Maureen is here to share the story of her very first cover!

"Even though most of us know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we do. As first-time authors, we pray for a good one, and when we get a cover that we love, we feel charmed. At least, that’s how I’m feeling with my first. 

"One of the reasons I submitted to a small press was that I felt I would have a little more say in things like cover design. Not only did Bell Bridge include cover consultation in their writing contract, they really listened and, in my case, looked. To better explain how I envisioned the cover, I actually drew a picture and sent it to the art department. And when I say drew, I mean roughly sketched because it’s been awhile since I exercised my artistic muscle. 

"As excited as I was to have at long last sold a novel, I didn’t rush to fill out the art sheet. I thought about what Haint Misbehavin’s cover should look like, what I found appealing in a cover, and what tweens and teens liked. I also knew that the cover had to shout humor. I didn’t want someone picking up my book and expecting the prose to be dark and angsty.

"After a few days, all I could picture as a cover was my story’s inciting incident. Fourteen-year-old Heather Tildy, who is removing Japanese beetles from her father’s grapevines in her backyard, comes face to face with a haint (Southern for ghost). I drew the scene in my head—Heather eyes wide, her mouth an open 'o' as she stood in between rows of grapevines (her father’s a wee bit obsessed when it comes to making wine). Ghost Amy floated at an angle to the right of the heroine, but all the reader sees of the haint are her skirts and legs levitating above the vines. I also wanted a fun title font to leave no doubt in a potential reader’s mind that this ghost story had a humorous tone. I used Juice ITC. The art department chose Jokerman, which I like better. I also sketched a Japanese beetle flying toward the reader, and I indicated on the beetle’s wings that this was book one of the Ghost Handler series.

"My sketch was too busy, but the detail showed the art department the feel I had in mind. You’ll notice that the cover, which the art department created from a stock photo, uses several of my suggestions—the fun title font, the dangling legs, the surprised expression. Even though the art department had the final say, they took what they could from my ideas to create an eye-catching cover that in the end pleased everyone involved.

"When I saw the first mock up of the Haint Misbehavin' cover, which was slightly different than what you see here, I liked it. I did, however, have two suggestions for tweaking, and I shared them. Since the art department asked what my thoughts were, I was honest about the dangling legs, which had pointy boots and striped light blue stockings. Although graphically pleasing, they made me think witch, not ghost. My editor and the art department listened to my concerns and changed the stockings to a solid orange and rounded the boots, which still catch the eye but fit my story better. The orange in the stockings is also used around the iris of the eyes and on some lettering on the back cover. The light blue stripe graphic wasn’t wasted. It was employed along the book’s spine. Bell Bridge also designed a logo for the series that we’re using on the chapter headers and on the cover spine."

Thanks, Maureen! I love how involved you got. The surprised eyes on the book remind me of Linda Gerber's Trance a little bit. Very cool.

Maureen asks: "What is the most eye-catching cover you’ve ever seen? Did you buy the book?"

Melissa Walker is the author of four Young Adult novels, including the Violet trilogy and Lovestruck Summer. She is co-creator of the popular teen newsletter I Heart Daily and the new awkward-stage blog Before You Were Hot. Her author blog, where Cover Stories originated, is melissacwalker.com.