Cover Stories: Lifted by Wendy Toliver

Wendy Toliver's new book, Lifted, is already getting rave reviews. Wings author Aprilynne Pike says, "Lifted is the story of an imperfect heroine seeking her place not only in school, but in life. Its exploration of the amount of truth behind social and religious stereotypes escalates into a double-dog dare to believe them. A haunting morality tale that will leave you questioning just what it means to be 'good.'"

Ooh... intriguing! Wendy's here to talk about her cover:

"I had a vague idea of what the cover might look like. I visualized dark or bright colors rather than pastels, and maybe a part of a girl (not her whole body and face) or several girls with cross necklaces.

"In fact, the cover was complete surprise. When you put so much of yourself into a book, it's always scary to see the cover for the first time, particularly if you know it's pretty much set in stone. My agent is always really good to call so we can discuss our first thoughts together. If I remember correctly, I could change a color or something (like if I wanted her hoodie to be a different color) but couldn't add something, for example, the cross necklace I'd proposed.

"I think when people read it, they'll be able to see that the girl in the photo does look a lot like how I describe Poppy, so that's good. And I love the colors and the bold font (which is carried throughout the book in the chapter headings, etc.) When I started sharing the cover image with a few author friends, someone called it to my attention that it's the same cover (well, the same image) as AnnDee Ellis's Everything is Fine (right). The weird thing is, Ann Dee and I both live in Utah and we see each other at local author gatherings. My agent and I brought this up with my editor and she mentioned our concern to the art and marketing departments but they really loved the cover Cara E. Petrus had designed for my book and didn't want to change it...

Read the rest of Wendy's Cover Story (and see a third lookalike for this cover) at melissacwalker.com.