Cover Stories + Win-It: Never Enough

Denise Jaden was here in 2010 to share the Cover Story for Losing Faith, and she's back on her GCC tour for Never Enough, which has a cover with amazing light! Here's Denise: "I didn’t have much in mind for the cover of this book. I feel like there are lots of things I wanted it to encompass, and because I don’t have much of an artist brain, I didn’t know how to do that.

"With my first novel, I was told I would have time to make some suggestions, but then it never came up again. With this one, the cover was not mentioned until they had a final version to show me.

"I really love my cover, but to be perfectly honest, the girl on the cover doesn’t look like either of the main girls in my novel. I was a little bothered by this initially, but I must say, I think they’ve chosen a picture that covers a lot of the themes and fits the tone of the book. The image is a stock photo, which is fine with me. I hope that one day one of my novels will have a live model, but this photo works so well with the tone that I don’t think one was needed for this. I really think the people in the art department at Simon Pulse are masterful!

"I did mention my concerns over character congruity. We discussed it, and eventually both agreed that capturing the tone of the book is more important.

"The original version said 'Title Here,' because my book did not yet have a firm title, but otherwise it is exactly the same, with an added tagline.

"I’m thrilled with the cover overall. I think Simon Pulse does an amazing job with covers, and I really think mine is eye-catching in its final version."

Thanks, Denise! It bugs me when the cover model doesn't resemble a character, but I agree with you that the tone is most important. I have to say that I love the light play in this cover. The branches almost obscured by sunspots, the green tones with blue title font--lovely.

What do you guys think?

PS-Denise is holding a contest on her blog for four boxes of great books! If you comment here, you're automatically eligible to win. HOORAY.

PPS-Check out the trailer!

PPPS-Last week's Win-It Wednesday winner of Tara Altebrando's latest is... Brianna! Send me your address, B.