Cover Stories: The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance

Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance are the co-authors of a book called The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, which is a totally intriguing title if I've ever heard one. Plus, the cover really pops. They're here to share their Cover Story as a twosome:

Charity: We had absolutely no idea about the cover, which is probably weird. My son thought the cover model should be wearing a lab coat over her cheerleading outfit along with a pocket protector--and maybe nerd glasses.

Darcy: You did have that dream where we had a blue cover.

C: And as it turns out we have ... a blue cover!

D: No one asked for our input and, really, it was a surprise when the cover design landed in our inboxes. I didn't realize that happened so early in the process.

C: The story to our cover is a bit of a saga. We started out with a stock photo of a jumping cheerleader. The cover was cute, but it also had a football scoreboard and lots of lush green grass. The story takes place during basketball season, in Minnesota (think snow and lots of it). I was a little shocked. I was afraid if we went with that cover, we'd forever be explaining the football/basketball discrepancy.

D: Exactly. I could hear my mother's voice in my head saying, "But isn't it a basketball book?" But we were still in disbelief that our book was actually going to be published. We worried that if we asked for changes, our editor might change her mind and cancel the book. Lucky for us, our agent wasn't as timid as we were.

C: She felt that the cover needed to attract the sort of teen reader who normally wouldn't pick up a cheerleading book. She negotiated for a new cover. Our publisher did a special shoot and we ended up with three great shots: the model "jumping" over the title, the pigeon-toed shot on the spine, and the one with the glasses on the back.

D: Otherwise known as "Jumping Girl," "Foot Girl," and "Back Girl."

C: In the end, the concept itself didn't change: we still have the cheerleader with her quirky jump over the title. Everyone felt that was the shot that conveyed the most energy while still being quirky and fun. I love it. The whole package is wonderful, from front cover, to back, to the spine.

D: I love it too. It's the kind of cover I wouldn't be able to resist if I saw it in a book store.

Thanks, ladies! I like the energy of the cover, too, and I'm glad you pointed out that we get three poses in one with this book.

Now, what do you guys think?