The whole thing just feels so elegant to me, and you don't find a whole lot of elegant on the YA shelves. When I saw the final version I flipped over the embossed, raised pearls. "The first cover I saw had a different font (above, see two earlier versions), but in essence the design remained the same from there on out. I had to hope that when readers opened the book and saw the alternating points of view, they'd see what it was all about. And what female among us is not attracted to that Tiffany blue? The romance angle was, clearly, not present, but at this point I had resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't have it all. The cover, in my opinion, is drop-dead gorgeous. And a brilliant editorial assistant (ahem, Julia Maguire), had come up with the tagline 'Born with a silver spoon, living with a plastic spork.' I took one look at the package and fell in love with it. The title had been the brainstorm of someone in marketing, I believe. It was a light-blue cover with a broken strand of pearls and the title SHE'S SO DEAD TO US. Then, one day, my editor sent me a mock-up that the talented Krista Vossen had put together. "We wanted something that would evoke the idea of 'you can't go home again,' but we also wanted romance. We went back and forth about this for weeks, until it was basically do-or-die time. There was one title we all liked, but we already knew there were going to be three books, and we couldn't come up with accompanying titles that made sense. But somehow, we couldn't all get on the same page. I even brainstormed with my sister and my best friend. I brainstormed with my agent and I brainstormed with my editor.
I came up with lists and lists of potential titles. Something that would grab the reader, rather than lull them into a state of nostalgia. It sounded too old-fashioned and literary. "Unfortunately, my publisher didn't love the title. I had all these thoughts of Dawson's Creek-style, sepia-toned images of autumn trees and quaint neighborhoods. In my mind it was a coming-home story wrapped up in a romance. When I first pitched the idea that eventually became SHE'S SO DEAD TO US, it was titled RETURN TO ORCHARD HILL. "The story of my cover is all tied up with the story of my title.
The fantastic Kieran Scott is here to talk about title changes, taglines and Tiffany blue on the cover of her latest novel, She's So Dead to Us (I've heard her read from it, and in case you're not familiar with her books, Kieran - who also writes as Kate Brian - pens a great novel).Here she is:
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