'll have a lot of input regarding the cover image. Even in the case of Fat Vampire, which is my first book which contains no illustrations whatsoever. "So I have a few thumbnail sketches of the slushie cup option that are very similar to the finished cover. I also experimented with a couple silhouette designs, one of which I illustrated in a finished form that appears on the case, beneath the jacket. You can see this design at fatvampire.com. I have a couple designs that feature my main character, Doug, with a bat head. I have a couple ideas that would have featured model shoots with teen girls eating red popsicles, which are melting, blood-like, down their necks. In these Doug the vampire is leering from the background. Anyway, I had a lot of ideas, not all of them good. "I think HarperCollins always assumed that I would come up with something for them. Maybe they even assumed I would paint or draw something for the cover, but in the end I think we all agreed that a photograph was the way to go. My previous novel was for a younger demographic, and I've been worried that Fat Vampire would be picked up by readers who are not emotionally ready for it. Illustrated covers are, for whatever reason, so much less common in the YA market, so a photo shoot seemed like a good way to alienate the middle school kids for a few years. "I'll admit that the slushie cover was not my favorite at first. I really wanted that silhouette front and center. But everyone at my publisher favored the cup, so in time I had to acquiesce. I was my idea after all, and among those I'd pitched, so it was hard to argue later that I wouldn't be satisfied with it. I actually attempted to shoot the cover myself, even using it as an excuse to buy a new camera. So I designed a cup with an icy FAT VAMPIRE logo on the front, lit it moodily, and took a whole lot of photos. But I'm not a very knowledgeable photographer, so the photos didn't impress anybody. "After all the back and forth and last minute changes, I was very, very happy, actually. I really got on board with it as the process spun out. I was shown several test cups, wallpaper patterns, tabletop surfaces, etc.; and I was given the opportunity to weigh in at every stage. "The cover did change a bit. After my thumbnails and mock-up, all of which included the title of the book on the cup itself, Harper worried that readers might not understand that this logotype was indeed the name of the book. So a cup without any logo was shot. The cup's stripes, incidentally, were also red during the the photo shoot. Sort of a warm scarlet. Very different from the deep red of the blood/syrup, so I didn't expect it to be an issue. "Anyway, after the shoot we started talking about how to get the title on the cover, and I offered a number of choices (above). Nothing was really clicking, though. Eventually the art department decided that the real problem was that the title wasn't on the cup itself, so they photoshopped it on there and asked me what I thought. I liked it so much I don't think I even said 'I told you so.' "They also decided late in the process that the stripes should be a different color, so we settled on that particular blue. They did an amazing job of Photoshopping all these changes in my opinion. Then I put together some type for the subtitle and byline and the cover was finished. "The photographer, Dan Saelinger, was great to work with, by the way. Hope he doesn't mind all the changes we made. If someone hired me to paint them a cover and then they changed all the colors and photoshopped an elephant into the background I think I'd be cross. "In the end, I'm really pleased, and it seems like people are reacting very well to it. It works on a very superficial level (syrupy sweet blood for an overweight vampire), but I also like the way the slushie acts as a symbol of immaturity, of arrested adolescence. It's meant to be a funny book, but this is a story about a fifteen-year-old who's never going to be allowed to grow up, and that's a tragedy. The somber tone and background of the still life convey that, I think." Thanks, Adam! I love this cover--it really stands out to me, and I think it conveys the humor of the book really well. (It's hard to make a cover funny!) What do you guys think?

Cover Stories: The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June

Robin Benway shared her Audrey, Wait! Cover Story on Monday, and she's back to tell the tale of her newest release's gorgeous art.Here's Robin! "I thought that after having gone through cover anxiety with Audrey, that April, May & June would be a breeze. So wrong! So very very wrong! It's so nervewracking to get the image of your book cover emailed to you! "I had originally always had this idea in my head of three linked paper dolls again a navy blue background with the words 'April May June' written over their heads. I loved this image, but I was pretty sure that my publisher didn't want that as the cover. (It's probably why I became a writer, rather than a cover designer.) "Razorbill had asked me to send over some images of what I thought the sisters would look like (above, l to r, May and June--I could never find a picture that matched the April in my head) but when I saw the initial cover design, the girls looked nothing like the images! I was a little disappointed at first, but then the cover really started to grow on me. The feedback from my friends and family was amazing, too. It's difficult when you realize that your characters are going to be seen as something entirely separate from the image that you've had of them in your head, but now the girls on the cover feel like April, May & June to me." I don't know about you guys, but the primary colors of this cover totally drew me in! What do you think? PS-Robin twitters here, and her characters? They twitter here: twitter.com/aprilstephenson twitter.com/may_stephenson twitter.com/june_stephenson

Lovestruck Summer Cover Art

I found this cover, created by artist Laura Hughes, and I have to gush... HOW CUTE IS THIS? I adore it too much for words. There are hearts, sun, converse, and the whole thing is surrounded by music and perfectly colored in pink and black (which is sooo Quinn). Perfection! Made my week!

PS-The original Cover Story is here, in case you're interested.

Cover Stories: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

The super-fun Robin Benway has two Cover Stories for our enjoyment. We'll start with her awesome debut, Audrey, Wait!, and you'll get the tale behind her new cover (for The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June) later this week.Here's Robin! "In my first book, Audrey, Wait!, Audrey is a character who loves music, so I always had an image of a girl's wrist covered in wristbands. Not bracelets, but the sort of wristbands you get when you have to queue up in line for a concert or to get backstage. I thought that'd be so cool! When Audrey sold, however, my publisher hired Rodrigo Corral to do the cover. I was over the moon at this news, since I had seen so many of his book covers and thought they were beautiful. "When Razorbill first emailed me the image that would become the hardcover Audrey cover, I was driving down to Orange County and my phone at the time couldn't download photos. My agent called me and was saying, 'Did you see it? Did you see it?' and I was FREAKING OUT because I couldn't see it and I didn't have my computer with me and I was an hour away from home and I NEEDED to see my book cover! "So I did what any rational person would do: I drove to the nearest Apple store, hopped onto a computer, and pulled up the image. I immediately loved it. I kept walking back and forth across the Apple store so I could see it from far away, just to get an idea of what it would look like on a bookstore shelf, and then I stood there and had a 20-minute phone conference with my publisher and agent about it. Thanks, Apple! "For the paperback version of Audrey, I knew that my publisher wanted to change the cover and put a girl on it, but I saw some rough draft images of the ppbk cover that were so not what I had envisioned for the book. So I sent Razorbill a photograph of a girl that, to me, personified Audrey, left. (The cool thing was that Kristen Pettit, the Razorbill editor who bought Audrey, had had the exact same image on her wall!) Razorbill was really great about keeping me in the loop and sent me some headshots of models to pick from and did a photoshoot with one of the girls, and I really love the way she's doing that little look over her shoulder. "(Fun fact alert: On the cover of Audrey, the model is actually wearing my editor's skirt.)" Thanks, Robin! I really love both covers. I like the first one because it stands out and feels original to me. I like the second for its real-girlness and total capturing of Audrey, who looks just like I pictured she would. I'm torn! Also, can I just say that I adore the back of the paperback Audrey, Wait! because it's covered in reviews, many by book bloggers? AMAZING. Which cover do you guys like best? PS-Robin has an album with all the foreign Audrey covers on facebook. Here's a peek, but go check out the full images--so cool!

Cover Stories: Zen and Xander Undone by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Amy Kathleen Ryan's Zen and Xander Undone got a starred review in Kirkus (that's tough!). They said "...touching, urgent and involving. Zen's frank narration--full of longing and hard-won insight--draws readers in and won't let go." --Kirkus Reviews, starred. Cool! The book also has a dramatic Cover Story that involves a big bookstore. Here's Amy to tell it:

"When I was writing Zen and Xander Undone (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2010), I had a very clear image in my mind of what I wanted the cover to look like. The book has two protagonists, and the contrast between their personalities is the driving force of the story. Xander, despite her extraordinary intellect, is descending into a self-destructive spiral with drugs, parties, and bad men. Zen is much more reserved, but she has a black belt in Shotokan and violent tendencies that get her into fights that sometimes she can't finish. This book has lots of action and danger in it, which I hoped the cover would get across. So I imagined two girls on the cover, both of them looking defiant. My image of Xander had heavy black eyeliner, tattoos, facial piercings, and she was wearing skanky clothes. Zen I imagined in her Karate uniform, standing in a battle-ready pose.

"What my publisher sent me was very different. The first version of the cover looked like this (left). This cover is beautiful and artistic, but I didn't think there was enough contrast between the girls. Physically they look like the characters I had in mind, but their different personalities just didn't come through enough for me. Also, with the girls lying on grass looking contemplative, I thought the cover was missing the energy it needed. To me this looks like a quiet, literary novel. My publisher really liked this design, however, and though they tinkered with it in accordance with my comments, they stuck with the basic composition. Since it really was lovely, I was okay with it, but not super thrilled.

"AND THEN... The sales meeting with Barnes and Noble came, and they said they wouldn't carry the book if it had that quiet cover on it. Though I'm not convinced that any single retailer should have this much power, the reality is that if Barnes and Noble doesn't carry a book, its sales numbers are automatically low. So my publisher decided to throw out the old design and start again from scratch.

"This is what they came up with, and personally I liked it much better than the first (right). To me this version feels more dynamic. The two girls have more energy in their stance, and the contrast between their personalities is much more evident. This looks like an active, dynamic story, and it suits the novel much better! I think my publisher did a great job with it.

"Though my publisher didn't agree with me at first about the cover, I do think that I'm pretty lucky in how much attention they pay to my comments. Not every publisher is so obliging to their authors, and I try not to forget how lucky I am when we're doing all that back and forthing. In the end, we all just want the same thing: For the book to SELL SELL SELL!! Hopefully Zen and Xander Undone will live up to its potential."

Thanks, Amy! I do think the final cover has a much stronger energy to it, and it seems like it fits the book more than the lying-down cover. Plus, I don't love the boxes of writing on that first cover--I think there's too much going on there. So, I'm definitely thumbs-up on the final cover's changes. What do you guys think?

Cover Stories: 6 at Unabashedly Bookish

Just a heads up on a few Cover Stories that have been published over at Unabashedly Bookish for Barnes and Noble.Overexposed by Susan Shapiro "Right before we went to press--crisis! Somebody decided the beloved spiky black film dress I'd xeroxed and shown everybody in the world was suddenly too edgy and creepy. They changed it to a typical little black dress I didn't like and added a cutesy wootsy pink sash on the white dress which made it look less like a wedding dress. I hated it!" Read more... Breakaway by Andrea Montalbano "When I saw my first cover, I told the publisher that I thought there should be more to it, either more action, or something a little less 'girly,' or as my daughter Lily pointed out, 'less pinky.'" Read more... Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart "I had been writing my story solely for my grandchildren and family--intending to self-publish--and therefore had imagined somehow designing the jacket myself. But when the opening pages of my manuscript lead to its writers' conference discovery and acquisition back in 2006, it was an unexpected delight to know that professional designers from HarperCollins would be actively working on the book's jacket." Read more... Indigo Blues by Danielle Joseph "My editor asked how I envisioned Indigo and Adam and she asked me to provide pictures if possible. I thought Adam looked like a young Johnny Depp and Indigo had a bit of attitude, a certain sureness." Read more... Criminal Instinct by Kelly Parra "I filled out an Art Fact Sheet, which Harlequin requests from their authors, and I added a synopsis of the story, physical descriptions of my main characters, as well as any specific details I thought would help the artist. In my case, it was Ana Moreno's physical description which I felt the artist really worked hard to match and added her weapon of choice--a switch blade." Read more... Haint Misbehavin' by Maureen Hardegree "Even though most of us know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, we do. As first-time authors, we pray for a good one, and when we get a cover that we love, we feel charmed. At least, that's how I'm feeling with my first." Read more... What I Would Tell Her edited by Andrea N. Richesin "I love how the image compliments my introduction. I refer to a folktale 'Singeli's Silver Slippers' in which a poor cobbler sews magical slippers to guide his daughter on her adventures. After reading the essays in What I Would Tell Her, I write that the daughters no longer need magical slippers as their fathers have already demonstrated how to navigate their world. The little girl on the cover is barefoot too." Read more...