The Making of a Book Cover: The Girl with Two Hearts

I'm so excited that I decided to be a part of Swoon Reads and make a mock book cover for my most recent manuscript, The Girl with Two Hearts. Obviously the final published cover will probably not look anything like all my mock covers, but I wanted to share some of the ones I came up with before I decided on the final one.

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

The Making of a Book Cover: Remembrandt

People keep asking me if I got to chose the cover to Remembrandt or not. I kind of ho-hum around the topic because it is a yes-no answer. Any of you who know much about the publishing world, know that most authors have no say whatsoever in their cover.

After Walnut Springs Press offered me a contract earlier this year, they had me send them a list of some book cover ideas, along with a detailed description of all the characters and places in the book. I sent a list of about 5-6 ideas. Since their graphic designer was out of the office until the next week and would only have a few days when they got back to deliver some mock-up covers to Deseret Book, I asked if I could put some of my own mock-ups together. They said yes!

I spent a few days searching for stock images of the main character (a blonde teen with gray eyes) and scenes from Russia (one of the settings in the book). I came up with a few possible ideas and put together a couple cover ideas. BUT I still was't happy with them. Then a friend and fellow photographer (thank you, Mary!) reminded me that I am a photographer too and offered to help with a photo shoot. We gathered together seven or eight models who matched the description of the main characters in the book and clicked away at our cameras.

I spent the next couple of days editing photos, adding text, and layering images. It was a blast coming up with different ideas. Here are some of the many mock-ups we came up with:

My favorites were was the top left one, the black dress with the pink shoes, and the ones with fingers crossed behind back. The publisher also liked the top left one, along with the boy and girl on the bench, Unfortunately, the distributor wanted a more "suspense" looking over. Now that I look back, I totally agree with them. In the end, the graphic designer and Walnut Springs found another model (which is the perfect Alexandra!) and used the Russian scene from my favorite mock-up cover and combined them, similarly as I had done in the top middle mock-up above to get this:

The amazing designer, Tracy Anderson,  added a little makeup to make her appear older (since she's 17 in the book):

At this point, I loved it, but my artist brother, Devin, noticed a crane in the city background, Alexandra's missing shoulder, and thought he could make the transition between her hair and the city more natural. Willow Springs gave me permission to make the changes and here's the final image:

The final cover of Remembrandt

Xoxo,

Robin