A Novel Cover Up: The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews

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A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed. I have been fortunate enough to interview cover designer Thy Bui about how she designed the cover for The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews for my stop on the blog tour!. All images in this post are copyrighted to Thy Bui and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

The Boy Who Steals Houses is an emotional story about a boy and his search for a home and a place to belong. The main character is key in the book and I wanted to capture the emotion and that sense of loneliness and abandonment he feels.

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A Novel Cover Up: Leo Nickolls on For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed. I have been fortunate enough to interview Graphic Designer Leo Nickolls about how he designed the cover for For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Leo Nickolls and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

I’m not sure how much detail I can go into without potentially spoiling the story here! But I hope it tells readers that it’s a fantasy story based around shadow theatre (with some shadowy secrets) with a hint of the supernatural. The concept of the cover is based on what I read in the manuscript, so the goal was to - like all good book covers should - show the nature of the story: a girl with powers she can only just control, in a war-torn country involving a tyrant leader - which hopefully is alluded to with the er, combustible look of my design!

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A Novel Cover Up: Sophie Burdess on the Cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed.

Thanks to Orchard Books, I have been fortunate enough to interview Book Designer Sophie Burdess about how she designed the cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews for my stop of the Blog Tour for this YA #LoveOzYA debut novel. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Sophie Burdess and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

The book is emotionally hard-hitting: it’s both a story of violence and abuse but also of hope and coming to life, so I wanted to find a way to try to convey both to the reader. I hope the image gives a kind of visual punch - something violent and in your face, but also beautiful and fragile, to play with that tension in the story. With any luck the reader will also feel a contrast of the imperfect type and the ‘perfect’ in the title and get the sense that something is amiss.

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A Novel Cover Up: Rachel Vale on the Paperback Cover of A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed. Thanks to Macmillan Children's Books, I have been fortunate enough to have a guest post from their Art Director Rachel Vale about how she designed the paperback cover for A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston. All images in this post are used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarge.

A Thousand Nights paperback – for those of you who don’t know the story – is a magical tale of love and survival in a captivating retelling of Arabian Nights. It’s incredibly evocative, mysterious and magical.

For the hardback edition it was all about capturing the opulence and magic of story in a wonderfully desirable package. For the paperback edition we wanted to keep the opulence but introduce a filmic quality that was more photographic/photorealistic – highlighting the epic Arabian landscape and our protagonist, Scheherazade. So, epic landscape + female reference + pretty.

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A Novel Cover Up: Paul Coomey on the Proof Covers for Night Owls by Jenn Bennett

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Here is the second of my Night Owls A Novel Cover Up double-whammy! Thanks to Simon & Schuster Children's Books, we're fortunate enough to have a guest post* from Designer Paul Coomey about how he designed the cover for the ten different proofs of Night Owls by Jenn Bennett. Other than the first photo, all images in this post are copyrighted to Simon & Schuster Children's Books and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

I knew we had something special as soon as I started reading Jenn Bennett’s artsy, cool, YA novel, Night Owls. It follows the story of Jack and Beatrix who meet on the Owl – San Francisco’s night bus. Both protagonists are artists, though wildly different ones: Bex is fascinated by anatomy and wants to be a medical illustrator, while Jack is a street artist, spray-painting giant gold words across the city’s landmarks. When they meet, their worlds explode in the best possible way – and although they’re on a journey that neither of them is supposed to be, they might just end up exactly where they need to go.

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A Novel Cover Up: Leo Nickolls on Night Owls by Jenn Bennett

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed. Today I have a double-whammy for you. I have two A Novel Cover Up posts on Night Owls by Jenn Bennett; one for the final cover, and later today, one for the proof cover!

I have been fortunate enough to interview Graphic Designer Leo Nickolls about how he designed the cover for Night Owls. All images in this post are copyrighted to Leo Nickolls and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for Night Owls? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

Well, it's a cover for a book about a girl called Bex who meets a boy called Jack on the San Francisco night bus – the owl. A can of gold spray paint in his bag tells her he is the mysterious graffiti artist who has been creating gold words in distinctive spots around the city. That’s a very abbreviated version of the story, but hopefully it explains the cover! The cover (again, hopefully) sets the scene for this story, so its gold graffiti above a san francisco map at night time!

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A Novel Cover Up: Nathan Ryder on Here Be Dragons by Sarah Mussi

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Vertebrate Publishing, I have been fortunate enough to interview Creative Director Nathan Ryder on how he designed the cover for Here Be Dragons by Sarah Mussi. All images in this post are copyrighted to Nathan and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for Here Be Dragons? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

I knew from an early stage that I wanted to have something abstract as the basis for the cover (the dragon skin) and then build on it. I hope it signals to the reader that this is fantasy fiction and of course, the dragon skin is red, matching that of the Red Dragon of Wales, which is central to the plot. The white text, in contrast, represents the White Dragon – which also plays a major role in the book. There is also a little motif in the design – the footprints with a swirl in the heel. Whilst a potential reader won’t know the significance of these initially, once they’re into the book, hopefully, they’ll have another look at the cover and make the connections. This is also a love story – hence the love heart in the word dragon. The descender of the ‘g’ (the curly bit) is a stylistic dragon tail. I have deliberately avoided making the cover too ‘signposted’; this is a book about myths and legends after all. Ultimately, I hope the cover intrigues a reader and makes them want to read the book.

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A Novel Cover Up: Kate Gaughran on Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Quercus, I have been fortunate enough to interview freelance designer Kate Gaughran about how she designed the cover for Asking For It by Louise O'Neill. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Kate Gaughran and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for Asking For It? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

In the story 18-year old Emma, the protagonist, is taken advantage of at a party, and becomes the subject of victim blaming. She is treated badly by everyone and becomes caught in a media storm after images of the incident are widely shared on social media. With the cover I was trying to capture how she has been stripped bare physically and emotionally, and is treated almost like a rag doll. I wanted to create a cover that suggested a cold, clinical, and de-humanising situation, something that tries to reflect both how Emma feels and is treated in the story.

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A Novel Cover Up: Ness Wood & Alice Todd on The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to David Fickling Books, I have been fortunate enough to interview Freelance Art Director/Designer Ness Wood and Illustrator/Designer Alice Todd about how they designed the cover for The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Alice Todd and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Can you tell us about the cover for The Art of Being Normal? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

Ness Wood: It is a very well written book about identity and fitting in – finding your own place in the world.

Alice Todd: The cover addresses the key theme of the story, the issue of transgender. It expresses how one can feel trapped not only in one’s own body, but also social conventions and norms. I wanted the cover to express the characters journey of self expression through the issues of gender and identity.

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A Novel Cover Up: Emma Byrne on Finding a Voice by Kim Wood

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to O'Brien Press, I have been fortunate enough to interview Design Manager Emma Byrne about how she designed the cover for Finding a Voice by Kim Hood - one of the shorlisted titles for the YA Book Prize 2015. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Emma Byrne and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Can you tell us about the cover for Finding a Voice? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

I hope it attracts the reader in an intimate way to the fragile world that Jo inhabits. If it does that, its enough to get the reader in – to discover more.

How did you come up with the idea for the cover?

I had several approaches (see below) but in the end it was felt that the current one was the strongest for the book and the market. The cover is the first two paragraphs of the book. It is a powerful account of Jo’s state of mind, and gives us a glimpse of her world, her fears and vunerability:

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Top Ten A Novel Cover Up Posts

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme run by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is a freebie, so I'm going to do a bit of shameless blog promo here - hope you don't mind!
On my blog, I run a feature called A Novel Cover Up, where the wonderful people behind the awesome covers we see on our shelves talk us through the process that led to those final covers. It's been quite a while since this feature has graced the blog, but I'm trying to bring it back to life again. Before I do, I thought I would share my top ten book covers I've featured so far, in no particular order.

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A Novel Cover Up: Tom Sanderson on The Elemental Series by Brigid Kemmerer

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Much-in-Little, for the Storm by Brigid Kemmerer UK Blog Tour, I have been fortunate enough to invite back Graphic Designer, Tom Sanderson to discuss how he designed the cover for The Elemental Series. Other than the final covers and the TV show poster, all images in this post are copyrighted to Tom and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Hi Tom! Can you tell us about the covers for The Elemental Series? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

Hi Jo, With the Elemental covers the first design issue that I had to think about was getting a strong series device that could be used to link all the covers together, as I knew there would be a several covers in the series. I was told when Constable & Robinson commissioned me that they would be publishing the novels in print but they would also be publishing the linking novellas as eBooks, so I would need to translate the series into this format as well. For me the most straight forward way of linking these two series of books together would be through the typography, so quite early on in the briefing I realised I wanted to do something interesting with the type. I also wanted the covers to have that cool filmic approach that very much works with the YA genre, so my early reference also included looking at quite a lot of movie posters to get the right kind of look. I've been a fan of the marketing imagery used on the ‘Fringe’ TV series and the poster of the butterfly with the shows type was an early reference point for these covers. I really like the 3D elements of the typography and thought this would be something I could use with these covers.

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A Novel Cover Up: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. I have been fortunate enough to interview Matt Roeser, graphic designer and Senior Book Designer at Candlewick Press, about how he designed the cover for The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Matt Roeser and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Can you tell us about the cover for The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

Just like the title suggests, the story is equal parts strange and beautiful. Leslye does an amazing job creating a rich world populated with uniquely fleshed out characters and from the minute I started reading the preliminary manuscript, I was completely sucked into the world of Ava. I wanted a final cover that would hopefully look simple and classic with a hint of magic to it. We printed the jacket on an uncoated paper to give it a bit of an old feeling (as the story spans generations). Then, a foil stamp was added around the edges of the feather and on the spine to give that nod to the magical realism found within the story.

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Fifth Bloggerversary: A Look at A Novel Cover Up

Today, for my fifth bloggerversary, I'm looking at my semi-regular feature, A Novel Cover Up.


A Novel Cover Up is my feature where cover designers - or those involved in cover design - discuss the process underwent to design certain covers, either through guest post or interview. As features go, A Novel Cover Up is still a baby, having looked at just 11 covers so far, but it's something I really enjoy.

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A Novel Cover Up: Paul Coomey on The Dark Inside by Rupert Wallis

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Simon and Schuster Children's Books, I have been fortunate enough to interview their Senior Designer, Paul Coomey about how he designed the cover for The Dark Inside by Rupert Wallis, as part of The Dark Inside Blog Tour. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Paul Coomey and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Can you tell us about the cover for The Dark Inside? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

The Dark Inside is one of the best books I read in 2013. I’m fortunate enough to work on a fiction list that is packed with excellent reads, but working on this book has been a particular treat. It’s my kind of book, the kind of story I would have devoured as a fourteen-year-old, a solid, dangerous kind of tale that puts you firmly in harm’s way. It’s not without hope, of course, and it might just have a happy ending.

With many cover designs, a single image will present itself at the first reading of the manuscript. For example, with Find Me by Romily Bernard, I was taken with the idea that the main protagonist, Wick, was locking everything, all of the woes of her family and Tessa’s case, inside herself, and this became the image of a profile in silhouette containing the broken glass and other elements. This was not the case when reading The Dark Inside. There are many iconic moments and strong images throughout the text, but there isn’t a single image that I would say defines the story.

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A Novel Cover Up: Amber Caraveo on If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Orion Children's Books, their Editorial Director Amber Caraveo - and editor for the book in question - is stopping by the blog to talk about how the covers for If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch was designed. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Orion Children's Books and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.


IF YOU FIND ME is such an extraordinary and powerful novel - and also so unique - that it was actually very difficult to create just the right cover for it. We wanted something that would appeal to the YA readership for which it was written, of course, and so we started by looking at the American cover . . .

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A Novel Cover Up: Richard Collingridge on Keras by Simon Rae

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. I have been fortunate enough to interview author and Book Cover Illustrator, Richard Collingridge about how he designed the cover for Keras by Simon Rae - and talks about a few other covers he's designed, too! All images in this post are copyrighted to Richard Collingridge and used with permission. They can be clicked to enlarge.


Can you tell us about the cover for Keras? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

I always try and narrate a point in the story with my cover designs.
Sometimes I'll use the title font (101) as the point of interest for the image (an example being the hardcover of 'Trash'  by Andy Mulligan) and the illustration will just be a decoration around that. Other times I'll use the characters as the point of interest and mainly rely on the feeling created by the lighting, composition and artwork style.

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A Novel Cover Up: Jane Griffiths on The Disappeared by C.J. Harper

A Novel Cover Up is a irregular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Simon and Schuster Children's Books, I have been fortunate enough to interview Children's Fiction Commissioning Editor Jane Griffiths about how the cover for The Disappeared by C.J. Harper. Other than the cover, all images in this post are used with permission, are not to be used reproduced, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Can you tell us about the cover for THE DISAPPEARED? What do you hope it tells readers about the story? How did you come up with the idea for the cover?

THE DISAPPEARED is a wonderfully rich and atmospheric dystopian thriller, and the
starting point of our cover discussion was to make sure that we created an image that was bold and striking enough to really stand out in the ever-growing dystopian genre. Everyone wanted to make sure we found something that felt different but would still appeal to fans of the genre, as well as be something that both boy and girl readers would want to pick-up because the book really does have universal appeal.

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A Novel Cover Up: Tom Sanderson on One Seriously Messed-Up Weekend and the Otherwise Un-Messed-Up Life of Jack Samsonite by Tom Clempson

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. I have been fortunate enough to interview book jacket designer Tom Sanderson about how he designed the cover for One Seriously Messed-Up Weekend in the Otherwise Un-Messed-Up Life of Jack Samsonite by Tom Clempson, the second book in the Jack Samsonite series. Except for the final covers and the movie poster, all images in this post are copyrighted to Tom Sanderson and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

Can you tell us about the cover for OSMUWeekend? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

This is Tom Clempson’s second book about Jack Samsonite. I designed the first cover about 18 months ago for Atom. The new cover very much follows the style of the first book, it is meant to look quite doodley and graphic. As you can see the book has a very long title so the cover had to have a very typographic approach. The books have elements of Adrian Mole and The Inbetweeners, and the cover needed to reflect this and be contemporary and look cool, so a hand drawn approach was the right way to go with it.

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A Novel Cover Up: Itch by Simon Mayo

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are made. Thanks to Random House Children's Publishers, I am fortunate enough to have a guest post from Senior Fiction Designer Dominica Clements, where she talks about the process that went into designing the cover for Itch by Simon Mayo. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Dominica Clements and Laura Bird and used with permission, and can be clicked to enlarge.

When we were given this pacy action adventure story to read, the first and most exciting part of the job was to come up with the right concept for the cover. We weren’t sure whether it ought to be narrative, symbolic, or typographic…

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