We're so excited to welcome Amy Spalding to Young Adult Anonymous to start her cover reveal tour for The Reece Malcolm List, her debut novel. It's one of the books we're anticipating most highly in 2013, and you know we love a pretty cover. Without further ado, here's Amy.
Welcome to the blog tour for the exclusive cover reveal of The Reece Malcolm List,
coming February 2013 from Entangled Teen! This post kicks off the
series. Thanks so much to Maggie and everyone at Young Adult Anonymous
for having me.
Book covers are important, right? Yes. They’re crazy important. I have picked up books I wouldn’t have otherwise because of their beautiful covers. I have avoided books I found out later were wonderful because of their heinous front covers. And I don’t like to speak for others but I’m gonna say most writers want our books to be in the former category, not the latter.
I’m
pretty sure one of the things most writers worry about, once the book
deal’s been finalized and the contract is signed and the Publishers
Weekly announcement is out there, is their book cover. Yeah, yeah, we’ve
been told our whole life not to figuratively or literally judge a book
by its cover, but we do.
Book covers are important, right? Yes. They’re crazy important. I have picked up books I wouldn’t have otherwise because of their beautiful covers. I have avoided books I found out later were wonderful because of their heinous front covers. And I don’t like to speak for others but I’m gonna say most writers want our books to be in the former category, not the latter.
I’m
really lucky to be at a small publisher like Entangled, because they
take a lot of care to make sure a whiny and control-freakish author such
as myself will be happy with the final product. I received a cover
suggestion form almost immediately upon signing, and filled it out
diligently, as well as spent loads of time looking for examples of other
book covers I loved that would hit the same tone as I needed for my
contemporary YA The Reece Malcolm List.
I
also thought, hmmm, maybe I can just cut out the middle man and look
directly for a great photo. I’m great with stock image sites! So I
started looking, and before long, I found something amazing. I found
something perfect.
Well. Almost amazing. Almost perfect.
I
loved everything about this. The titular Reece Malcolm List is
something Devan, the book’s main character, keeps in a notepad. I could
immediately imagine the title on this photo, imagine my name, even
conjure up a hypothetical glowing blurb. But there were some serious issues, guys.
For one thing, this girl looks about thirteen, while Devan is sixteen. Also Devan is really
into fashion. She’d never be caught dead in this outfit. Plus her hair
is darker. Plus obviously she wouldn’t draw childish doodles. She would
draw doodles related to the list or to her new school or to the musical
she’s in AND OF COURSE to the boy she’s crushing on.
But I would not accept defeat! A plan began to solidify in my crazy little writer brain….
Find out all about my crazy plan tomorrow on GReads, and come back to Young Adult Anonymous on Wednesday, June 13, for an exclusive reveal of The Reece Malcolm List’s cover!
Amy Spalding grew up in St. Louis, but now lives in the better weather of Los Angeles. She received a B.A. in Advertising & Marketing Communications from Webster University,
and currently works as the Digital Media Planner for an independent
film advertising agency. Amy studied longform improv at the Upright
Citizens Brigade Theatre, and can be seen performing around L.A. Her debut novel, The Reece Malcolm List,
will be published by Entangled Teen in 2013, and combines many of her
favorite things in life, including Stephen Sondheim and boys with great
hair.
Learning how covers are conceived and put together is my favorite behind-the-scenes-in-publishing topic. I love how reading about your process. Looking forward to the next part!!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of Amy or her book until I saw Maggie had added it on Goodreads so of course I added it too! Looking forward to the cover reveal on Wednesday!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post ladies! I didn't know choosing covers could be so difficult! Oh I so can't wait for the cover reveal on Wednesday! :)
ReplyDeleteyeah, i haven't heard of this book either. and agreed. quite interesting to see all the thought that goes into it. will deffo be heading over at ginger's :)
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