Cover Stories + Win-It Wednesday: So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti

Last week, I offered up a copy of Susane Colasanti's new book, So Much Closer to anyone who shared their most romantic city. Now, I'm itching to travel (sigh, but in a good, dreamy way). And the winner is... Yani! Send me your address, Y. This week, Susane stopped by to talk about the cover of her new book, and she's offering a brand-new paperback version of last year's release, Something Like Fate (remember that Cover Story?). Just leave a comment on this Cover Story and you're entered to win.

Now here's Susane with the tale of this so-NYC cover...

"You've probably heard that authors don't get to decide anything about their covers. We can't just imagine how we want the cover to look and then have it turn out like that. That never happens.

"But it happened anyway.

"My cover designer is amazing. I saw Jim a few months before this cover was designed and he asked me if I had any color ideas. It was so cool that he was asking me about the cover because I had been envisioning the exact cover I wanted for a while.  So Much Closer takes place right in my New York City neighborhood, the West Village. One place I’m infatuated with in my nabe is the High Line. It's this old section of elevated train tracks that was turned into a magical green space with lots of trees and flowers. Some key scenes in So Much Closer take place on the High Line. I really wanted the cover to show my characters on the High Line at sunset or at night. I told Jim about my idea.

"Then it was summer and I was wondering what the cover would look like. My books come out in May, which means their covers are done the previous summer. Even though I knew dream covers never happen, the hopeful part of me never stopped believing that it might be possible. That's me, always dreaming big even when something seems impossible! But I really wasn't expecting to get an email from my editor with an initial cover design.

"With my characters on the High Line at sunset.

"Dude. They actually did a photo shoot on the High Line. I was beyond ecstatic. [Below, the photographer talks to the models on set.]

"Early versions of the cover featured orange and pink sunsets. The first orange sunset involved some serious Photoshop action. Marketing thought it was too much. Jim toned down the sunset. I love this pink sunset version (right) even more than the final cover.

"My contracts allow me to have cover consultation, which means I can provide feedback about the initial designs and let my editor know what I’d like to see changed. That’s how we ended up with the pretty cursive font for the title.  The title had a really boring font at first. I fought to keep a bit of pink in the sky. I fought to keep the girl model in her white tee.

"But a lot of people are in charge of deciding how the cover will look. In the end, they went with a white sky. White backgrounds on covers have been hot for a few years now, so I guess I understand. What I don’t understand is why they went with the whole pink shirt/purple sweater combo. Um, hi, 1983 called? They want their clothes back.

"But of course I adore this cover.  How often do authors see their dream cover become reality?"

Thanks, Susane! I think it's amazing that you got a shoot on the High Line -- is this the first High Line book cover? Definitely the first YA High Line cover, I'd bet. Very cool. I have to admit that I thought of an 80s jeans ad when I saw this cover, but that was a good, fun thing in my opinion. And, I love how it keeps the "natural light" thing going (Susane mentioned that the last time we talked covers) -- what a great theme to have running through your cover designs!

What do you guys think of this cover? One commenter below will win the paperback of Something Like Fate (US only this week). I'll choose a winner next Wednesday.

Here are all of Susane's covers, by the way. Such a pretty set, right?

Susane is holding a big contest at her site, too--share your zen place and get a shot at a few of her books, signed and personalized!

Happy Wednesday!

Cover Stories: We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

The final book in Jenny Han's delicious summer trilogy is here! She has shared the Cover Stories for Book 1 (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Book 2 (It's Not Summer Without You), and now we have the scoop behind We'll Always Have Summer (out this week). Here's Jenny:

"A girl in a white dress is what always what I wanted for the final book. I had this in mind even before I knew what I wanted for the second book.

"I actually bought the dress the cover model is wearing. I spent two days trolling the city for the perfect flowy white dress, and let me tell you, this was no easy feat. It was September, when white dresses had already been whisked off the sales racks and there was only like, plaid and back-to-school corduroy everywhere. I found the dress in the last store I went to, the night before the shoot. And on sale, no less!

"Lucy Cummins, the ever-amazing book designer, also brought some white dresses to pick from, but we ended up going with mine because it was the fanciest. You can’t tell by the cover, but it’s floor-length, halter neck, and silk. And it’s currently stuffed in an envelope somewhere behind my filing cabinet.

"My editor has always been super supportive and generous about letting me in on this process. We actually did the covers for It’s Not Summer Without You and We’ll Always Have Summer at the same time -- it was a photo shoot at Rockaway Beach. I actually got to go, which was such a treat.

"The photographer shot a lot of different looks --her in her dress in the water, her walking along the sand, all really lovely. It was so hard to pick a favorite shot!

"The only input I gave at the shoot was that I wanted a shot of her against the grass. I loved the white and the green against each other. I had this image of her running her hands along the tops. I actually didn’t get to see them shoot the cover photo because I had to run off to school. But I was so glad when I saw the proofs, because this was the exact shot I envisioned!

"I love this cover. Really, really love it. To me, it’s wistful and romantic and the perfect end to the series-- I just hope the story itself is as satisfying for y’all!"

Thanks, Jenny! I love that this cover concept all started with a very cool inspiration board. Every time I see these covers I feel like letting out a satisfied summer sigh (not to mention that this trilogy has marked the start of summer for the past three years). Here are all of the Belly books together:

What do you guys think?

Cover Stories: Huntress by Malinda Lo

Final cover

Malinda Lo stopped by to talk about her debut cover for the lovely Ash a while back, and she's here once again because her latest book, Huntress, just hit the shelves this month (find out how to get a signed bookplate for the book if you see this post by May 1st!).

Once again, Malinda has a stirring cover with a great back story. Here she is:

"While I was writing Huntress I truly didn't have any idea what the cover might look like, and I didn't even spend much time thinking about it. I absolutely adore the cover that my publisher created for Ash, and I would never have come up with that as a cover concept — I'm definitely a writer, not a designer! So I was excited to see what they came up with for Huntress.

"The first cover concept I saw was this one (right). I was immediately struck by the meditative quality of the image, which I thought reflected the book pretty well — and the snow! I loved the snow! A little known fact about me is that I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of ice. Most people want to vacation in Hawaii; I desperately want to take a trip to Antarctica. (Yes, I'm strange.)

"Anyway, a good part of Huntress involves the main characters crossing a giant glacier, and I was thrilled that this aspect of the book was reflected on the cover.

"I did have a few suggestions, though, because I felt that the girl on the cover didn't entirely reflect my vision of Kaede, the main character. Of course, I know that book covers are designed to sell books, not to look exactly the way an author sees her characters (and, you know, the girl on the cover of Ash doesn't really look like her, but I think it very nicely fits the mood and feel of the book).

"One of my main concerns in this case was that the girl looked a little too young, because Kaede is 18 in the book, and I wanted to make sure this looked like a YA title. I also thought that the weapon the girl was carrying needed to be modified. In the original cover concept, it's a wooden practice sword, but nobody ever uses that in the book. However, Kaede does use a Japanese-style bow, and I thought it might not be too hard to substitute that in over the wooden practice sword.

"I also suggested that the girl's eyes not be obscured. Personally, I don't like full-faced photos of girls on book covers, because I like to imagine the characters in my own head. And I knew why they put the title over the girl's eyes — because it mirrors the title configuration on the Ash cover, and it was important that this book be visually related to Ash.

"But, given all the discussion about race and representation on YA book covers, I also knew that this book cover would face a lot of scrutiny when it was released. I was super pleased that my publisher chose to feature an Asian girl on the cover, and I just didn't want that fact to be overshadowed by having a title hide the girl's eyes.

"So, I sent this feedback to my editor, and we talked it over. She also showed me a couple of earlier cover concepts that they had discarded, just to give me an idea of what they wanted to avoid.

"One of the earliest ideas was to go with a black-and-white photo to echo the feel of Ash, something along the lines of this stunning photo by Beth Moon (left). (Obviously we couldn't use that specific image because the girl was both white and too young-looking, but I love the photo!) Another concept (below, right) was pretty cool, but it lacked the meditative quality that really does exist in Huntress and looked a little too much like a kung fu movie. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that's not what Huntress is about.)

"Seeing these images made me realize that as much as I want to see diversity on book covers, it can be tough because designers usually have to work with stock photos. The fact is, not every book gets a cover shoot — hardly any books do. If you're designing a cover for a contemporary novel, it might be easier to use stock photos, but because Huntress is a fantasy, we couldn't use photos of Asian girls carrying cell phones or wearing t-shirts, for example.

"But what my publisher did was send the original cover I saw to a digital artist, who tweaked the photo and created the final cover. The girl on the cover is now holding a Japanese bow, and she does look like an 18-year-old. I love the way her hair is whipping in the wind, and yet the background retains that wintry, meditative feel.

"Also, having the girl look straight out at the reader creates a very strong image, and I think the juxtaposition of her strength against the wintry background is wonderful. I hope it does its job by making people stop and pick up the book!"

Thank you, Malinda! I love the snow, the font, the muted purple. I think the final cover is gorgeous, and along the way you had a lot of great options.

What do you guys think?

PS-If you're lucky you can catch Malinda on the Diversity in YA Tour in May (amazing lineups)!

Cover Stories: Kissed by an Angel and Evercrossed by Elizabeth Chandler

Elizabeth Chandler's bestselling Kissed by an Angel trilogy has been re-released with the cover you see at left, and her latest book, Evercrossed, matches that new style. I had to ask her how this cover evolution came about (it's a long way from the look of the first trilogy covers, below). Here's Elizabeth:

"For me, covers as well as titles are the last step in creating a book. I use working titles—very obvious and unimaginative ones—then usually beg for help from my editors. I just don’t have those marketing genes!  (I was also bad at titling school projects and research papers.)

"I am as clueless when it comes to imagining covers. My mind is full of images when writing a book, and I cut out and tape up all around my desk pictures of people, places, and things that somehow connect with my novel—these help me to live in the world of my story—but I don’t think about an image for a cover. To me, that feels as if I’m summarizing or crystallizing the story before I truly know it.  I need to let the story spin out through its words before I mentally pull it together enough to know what is right for a title or cover image.

"Kissed by an Angel has had three very different American covers. I didn’t have input on any of them, and as you now know, that was probably a good thing. When the trilogy was first published as three separate books, it had covers that appear to me to be photos of characters combined and reworked by an artist. I didn’t like the covers then, and I still don’t like them now. But they were right for that time period. When the trilogy first came out, all the publishers used photos, and the truth is, the publisher could have found the perfect models and I would not have liked them. I’ve never liked photographs or realistically drawn covers on novels—whether I write or read them.  I find them disappointing, perhaps because characters created by words are so real to me as to be almost larger than life, and those pictures make them look like little dolls.

"The second cover for the trilogy, when the three books were published as one 'Collector’s Edition' was incredibly romantic, the picture dominated by silhouette views of the hero and heroine’s faces, looking as if they were about to kiss (right). To me, they looked older than teens and the gauzy pink overlay made the book look like an adult romance. I liked it better than the first covers, but it looked like somebody else’s book, not the story I wrote.

"The current cover is my favorite—I love it!  Black, with the image of a single rose that has a bit of a supernatural feel because of its coloring and transparency, it is striking and romantic. It connects with the story: Tristan gives Ivy roses the night he dies, and identical roses come back as a sign to her in the sequel, Evercrossed. The newest book, Evercrossed has a similar cover, black with a single rose (left). They used the same font for both of these new covers, and I really like it. The lettering is elegant in a simple way, and that is what my heroine Ivy is like. She dislikes fluff and flounce, and if asked, would have chosen this font for her story."

Thanks, Elizabeth! I love how the original series covers reflect the time of their releases, and I think the current cover is luscious. Also: How cool is it to consider your character's taste in fonts?

What do you guys think?

Cover Stories: Illegal by Bettina Restrepo

Bettina Restrepo's Illegal has a windswept but urban cover, which is an intriguing combination, I think. The book is about a girl whose father crossed the boarder from Mexico to the US three years ago. They've stopped hearing from him, so she and her mother make the hard decision to follow him into Texas and try to find him. "For the cover, I imagined two trailer-truck doors with the title in graffiti. But, I also knew that the art directors they have at HarperCollins could design something beyond my expectations. I only have a silly picture I drew (below). This is why I don't even try to suggest art. I leave the art to the experts.

"I received pictures of the shirt the model wore and they asked if it was okay (it was, I have one similar to it!). Then, when the font came out wonky and Frankensteinish (below) - they quickly agreed [with my objections] and came back with the beautiful barbed wire font. "They asked me if I like royal blue or the purple. Hands down - purple.

"When I saw the final cover, I cried and then hugged my laptop. My main character, Nora, only existed to me as someone in my head. I knew she had long hair and olive/Latina skin. But, to see her - she took my breath away. It's a model super imposed onto half of a burned out field, and half of the skyline of Houston (which is smudged up a bit with smog... just like the real city!)

"After the initial giddiness of seeing the cover, I noticed that Nora was wearing earrings. She wants pierced ears throughout the book, and doesn't get them done until the epilogue. I had to go back and give them to her earlier in the story - which I find kind of funny.

"I really love the cover because it conveys a sense of longing. It's wistful and shows movement. It was important NOT to see her face. Nora could be anyone... she could be you."

Thanks, Bettina! Yeah, I'm glad the art department got to do the final design (not that your illo isn't quite cute in that Book Report kinda way). And the font change is key -- I love the subtle barbed purple font (maybe inspired by your drawing?). Also: Those shirts like she's wearing are divine classics that never go out of style. I have one for summer! What do you guys think?

PS-Trailer!

Cover Stories: Where She Went

Where She Went, the sequel to Gayle Forman's lovely If I Stay (remember that Cover Story?), comes out tomorrow! Though it's told from Adam's point of view, that's Mia on the cover, obvs. Here's Gayle to share the story of how this book's cover came to be: "The image that kept coming to mind as I wrote was the Brooklyn Bridge. It plays a pivotal role in the story and for some reason it just stuck because it's so strong both from both a visual and literary standpoint. I believe that Penguin did experiment with using the bridge initially but decided that it didn't work.

"The challenge for the US publication was marrying the US If I Stay paperback cover--the eerily half-dead-looking girl, right--with a new hardcover look. But I had to make it extra tricky because, unlike If I Stay, which is from Mia's perspective, Where She Went is in Adam's voice. So how to create a cover that seemed like a package with the paperback but was from a guy's perspective?

"We were obviously departing from the quieter US hardcover look, with the flower, tree and branches (below left), which I loved but would not work at all in terms of a new book about a rock and roll guy, so I'm so glad we had the paperback cover to use as a jumping-off point.

"In the end, in sort of a duh, why didn't we think of it sooner epiphany, we all realized that the US cover had to have another Mia. Because even though the book is from Adam's POV, it's still about Mia. It's about where she went. So the covers are meant to be bookends. One horizontal, one vertical, one passive, one more active. There's no Brooklyn Bridge, and yet the covers are, in my opinion, such a perfect bridge.

"My publisher asked for ideas, but honestly, I knew that I had thrown them such a huge challenge in finding a cover for Where She Went that would be both striking, true to the book, and of a piece with If I Stay that I kept my mouth shut. Because really, truly, I had no clue what to do. I was relieved that I was not in the design department. Had Where She Went been a stand-alone, I think there would've been so many directions to go in. But in a way, the design was limited by the If I Stay cover. So I just sat back and wondered what they were going to do and felt grateful that coming up with a cover concept was not my job.

"When I saw the first version of the cover, my response was: Everything but the girl. Because I loved the general concept, and the idea of having a girl--Mia--on the cover, seemed so right. But the original girl looked nothing like the Mia from the first cover. And the model from the first cover was no longer available, and, oddly, other photos we'd found of her, looked nothing like the girl from the If I Stay cover. Also, the girl in the Where She Went cover try, aside from not resembling the original Mia, looked rather sad and wistful. Mia needed to look more fierce.

"My editor was in total agreement with me, both about the Mia needing to look like the If I Stay Mia and about the wrongness of her expression--actually, she was the one who first raised the second point. So she took our case to the art department.

"I am sure the art department went through a period of not loving my editor or me. I think they thought we were asking for the moon: a twin of the initial Mia with a fierce expression on her face? They must've been like: How the hell are we going to find that? And then they went and pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Found the perfect image. The girl on Where She Went totally looks like the girl on the If I Stay cover. And what I love most is the look on her face. On If I Stay, the girl's look is haunting; it draws you in. On Where She Went, it's determined, which is fitting for who Mia has become, and also draws you in. Which is what a cover must do.

"Aside from the model swap, the background went from this sort of bright colored spots reminiscent of city lights--now on the inside flaps--to the smoky gray, which tied it more to the If I Stay cover. When you see the two covers together, they really are of a set. A lovely, striking set.

"The cover is a stock photo. I believe that they did do a photo shoot on the Brooklyn Bridge, but it just didn't capture the right feeling as well as this existing image did. Funnily enough, the bridge wound up becoming an element for some of the foreign covers, like the French and UK jackets (below). New York City is a strong selling point abroad, apparently. But it didn't work for the US cover.

"It's funny because back when I was trying to imagine how they would jacket Where She Went, I wouldn't have imagined this direction. And it was a bit of an evolution to get it totally right, so it wasn't that initial visceral YES! But when I saw the jacket on the ARC, it just felt so absolutely right, as though that were the way it was meant to be all along.

'There are two things that make the cover perfect to me: One is the look on the girl's face. It beckons you, or at least it beckons me. So yes, this is Adam's book, but if you read it, it will make sense to you that Mia is on the cover and this girl will make sense as Mia. And second, when I hold this book up against the paperback of If I Stay--which has become the dominant image now--they look stunning together. Yin and Yang. They complete each other."

Thanks, Gayle! I love the cloudy blue-gray ethereal feel that the covers have, and though I'm a fan of the original If I Stay cover, and I even like the way the Brooklyn Bridge looks on the UK version, I agree that this matched set is really lovely.

What do you guys think?

Cover Stories: Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

Cynthia Lord's Touch Blue has a cover that is really unique, I think. House, ocean, rocks, Monopoly? I was intrigued. Here's the back story from Cynthia: "The first time I saw the cover for Touch Blue it was slightly different than the final cover, but the design and all the elements were there: the house, the rocks, and the Monopoly tokens. I was a little apprehensive when the preliminary cover arrived in the mail, because I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know what direction my editor and art director were thinking, but I did know they had struggled with the cover.

"Part of that struggle was due to my first novel, Rules (right). Rules has an amazing cover, and my audience for Rules was wide and diverse. It stretched from 3rd grade to 8th grade, and it included both boys and girls. It was important that the cover for Touch Blue didn't lose any of that audience, but that's a lot to expect from one cover.

"So when I opened the envelope and saw Touch Blue's cover, I was surprised and delighted. It kept my audience. The cover also went well with Rules' cover. And it showed something deeper about the story. Touch Blue takes places on a small island in Maine. The island school is in danger of being closed, because there aren't enough students to keep it open. So the islanders come up with a plan to adopt foster children to give those children good homes and to increase their school enrollment. Touch Blue is fiction, but it was inspired by a true event.

"Tess, my main character, has a little sister who loves to play Monopoly. A boy named Aaron comes to live with them through foster care, and they get off to a rocky start. The first time Tess feels like the three kids are finally becoming a family happens during a game of Monopoly. The tokens on the cover of Touch Blue are the ones the kids choose. Tess chooses the boat, her little sister chooses the dog, and Aaron chooses the car.

'When I looked at the cover, I could see how much thought my editor, Leslie Budnick, and art director, Marijka Kostiw, and David Saylor at Scholastic had put into the cover--not just showing the facts of the story in an appealing way, but also hinting at the deeper themes underneath it.

"My editor asked me what I thought. After saying how much I loved it, I brought up three small concerns. In the first version of the cover, there was a white walkway extending from the house over the ocean to the edge of the cover.

"I'm not sure where Marijka found the photo, but I recognized the house immediately. In a strange coincidence, I had done a research trip for Touch Blue back in 2008 and had taken a photo of that same house (left). It's actually a lighthouse keeper's cottage about an hour north of where I live, and the walkway leads to a small lighthouse. But without showing the lighthouse on the cover, the walkway looked like a bridge. In Touch Blue, it's important to the story that the island has no bridge. So I asked my editor if they would remove that walkway.

"The second issue was that the color of the water. The book is set in Maine, and the water looked Carribean. But my editor explained when they made the water darker and greener and grayer, as it would be in Maine, it changed the tone of the cover. The scene took on an omninous feel with that change. That would've been the wrong tone for the book. I actually love the blue of the cover, so I was glad to have a good reason to keep it.

"The last issue was the rocks. Maine beach stones are mostly granite, and the original rocks looked like craft rocks--glossy black and tan. They just didn't look real to me. I live near the ocean, so I offered to send some Maine beach stones, knowing they might say no. And I would have let it go if they had. "But my editor came back and said the photographer agreed I could mail him some rocks! So my daughter and I drove down to the ocean and filled up one of those little 'If it fits, it ships!' boxes from the Post Office and sent off a whole box of Maine beach stones to New York City!

"So when I look at Touch Blue's cover, I see how much thought and care went into it. I see the talent of the people I'm lucky enough to work with. And I see some real rocks from Maine!"

Thanks, Cynthia! I love that you shipped a box of rocks! I also think the story sounds amazing, and it's so intriguing that it was inspired by real events.

What do you guys think of this cover? Have you read the book?

Cover Stories: 6 at Unabashedly Bookish

You guys know I'm moonlighting over at the bn.com blog, right? Click through to read the full Cover Stories teased here. Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress. "Who is this girl and why does she have her fabulous shoes propped up on this old granny sofa? I think the best cover images set a scene..." Read more...

The Way He Lived by Emily Wing-Smith. "As a debut novelist, I had no idea what to expect when my publishers sent me that first jpeg. What if I hated it? Was there anything I could do? Mostly, though, I was just curious. How did they choose to convey this story through an image?" Read more...

Hollywood Stories by Stephen Schochet. "I always wanted Shirley Temple in the front with Frankenstein's Monster behind her just because they were such a fun combination. I wanted to make sure the Monster was not threatening her in any way..." Read more...

The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig. "Not only did my editor listen to my howl of, 'But this is the wrong era!' (accompanied by a rather tedious exposition on historical costume), she went out, hired another designer, another model, new costumes, and did a whole new photo shoot." Read more...

Smile for the Camera by Kelle James. "My memoir details my teenage years, a tumultuous time in New York City. A time when, for reasons beyond my control, I was without family or money and struggling to find my place in an oftentimes, overwhelming world. The tiny replica of me standing in the middle of all those massive New York City buildings, looking out through the shattered snow globe glass captures the spirit of Smile for the Camera perfectly." Read more...

Scrawl by Mark Schulman. "Uh oh. Now I'm in the art director's office. My editor has very kindly invited me along to the kind of meeting I know many novelists don't get to attend. And I'm hoping my nodding and grinning aren't too obvious. I am ready to give them a blank check. I just want to surrender in style." Read more...

Cover Stories: Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

Lindsey Leavitt is a member of The Contemps (along with me) and her new book, Sean Griswold's Head, is a super fun read. Hear more about what I thought at The Contemps blog. For now, we're gonna talk covers! Here's Lindsey:

"It all started with a head.

"Sean Griswold's Head, to be exact. When I started writing this book, I knew I wanted the story to be about that boy--the one who is always there, the one you know nothing about, except maybe that he wears the same shirt every Thursday, or peed his pants two days in a row in second grade. So I always pictured Sean's head when I thought of the cover. Kind of like Feed by MT Anderson (right), but with hair.

"I shared this with my editor when we first broached cover design, and she said, great! But we do want to play up the romance angle, so we'll think about it. I never considered the romance to be the focus of the story, but I figured... cool. Give him a HOT head then. Hot heads sell.

"But then I got an email that sales wasn't sure the title would work. We went back and forth for a few months, brainstorming titles. It's an aggravating process--there were some possibilities I liked, but nothing felt right. At one point, my publisher was leaning toward THE SEAN GRISWOLD PROJECT. Here is one cover comp that design came up with that my editor just now sent me (left). I'm glad we didn't use this. I can say that now, right?

"I trusted my publisher, but I was still feeling down about the title madness. Then my editor sent me an email, saying there had been a meeting and they'd decided the title should be... SEAN GRISWOLD'S HEAD. Sales had somehow warmed up to the idea, and they agreed I could keep the quirky title IF they could get the romance in there still. So we went back to the head. My editor and I talked and they decided to go with the boy-in-class approach with some doodles. A few weeks later, my editor sent an email explaining that this was a VERY ROUGH comp, a non-refined work-in-progress, and the designer was still toying with the idea. Which was a relief because it looked, you know, rough (right). "I wasn't a fan of the purple. Or the boy. Or the doodles. Or the font.

"Okay, so I wasn't a fan. And I felt bad, because Bloomsbury had listened to my input throughout the developmental process. I got to keep my title. They'd pretty much given me exactly what I asked for. And I'd even decided not to say anything, but... the purple just did me in. My first book (PRINCESS FOR HIRE, left) had a girly cover, and I was really hoping to branch out with color schemes.

"My agent wrote with some notes, and I decided to just talk to my editor, who'd been wonderful every step of the way, and asked for my input. So I got over myself and wrote back with my thoughts. We decided that the doodles should tell more of a story, and that the color scheme and font should be quirkier, like Juno. I hung up the phone feeling really excited about the new direction.

"And the next time I got a cover email, I screamed. I LOVED the font. I LOVED the chalkboard. I LOVED how hot Sean was without even seeing his face! And they'd even added a heart for the romance :) I called my editor right away and gushed and garbled. This was what I wanted, and I didn't know it until I saw it (below, left).

"From there, the designer made a few more changes to the cover: the sweatshirt stripes, sharpened the colors, added the genius tag line, played with fonts, and slimmed Sean's build (he looked like a wrestler, when he's a tri-athlete). Which all led us to the final cover (above, right). I love the final product, love the stock image of Sean, and hope teens will open the cover to fall in love with the boy (and girl!) on the inside of the pages as well."

Thanks, Lindsey! I love the final cover--especially the chalkboard doodles--and the iconic head-in-front-of-you in class is such a fun idea. This concept evolved so much, and I'm so glad Bloomsbury made it just what it needed to be!

What do you guys think?

Win-It We-Thursday: Teenie by Christopher Grant (Signed!)

Sorrysorrysorry. It's NYC Teen Author Festival week (check out the amazing schedule) and I'm a little of kilter! So... it's Thursday and this is Win-It Wednesday. I do not pretend to always make sense.The winner of last week's giveaway of Miles From Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams is... Maryam! Send me your address, M. Anyway, today I got to do a reading at the Brooklyn Public Library's Grand Army branch with amazing authors Melissa Kantor, Gayle Forman, Cathleen Bell, Jeri Smith-Ready and Christopher Grant. I happened to have a copy of Teenie, Christopher's debut novel, in my bag, and he happened to sign it. So that's what you have a shot at winning today. First, let me just say that Christopher is awesome, and he holds a very busy day job as a stock trader, but he writes on the subway. I mean, anyone who says they don't have time to write has to sit down and talk to this guy. He makes the time. Teenie is his super delightful debut, about a high school freshman growing up in Brooklyn with a promising future and a dream to study in Spain. But you know, boys and best friends and life get in the way of some of her goals... and she has to work it all out. You can read excerpts on Christopher's site -- I was into Teenie from page one. (And how gorgeous is that cover?) Here's the full jacket: I would have had Christopher here for a Cover Story, but when I asked him about it he said, "They sent me this image, and I said, 'That's it!'" So there, that's the Cover Story. I love it when it's so easy. Anyway, to win this signed copy of Teenie, name the last author event/reading you attended. If you haven't ever been to one, admit it! But then promise me you'll attend one soon? They're fun -- I promise. Happy Wednes, uh, Thursday!