Dead Ends Jacket Reveal

Two big Ws have kept me away from the blog for far too long - Writing & Wedding. But as soon as this wedding planning winds down, I will be gearing up for the release of DEAD ENDS in September!

 

And you can't have a book release without a cover, right? If I was thrilled when I saw the front cover for DE, then there are no words for how I feel about the full jacket. Well, maybe one word. Amazeballs.

 

Are we still saying amazeballs? I'm usually behind on these things.

 

Anyway, enough of the drum roll. Check out the jacket!

 

I love it love it love it. Every inch of it. The whole thing just begs you to lean in closer. And for those of you who may have read an advanced copy of DE already, how cool is it that Seely is on the back cover?!

BUTTER book jacket and interview!

Dear Readers,
i know how these posts go. i tell you i'm about to unveil the full book jacket for BUTTER, and you scroll straight past anything i write here to the picture. so let me save you the strain of scrolling and just say, TA DA!!!

CLICK THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER LOOK!

guys, i am over the moon about this jacket. i love the butter yellow of the inside flaps, the little pop of color on the back and the tiny butter dishes on the spine. as i've said before in this vlog, i think the spine may be the most important part.

so who designed this awesome thing anyway?! well, her name is Regina Roff, associate designer at Bloomsbury Children's Books, and she generously agreed to give an interview here on the blog today!

Welcome, Regina!
Where do you begin when starting a cover design, and how does the process evolve from there?

Cover design doesn't always begin in the same way for every project, but ideally (at least for me) I get the pitch of the book from the editor, decide I want to tackle it, read the manuscript, come up with an idea, execute and refine the idea, and then BOOM, book cover. :) 

How many concepts did you go through for BUTTER, or did you have a specific vision at the start?

BUTTER was a challenge because any book having to do with food can easily go into the 'food memoir' imagery territory. A lot of the initial brainstorming ideas from the team were too food-centric and didn't have the edge that BUTTER needed. I really wanted to do something type driven, at first, to keep it modern and interesting and not get hung up on the food aspect. I actually only went through 2 concepts: 1 type driven and the final that we ended up with. It was one of those serendipity moments where one photo search led to another which led to another which led to the idea.

I love all the little details on the jacket for BUTTER, such as the measurements just like you would see on a stick of butter wrapper. When do those details come into the design process?

For me, those details happen when the editor gives me the flap copy, a little later in the process. Before the measurements ended up on the jacket, I had a whole 'nutritional facts' design on the back with the reviews in the space where the ingredients go. It was decided that was a little to humorous for the book, so I brainstormed a bit more and thought that the measurements would be an interesting and minimal design element that could tie everything together visually without overloading on the butter dish. It made me think about the additive process of Butter's food list and there was something macabre to me about the idea of literally 'cutting butter'.

How did you get into cover design? I imagine you have to be a book lover.

I am a total, absolute, crazy book person! Even before I could even read, I loved books. There was something magical to me that books had whole worlds living inside of them. I was always artistic and loved to paint and draw, so when I wasn't reading, I was usually painting. I went to college to pursue a degree in illustration and while I was there I fell into book design from taking my illustrations and putting them into layouts for presentations. I realized I loved making the layouts just as much as making the art, so I shifted gears and went headfirst into trying to start a design career. I managed to get my first design job a few months after graduation and have been loving it ever since.

How many people have input into a cover, and how does that impact the final product?

A LOT of people have cover input and that can really shape how a cover evolves. First and foremost is the opinion of our fabulous art director, Donna Mark. I go to her with my ideas before presenting them to the editors. The editors have a huge say in the book covers and generally decide if the cover ideas are aligned with how they want the book to be positioned. In addition to the editors, the sales and marketing team also look at the cover and decide if the look is good and fits into where the book should be positioned in the market. Finally, the book buyers have the final yes/no as to whether they'll take the book and oftentimes a good cover means a bigger buy. Never say that you don't judge a book by its cover! At any point if one of those parties decides the cover isn't working, it gets thrown back to the designers to rework. It's a really collaborative process and sometimes covers evolve quite a bit during the process of moving it through all the necessary channels. For BUTTER, it was simple: aside from teeny tweaks like kerning letters and author name fonts, BUTTER was loved by all!

What's your favorite part of the BUTTER cover? (my fave is the spine. love the tiny butter dishes, and i always say the spine is almost more important than the front!)

The front cover is my favorite part because I feel like the cover is a little like telling the story in a visual poem. BUTTER is simple and graphic, so it's like a visual haiku and I love that about this cover. You don't get bogged down in imagery, it's direct and engaging. Also, it's not a sad girl in a big dress (which, while beautiful and definitely has its place on the shelf, is a trend I'm getting tired of)!! You're absolutely right about the spine though, it can sometimes be more important, especially if you're not shelved face-front. I'm glad you like the spine so much!

Thanks for letting me talk about working on BUTTER. I had a great time reading it and a great time designing it!

Thanks, Regina, for stopping by the blog and for this fabulous cover. I am so thrilled!!

You can find Regina Roff online at reginaroff.com and on Twitter: @reginaroff

copy edits, a lesson in humility

every author fantasizes about some moment along the path to publishing. maybe you daydream about a 6-figure deal or a starred review or a cover that makes people swoon.

me? i used to dream about the day my copy edits would arrive. the manuscript would have a big STET stamped right on the front with a note from the copy editor saying it was the cleanest ms she'd ever read.

haha. haaaHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
joke's on me.
there is a reason we have copy editors, folks.

i think i can still hold my head up high and say i have pretty darn good grammar, but it's certainly not perfect. and no matter how many times you read your story - no matter how many other people read it - there are errors that slip by.

i am halfway through my copy edits, and so far, my character has:
- demanded to speak to the manger at a restaurant.. (and mary and joseph too!)
- eaten two entire deserts.. (can i get some chocolate sauce on that cactus?)
- let out a peel of laughter and peaked over something.

the good news is, my copy editor is almost as fond of em-dashes as i am and even more fond of commas. it's been educational and humbling to read through her marks. and above all, it makes me so grateful for absolutely everyone who has a hand in making BUTTER the best book it can be.

it really does take a village.

The Revision Diaries (5)

sometime late last night, i tweeted something that looked a little like this:

I fixed it I fixed it IFIXEDIT!!!

except it wasn't bold or in massive type, because - dang it - twitter doesn't allow us to express ourselves through font!
but big and bold is how i felt after getting past a major hurdle in my line edits.

and really, "line edits" is a bit deceptive here.
often, at the line edit stage, and editor will have a few additional suggestions for revision. one such suggestion, for me, required a lot of pacing around the house and muttering to myself. i avoided the scene for a couple days - if you can call obsessing about it, emailing about it and jotting down notes on it avoiding. what i mean is, i didn't touch the scene in my manuscript. i worked on everything else - the actual line edits, the moments that needed rewording and other minor fixes that were easier to tackle. but i was afraid to mess with this one scene for fear of screwing it up.

over the weekend, i finally ran out of other edits, and i knew i had to face my fear. today, i want to share with you how i faced it and what i learned from it.

face the fear:
- my paralysis came mostly from the fear that the manuscript is pretty well polished, and this edit would require me to tear apart some of those polished pages. to help curb that fear, i took the chapter that would be mostly changed and copied it into a new word document. this way, i could mess it up all i wanted, and the original chapter would remain untouched in my ms. - a small, obvious, solution probably... but it really helped me relax.
- in fact, i liked working in this new document so much, i made THREE of them. and i started to write 3 different scenes - each with a different approach to the "FIX." one scene fell apart so fast and furious, i deleted the whole document. it wasn't even worth archiving under "experiments." the other two scenes worked a little better, and i treated them both like rough drafts - i gave myself freedom to make mistakes ranging from typos to total character revisions.
- then i did what i would do with any rough draft. i sent the scenes to one of my crit partners. with her notes, i was able to see which scene was working. i rewrote that scene, revised it again, then took the now-polished chapter and plugged it back into the manuscript.

lesson #1 - the domino effect:
- as polished as that chapter was, i had created changes that required me to now go through the rest of my clean ms and start mucking things up again - the one thing i wanted to avoid!
but now that i knew i had "fixed it," the other changes weren't so scary. i went backward from the scene to plant some clues of the scene to come, and i went forward in the manuscript to create a few moments that would be altered by the new scene.
- the lesson for me was - no matter how much i tried to isolate the issue, to make it this one small fix in this one small corner of the story - the fact is, any important change will have a domino effect throughout your story, even if the change is small and at the almost-polished stage of your revisions. if the change doesn't ripple through the entire manuscript, it probably wasn't that important to begin with.

lesson #2 - don't be afraid to TRY:
- i agreed with my editor that we needed this "fix," but i wasn't sure if her suggestion for fixing it was the right way. i got it all stuck in my head that i could fix it another way - a way that i had already tried and that wasn't working but that i was sure would have a different result if i kept doing it. hello, definition of insanity!
- the scene i wrote first was my own solution. i wasn't happy with it, but i couldn't figure out how to fix it. so i told myself, just TRY to do what your editor suggested.
well. yeah. my editor - she's a pretty smart cookie.
i liked the second scene so much better. i knew this before i even sent the scenes to my crit partner, but i wanted an outside opinion. ...and that opinion was a clear smack down on scene one and hearts for scene 2. lesson learned: even if an idea doesn't sound like the right solution, just try it out. you may surprise yourself.

so i tweeted to the world that IFIXEDIT! and now i can start my final pass through the manuscript, making sure everything is still polished. of course, it's always possible my editor will say:

Yo. You SO did NOT fix it.

(well, no, that's not actually possible, because my editor is much more eloquent than that - but you get the idea.)
if that happens, you'll know, because i'll be back here with another round of the revision diaries.

but for now:
Line Edits. Conquered.

The Revision Diaries (4)

i got my line edits this week, so you know what that means...
we're in for another round of:
The Revision Diaries: Confessions of an Author on a Deadline!

first, a brief word about line edits, for those not in the know. (those of you who are in the know, feel free to nod your head all, y'know, knowingly as we go along.)

line edits come after an author has done most of the major revisions. instead of big story or character suggestions, your editor will focus in on smaller moments on the page - bits that aren't working or need rewording, beats that are missing, moments that need to be amped up, and of course, lines that need fixing.
the accompanying editorial letter is probably shorter, but the manuscript pages probably have more marks. it's the detail work.

so i have had my line edits for all of 24 hours, and of course, i have already busted out the colored Post Its, consulted with my crit partners and sent one - possibly deranged and definitely way-too-long - email to my editor.
now i am ready to begin the work.

here's all i know for sure about the work that is to come:
it doesn't necessarily get easier.

when you are revising a rough draft, you can take a sledgehammer to that thing. you can go all demolition derby on it and rebuild from scratch.
when you get to revisions with your editor, it's more like tearing down a single wall and building it back up in a different spot, with better support beams and a fresh coat of paint.
and now i'm learning, when you reach line edits, you have to trade that old sledgehammer for a scalpel.

(yes, i know my architectural metaphor just turned surgical. i would fix that, but i'm saving all of my editorial skills for the manuscript right now. thanks for your understanding.)

what i'm trying to say is this step in the editorial process is all about being careful. there may be a scene to add or rework here and there, but mostly my job is to make the fixes without mucking up the manuscript too much, since it's so close to being done. it's making me just a little bit afraid to touch the page, for fear of smudging what is already polished.

as soon as i get over that fear, i'll be back with another installment in the revision diaries!