Covers – what makes you pick up THAT book?

I was in a bookshop the other day – one of my fave places to be – when suddenly I was struck by how many different kinds of covers there are, and how many books aimed at girls now seem to use photos of real girls. For example, when Cathy Cassidy’s book, Scarlett, first came out it had this cover –

Scarlett – original cover

Then it was re-issued some time later with this cover –

Scarlett – new cover

When I’m out at events I’m often asked how I choose the covers for my books. Well, the truth is, I don’t. That is, the author will be given a few covers to choose from, but we nearly never come up with the ideas ourselves. That’s for the publisher’s design team to do. They’re supposed to be the experts on how to choose a cover which reflects what the story is about, and attracts the right kind and age of reader to the book.

So when my first book was coming out, the first cover that was suggested to me was this one.

Mock up of first cover

It’s not just the author who has a say in choosing which cover to use, there’s the author’s agent, the editor and the marketing people too. And they might all see it from different points of view. For example, the editor will be keen that it reflects the kind of story it is, whereas the marketing people might be more concerned about choosing a cover that appeals to as many readers as possible, and the author’s agent might want to make sure that her author’s book looks different from other authors’ books.

So the first Seriously Sassy cover idea was rejected. It was shown to some book sellers and they thought it looked too serious and not bright and girly enough. They also thought that ‘eco-babe’ might put some readers off, so that was dropped from the title.

My objection was mainly that I thought the girls in the image looked way too young. After all Sassy is 13 and a half!

So some of the elements were kept and they came up with this one.

How about pink then?

But my agent felt that book shops were already overflowing with PINK book covers. So the colour was changed, and this new version was suggested.

The Final Version!

Quite often the publisher will take the cover to a ‘focus group’, an group of readers who give their opinion. But time was getting tight by this point, the publication date was looming, decisions had to be made.

As a first-time author I felt I should let the experts make the final decision, but now, a few years on, I think I should have been more pushy. I’m really not sure that the cover matched Sassy’s non-girly, feisty approach to life. A bit less foil (that’s the green bit under my name might have been better. On the actual book it makes the name difficult to read.

So what do you think? Would you have chosen the first, less girly, version with ‘Eco-Babe’ in? Or the zingy pink version? Or do you think the final yellow one was just right?

I’d really love to know…

Maggi xxx