Debut author Lucas Klauss has a title that could go dark, or not... here's how the explosive, sweet cover for Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse came to be:

"For a while, as I was writing the book, I had this idea that the cover would be mostly black with simple lettering, like The Road, since this has so much to do with the apocalypse. But I'm really glad that's not what it ended up being. It's been done and it doesn't exactly scream fun and romantic. It moans tragic and bleak.

"My editor very kindly asked for cover suggestions from both me and my agent. I basically said that I usually prefer graphical covers to photographic ones. My agent pinned her idea down very smartly by pointing to some of David Levithan's covers, many of which are simple objects against an appealing, single-color background [see Boy Meets Boy, left]. I don't know if the designers took that into account, but ultimately my cover ended up having a similar sensibility.

"The first cover my editor sent was pretty early in the process and sort of a suggestion rather than a selection. It was a photographic cover that I felt was a cool photo but a bit dark for this book. I was pretty stressed out because I didn't want to come across as a diva, but I also wanted to tell her truthfully how I felt. Thankfully, Anica is really cool about that kind of stuff, so she listened to my thoughts about it and she and the designers went back to the drawing board.

"A month or so later, she sent me two covers. One, she told me, she liked. It was black, as I recall, and had a bomb on it. I liked it too. But the other one, she said, she *loved*. And it was the one that's my cover now. As I told her then, I did a fist-pump and shouted all alone in my living room because as soon as I saw it I knew I loved it too. That red just blew my mind and the cut-out explosion at once captured the apocalyptic conceit of the novel while also communicating that it was fun and maybe even a little cute. And the little white heart was the perfect touch. [Here's the full jacket]:

"The basic design didn't change from then until now. The fonts changed slightly and I really like the font they chose for the title and the inside chapter headings. I think Anica and both designers, Cara and Karina, all did such a great job, working to get the cover exactly right. And it shows. I think it stands out on the shelves and on the Internet and gets across that this would be a fun, surprising reading experience. And the blurbs really pop on the back cover. I feel like I'm gushing a lot, but I really do feel very fortunate to have this as the cover of my first book."

Thanks, Lucas! I think this book cover manages to both capture an apocalyptic notion and a certain sweetness, which is a neat trick. I love the look of the cut-outs especially.

What do you guys think?