Poisoned Rationality Special  Edition


On the cover of Nightspell...

Tomorrow, at The Neverending Shelf, I’m going to talk about the “title” story for Nightspell – the process of choosing the title. Suffice it to say that at one point, I disagreed with the entire Greenwillow team about which title to choose, a process that is not easy for any new author.

So having used up all my “diva” points, I knew that even if I hated my cover, I wouldn’t say anything.  Fortunately, I have faith in the Greenwillow design team, so I wasn’t too worried. I did, of course, think a little bit about what the cover might look like. I knew it would have to be similar to the Mistwood cover, but also distinctive. Since my three main characters are from a tribe of horsemen, I had this idea that there would be a horse on the cover – maybe a silhouette of riders racing across the bottom, superimposed over a girl’s face near a horse’s neck, with the wind whipping her hair back…

Okay, I thought more than a little bit.

In any case, in September, I got this:

Do you see any horses? Nope. Are you thinking, “It’s a good thing authors don’t design their own covers?” Yeah, me too.

As far as my favorite covers...

I mentally divide covers into four types: scene, person, object, and abstract. So here are my favorites in each category:

Scene: Plain Kate by Erin Bow. I *love* that cover! It speaks straight to my fantasy-loving imagination. 


Person: One possibility is Entwined by Heather Dixon, though I'm not sure it fits the category; it does have a person in the center, but since you don't see her face, I think of that as more of a scene cover.  Wither by Lauren DeStefano is another favorite, though I may be influenced by the fact that I'm currently in middle of that book and loving it.


Object: Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves. How can you look at that cover and *not* be intrigued? Plus it so perfectly captures Dia's writing.


Abstract: This can obviously overlap with the "object" category, but when there's no central object that draws your eye, I think of a cover as more abstract. I really love the new cover for Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien, along with the cover for the second book in that trilogy, Prized.


Visual tricks: Not really a category, because there aren't so many of these, but I like them when I see them. Two recent-ish examples are the cover of Split by Swati Avasthi and Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce.

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How about everyone else?  How do you 'view' covers?  Is there a certain type Leah's mentions above that strikes your fancy more than the others?

Want to know more?  Check out Leah's webpage and follow her tour with Teen Book Scene!