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readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Cover Stories: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Everyone is buzzing about Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures this week! I haven't read it yet, but I can't wait!

Here's the story behind that gorgeous cover:

BeautifulCreatures.jpg
MW: Did you have an idea in mind for your cover as you were proposing/writing the book?
Margie:
We did. My sister-in-law, who is a graphic designer, even mocked it up. It was a black and white image of an enormous moon, with iridescent green lettering that said Sixteen Moons. I had nearly forgotten about that.
Kami: We had pretty much forgotten about that by the time we got to Little, Brown. We were so overwhelmed that the book was being published, we didn't think much about it.

MW:
Did your publisher ask for your input on the cover design before the art dept started working?
Margie: I don't remember if they did, but we were all so excited that Dave Caplan was going to be our designer, because we loved everything he had done, that we had a lot of faith in Little, Brown to get it right. And actually, Amazon has just nominated the Beautiful Creatures cover as one of the six best in Children's and Teen fiction of the year, so we were right to trust him! (Go vote on it at Amazon until December 17th!)
Kami: They told us Dave was the designer, and that he would show us a concept when he came up with something. The "something" was the BC cover. That was his first try.

MW: What did you think the first time you saw your cover? Truly!
Margie: We flipped out. When we saw the image of the tree, with the lettering and the foil, we just freaked. We know how important the cover is for a YA debut novel, and we've felt so lucky Beautiful Creatures turned out to be such a, well, beautiful creature!
Kami: I couldn't believe how dead-on it was. The trees look exactly the way we envisioned the road leading to Ravenwood, and we LOVED the purple. The hand lettering is what we refer to as "the sparkly font."

MW: Did the cover change much from the original version you saw?
Margie: Not that I remember. We saw it once without the wonderful font, and then finally with the font and the color and the foil all mocked up. It was stupendous, even then.
Kami: Dave tweaked the purple a little before printing, but that was it.

MW: Do you know if your cover was from a photo shoot or still life, or if it is a stock photo that the art department found that could capture the feeling of the book?
Margie: I don't know where Dave found the central image of the tree on the front. I'd love to find out.
Kami: I have no idea. I know the tile was hand lettered by Si Scott.

MW:
How do you feel about your cover, in the end? Have you found any hidden meaning in it or anything you didn't notice at first glance?
Margie: I still love it. I love the way the road opens to draw the reader into the world of Gatlin. It's perfect for our book.
Kami: It is so amazing -- from the way it captures the feel of the book to its graphic and artistic qualities. As far as I'm concerned, Dave Caplan is the rock star of cover design!

I'm with Kami and Margie. Love this cover. It's almost like the negative of a photograph, no? And that font is like liquid text--lovely! Plus, the reviews are raaaaaving. (Check out Hope's Bookshelf, The Compulsive Reader and The Story Siren.)

What do you guys think of the cover?

9 comments:

Lacey J Edwards said...

I think it's amazing. I'm reading it right now. This cover is one of my top 5 favorites for 2009.

Charlotte said...

I LOVE this cover ! And like always, I love the Cover Stories !Thank you Readergirlz.

Beautiful Creatures is coming out in France soon, and I love the French cover too. I posted it in one of my French Fridays here. I think both versions are gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, thanks, Charlotte! I hadn't seen the French cover and it's gorgeous!

Donna Gambale said...

I definitely love this cover! What a fun story behind it, too. I'd love to see the original mockup that Kami and Margie had made.

Unknown said...

I am so glad that you had such a good experience with your book cover. Normally publishers don't give authors any say over covers. When I published my first book, a collection of my short stories in Spanish called Liliana y el espejo, they did a not very attractive cover and I had no say in it. With my newest book, Angela 1: Starting Over (a YA novel in English) I had a different publisher. I sent them a watercolor my daughter painted for me and the next thing I knew, they had designed a stunning cover using her painting. To see it and find out about the book, please click on my name and follow the link to my website. I also invite you to visit my blog and leave a comment, if you like, at www.davidabedford.aegauthorblogs.com. Thanks!

Shelf Elf said...

I think it's really striking. The purple and black really make the overall effect very intense.

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Unknown said...

Hi.....
"Beautiful Creatures" is an American young adult novel written by authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and the first book in the Caster Chronicles series.
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