Mark's good news

Mark Holtzen shares some good news:

I've finally got a cover (illustration by John Skewes) to show off! My new picture book from Sasquatch Books, A TICKET TO THE PENNANT: A TALE OF BASEBALL IN SEATTLE comes out next spring on April 12, 2016! (Hopefully the excitement for Seattle baseball will be back in the air after this disappointing Mariners season.)
Here is a link to some relevant history and inspiration from my blog.

Thanks, Mark!!

Jennifer Shaw Wolf's Cover Reveal

Jennifer Shaw Wolf is graciously sharing the cover of BREAKING BEAUTIFUL, her debut novel that comes out in April 2012. If you click here you can see her "outside story" of how a picture her husband took became the cover of her book.

For more information on Jennifer, and her work, you can visit her website and her blog.

Thanks for sharing Jennifer!!!

YA covers: some interesting thoughts

A lot of people are thinking about YA book covers after the "whitewashing" controversies with LIAR and MAGIC UNDER GLASS.

These blog posts raise related questions. Why don't we ever see plus-sized cover models?

And what's with all the pretty decapitations? This one is more tongue-in-cheek, but does ask why so many heads are removed on YA book covers.

Thanks to Liz Mills for sharing the links.

Another cover controversy

Remember the whole LIAR business? There's another problem with a too-light-skinned character on the cover of a book. This time, Bloomsbury's cutting off the supply of the U.S. edition until a replacement cover can be issued. And they're apologizing:

Bloomsbury is ceasing to supply copies of the US edition of Magic Under Glass. The jacket design has caused offense and we apologize for our mistake. Copies of the book with a new jacket design will be available shortly.

Here's what the author, Jaclyn Dolamore, has to say.

And this is just guessing on my part, but I bet if more cover designers read the story and not just the jacket blurb, we wouldn't have issues like this.

More on cover art gone wrong

This time it's not the race of the protagonist--it's the author's name, rendered practically invisible by an interesting design choice. (Agent Kristin Nelson's blog has the full story.)

On judging a book by its cover

You might have heard the brouhaha about Justina Larbalestier's book, LIAR. Many people say the cover--of a light-skinned girl hiding behind her hair--doesn't match the protagonist, who is black.

Here's Justina's take on it, on how much say the author really has on a cover, on working with Bloomsbury, and the disturbing notion that covers with black people don't sell.

Meanwhile, here's my take on an argument a librarian made in School Library Journal that publishers should make more books with boy protagonists because boys don't want to read about girls.