I first started out with a Pinterest board of the feel for my book, which is a young adult contemporary romance about a girl with a heterotrophic heart transplant (an extra heart grafted to her weak one) who wants nothing more than to get a standing ovation before her two hearts give out. The story is set in Seattle, the main characters meet doing tai chi together, and the boy helps the girl conquer her fear of singing on stage to help her win a singing competition.
After I scoured the internet for images that had the feel I wanted, then I just started playing around. This was the first round of covers I came up with:
I had some friends and my writing group vote. Many liked #2 and #11. But then everyone else had a different one they liked. Since several liked the idea of the photo in #8, and I still wanted to give the photo a hint of Seattle and also that the story has romantic elements, I decided I wanted a couple on the front cover, even though I wanted to focus on the fact that all Grace wants is to sing. This made me come up with some other ideas and this was what I came up with next:
With this round of covers, I got the most votes on #5 and #17. I loved so many aspects of that one (Seattle, couple, I added the guitar). I personally liked #5, #16, and #12 the best. In the end, I decided that I needed to keep the couple, and the font was easier to read on #17, so it's the one I'm going with for now:
What do you think? Which cover was your favorite?
If you'd like to beta read the manuscript on Swoon Reads, you can read it here for a limited time. Be sure to make comments as you read (a comment box pops up at after chapter two and then again at the end). If you find any edits, please email them to me so I can fix them in my version (once the book is uploaded to the site, I can't make changes to the one on Swoon Reads). I'd love to hear what you think of the book!
XoXo,
Robin
