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Middle Grade Palooza!

Oh middle grade, how I love thee.

The best thing about middle grade is the art—you can go hog wild with wonderful artists in tween fiction. Action packed! Outrageously original! Animals! You almost guarantee there will be animals. I've been real dummy lately, not posting all this wonderful middle grade that's coming up. Why? I have no excuse. I present for us all to love and admire—the newest middle grade / chapter books coming our way.

First, let's start with action-adventure. Edge of Extinction: The Ark Plan has a GIRL hero, dinosaurs, and a map that leads our hero into uncharted territory. Artist Eric Deschamps really knocks this action packed thrill ride out of the park!

4C glossy • logo over foil • emboss • matte UV • available May 2016

Next let's look at a whole other animal (boo, terrible joke!) Moo by all-the-awards-winning author Sharon Creech! Moo has one ornery cow, a reluctant handler, and a whole lot of wonderful characters in between. Half prose, half poetry, this book is truly astounding. Moo left me smiling, wondering, and loving this wonderful new cow, Zora. Artist Vincent Moustache perfectly captures Zora's "oh that cow!" attitude.

5c • overall matte • spot UV • available Fall 2016

Finally, Eleven and Holding. Honestly, I'm just going to leave this here. . . Available June 2016, Eleven and Holding will grab you by the feels. Artist Jori van der Linde brings main character Macy's struggles with growing up truly apparent in this beautiful, literary cover.  

4c • overall matte • spot uv • available June 2016

What were your favorite books as a kid? I always had a soft spot for that spunky Ramona Quimby . . . hit me up at @stinkysarahd and tell me your faves!

Fall of Butterflies redux

If you were to go on goodreads.com and look up Fall of Butterflies, this is the image that appears:

Tell me that's not gorgeous!

Two friends, Remy and Willa are connected thru "a passionate-yet-doomed friendship set against the backdrop of wealth and glamour." We loved the retro color palette here and how Remy and Willa were facing outward yet away from each other. They are looking into a web of sorts—yet those wings . . . those wings could take them anywhere if they weren't pinned down. And while they were pinned down, Remy and Willa were still the butterfly among the boring old moths. So many layers of meaning y'all!

I thought this cover spoke very well to the book itself. Book buyers, it seems, did not agree. Eep!

We got word that most sellers found this cover confusing and too retro. They wanted something that spoke to the author's previous book, ANATOMY OF A MISFIT. Which was interesting because I was hoping the colors here tied the line look of the two books together. (No, the two books are not related but we like to give each author a "look".)

Back to the drawing board.

The happiest of accidents can happen when you're cruising around in Photoshop. OK not accidents. . . inspirations. After a few days of playing, sorting and shifting a new cover for FALL OF BUTTERFLIES emerged.

Here each butterfly crushes the other, vying for a top spot. We've also moved away from illustration to photographic. 

What do you think? Do you like illustrated or photographic book covers better?

Let me know in the comments or hit me up @stinkysarahd I love to hear your thoughts! 

And look for FALL OF BUTTERFLIES in early May. 

January's sweet (and a bit sad) haul... (Bowie Alert)

This time last year I was freezing my hiney off in Chicago at the DAVID BOWIE IS... exhibit. Now, well now I'm trying to understand how anyone can deny the existence of climate change and crying as cha-cha-changes plays on repeat. (It's oddly warm, y'all *just kidding snow storm alert* and I still suffer from all the feels.)

Bowie's death was hard for me, as I know it was for anyone who ever had a freak bone in their body. I found it kind of comforting knowing I could (sorta) pay tribute to him and his influence with the release of SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN. The finished book landed on my desk last week. I was really, really happy to see that Aladdin Sane lightning bolt on the case—unwrap a copy and Watch That Man.

4c super gritty matte • one piece case with purple and black stamps

Gender roles. Breaking them / acknowledging that they're a bit different then we currently think of them. Anyway, go buy SYMPTOMS, It's really, really good. (Plus it's like, nice to touch and pet with it's gritty matte and silk screened art.)

Red Queen Series: An incomplete yet comprehensive visual list of awesomeness (so far)

We are really close to finishing up all the special things for Cruel Crown and Glass Sword. 

OH, THE ANTICIPATION!*

But! The novellas are available and the bind-up is almost here—so much beautiful watery blood. So with that, Happy Halloween!

Digital novella available now!

Digital novella available 01/2016

Printed bind-up available early 2016
4C over silver stock / overall matte • spot UV / embossed title

*Such a tease.

Glass Sword

YAY, it's here! It's here! Glass Sword can finally be shared, and I have to admit it's freaking beautiful.

4C over sliver foil—2 hits white • embossed crown & title.
Blue color over silver achieved by the wizards in the Production Department

The amazing artists Toby & Pete created this crown of glass swords out of...nothing. NOTHING! When we convinced ourselves to continue the crown theme we ended up slightly empty handed. Guess what? Not a whole lot of glass sword crowns out there! I think Toby & Pete did an amazing job solving our problem. It's so perfect for the series, just beautiful.

Not to be a tease, but there's so much more Red Queen stuff coming. I'm so freaking excited. Victoria Aveyard is not not only a class act, but one hell of a writer. I was type setting the ARE and landed on the last sentence. OMG—had to read the entire book, it had me hooked again.

Cover Reveal Week Day 2—The Shadow Queen

You.

Guys.

Ok so high concept fantasy books are super fun covers to work with. C.J. Redwine's newest book is an inspiration of Snow White and that poison apple needed to be legit.

Once we tackled the idea for a carved poison apple, there was literally no one better then Sean Freeman at Levine / Leavitt to execute this. Our email chains revolved around typography, water droplet placement, to where one could actually purchase an apple with a green leaf attached in the middle of winter where Sean lives . . . in London. (Spoiler alert, no where! Cue: digital leaf!)

Yes, that carved apple is actually carved. I don't know how the master of ceremonies did it. But it's awesome. I bet all will be revealed, yes? (oooo, foreshadowing!)

If you'd like to see more goodies about Shadow Queen, enter CJ's contest here for a chance to win an Advance copy.

The map inside will blow your mind. Oh, yes. There's a map. And it's magical.

What magical places inspire you? Tweet me at @stinkysarahd

Happy Reading!

Cover Reveal Week Day 1—Symptoms of Being Human

Today marks the first day of Cover Reveal week here at Harper! YES! Huzzah! Hooray!

Quite honestly Winter 2016 is going to be a Boss season for books. There a lot of awesome books (and covers to swoon over) coming up. Some are hotly anticipated sequels (#GlassSword, anyone?) and some are totally, unbelievably new—in every way— to YA.

When Symptoms of Being Human landed on my desk, I instantly knew I'd love it. For one, the story dealt with issues close to my own heart. For twos, it featured David Bowie. Bowie was my first and is my longest standing crush. Every single person who knew me in High School can back that up.  I mean, I made my partner fly with me to Chicago in January just to see David Bowie Is. Who else would fly to a colder place after New Years? Dance Magic, Dance.

Me, smiling in freezing admiration • Photo by the wonderful Joshua Ess 

But, back to Human. I won't say anything about the main character Riley because Riley does an excellent job speaking to what it means to be a gender-fluid teenager. Riley seems to find a lot of comfort in music when shit gets just a bit too real—something we can all identify with. Riley also seems to identify with Bowie. I think we've made a match.

After attacking Jeff Garvin's excellent manuscript in one full swoop, I felt as though Riley should be represented by the Thin White Duke. Hell, let's embody them both on the cover. So what, exactly, is cool enough to show Riley without giving it all away? Perhaps, a limited color palette and a rad hair cut would be just cool enough.

In an extra musical tip to the hat, we silk screen printed the entire jacket over at Gowanus Print Lab. The different levels in ink on the back cover and flap should help give this book a gig poster look. We will shoot these amazing pieces in house and digitize 'em—hopefully printing the cover on uncoated stock to give it a gritty paper feel.

Can't wait to read this nugget of awesome? Enter Jeff's contest here, for your chance to win an Advance copy. Even if you win, you'll want to buy this book. Unwrap the finished hardcover to reveal more Bowie inspired surprises. Also, you'll have yourself a sweet Gender Fluid / digitized-silk screen / Bowie inspired / paper flag. Hooray!

What music inspires you? Holler back at me on Twitter with your favorite musical inspirations at @stinkysarahd

Happy Reading!

Red Queen hits #1!

Woah! What a crazy Wednesday was had yesterday!

Yesterday I was a guest on EpicReads Tea Time. Well, it was filmed last week but it aired yesterday! I was a bit nervous about going on the show. But Margot and her awesome partners in Tea Time Crime (that's a thing, right?) were so fun to hang out with! I mean, yes it's work so it's not exactly scary but I am a nervous pervous. I was super surprised how relaxed the whole thing was, and we got to talk about Wednesday's real big news: Red Queen! Obviously we didn't know it at the time, but Red Queen is the #1 best selling YA book this week. Hooray!

Here's the Tea Time episode if you haven't watched it—and you should really go back in time to watch more Team Time videos! They're hysterical (and so informative!)

So it's super duper great news for debut author Victoria Aveyard and all her friends at HarperCollins. Congrats to #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Victoria Aveyard! There are also so many people that work on a book to help make it successful. Great job and high fives go out to her editors, publicists, sales team, marketing coordinators, artists and well, everyone!

Speaking of artists! I have a "behind the scene" video here. It's not a whole lot, but you can kinda see how we made this work. The photographer Michael Frost had a few different kinds of stage blood all set up—which honestly did get a bit gross. We tried various kinds and one by one layered them over the crown. This was of course only the first step—getting the right shots! So much more work for the cover came later, But, I'm so happy to have been a part of such a cool process—Red Queen is for sure one of my favorites.

So many books!

Let's just get started shall we?

Have you heard of this scientist who invented a test that can detect (with crazy accuracy) pancreatic cancer in its earliest stages?  I would try to explain this, but during my brief photoshoot with this scientist, I quickly understood I understood nothing. So I just copied this from his Wikipedia page:

Andraka cultured MIA PaCa cells, from a commercial pancreatic carcinoma cell line, which overexpress mesothelin, a biomarker[1] for ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers. The mesothelin was isolated, concentrated and quantified with ELISA.[2] After optimization with the Western Blot assay, the human mesothelin-specificantibodies were mixed with single-walled carbon nanotubes and used to coat strips of ordinary filter paper. This made the paper conductive. The optimal layering was determined using a scanning electron microscope. Cell media spiked with varying amounts of mesothelin were then tested against the paper biosensor and any change in the electrical potential of the sensor strip (due to the changing conductivity of the nanotubes) was measured, before and after each application.

Impressive, right? He figured that out when he was a Sophomore in High School. Are you serious? I'm not even going to get into what I was up to when I was Sophomore in High School. It was NOT winning Intel ISEF - smarty - pants - let's - change - the - world - Awards. If you don't know of Jack Andraka, watch this video where he wins that award. Truly I only met this man twice, we hung out for only one full day, but this video is 100% Jack Andraka. He's a knock out.

You've fallen in love, right? His book promises to be just a great. It's in book stores this March.

Photography by Mark Tucker • Overall matte / spot uv / emboss title

Back to us mortals. . . or not! This is Monsters! I present the very awesome Tween / Middle Grade novel, Monstrous. This was another ridiculously fun cover to work on. The amazingly talented Skottie Young keeps saying "yes" to my project proposals. I mean when you get to draw a character as sweet and fierce as our gal Kym here, why not, right?

Monstrous is available this February!

Art by Skottie Young / Lettering by David Coulson • overall matte / embossed title

And our newest list! These guys are the newer titles we all have to sit and wait patiently for.

I don't want to give anything away about Emmy & Oliver. I'll just say it's very good, has a surprising ending and it's unlike anything I've read in YA before. Oh, also I got to work with Matthew Allen who might be one of the nicest illustrators with the most California-y vibe ever.

Anyway, check this out in June.

Illustrations by Matt Allen • 4c gloss

And my first book with the imprint, Balzer + Bray. Blazer & Bray books are awesome. They can be edgy sometimes have social issues tied to them. They're real? I mean they are the kind of books a kid like me would have loved. I read all kids of books, obviously, but Finding Paris was another one that made me go "say WHA?!?" right until the end.

And I have to say the author, Joy Preble, is amazing! Not only in her writing and story development, but like she's nice y'all. When Barnes and Noble asked for an interview from her about Finding Paris, she talked about the cover. That's totally unnecessary! When it came out, I only sent it to my Mom because I was so embarrassed about how nice it was. My Mom in turn sent it to my Grandma. I should tell Joy Preble that she made my Grandma proud. Not that my Grandma wasn't already proud... but you get where I'm going.

So buy Finding Paris in April.

Photography thinkstock / lettering by me! • specs tk

a Red Queen

Whenever we have a cover reveal, I get nervous I'll spill the beans. It's a big secret and there's lots of anticipation and I'm always paranoid that somehow I'll have a cover lurking in the background of a photo. This actually happened not too long ago when a co-worker took a HILARIOUS picture of me at my desk, rolling out my back with a racquetball. We liked it because it looked like I had a back boob:

Me, My back boob, my embarrassment moments before said racquetball fell down my dress.

Anyway. In the back is the spec'ed comp of RED QUEEN along with the crown from the photo shoot. Thankfully it's nice and smudged and you can't really tell what's going on. But here in full regalia, and after the official reveal, our Red Queen.

4C over foil, mad hits of white, embossed crown, blood & title <3 it.

I'm not going to lie and pretend I don't absolutely adore this jacket. The full sales proof came in and I can't get enough of it. It's shiny and slick and beautiful. We printed a four color process over silver with various hits of opaque white. The silver crown bounces of the page, helped along by a sweet embossing plate. The blood runs in and out of those swirls and fleur-de-lis... ah that beautiful blood.

We had maybe too much fun on this shoot. The photographer, Michael Frost, got an ear full on blood consistency, drip lengths, and gore value from the Abracadabra costume shop on 19th street. (There is an actual "blood expert" at Abracadabra!) Finding fake blood that is beautiful proved to be an excellent challenge. I think we've managed to get that right balance of right and wrong here. And in truth, that crown is such a lovely shape, you almost forget what it's covered in—almost.

The story which is featured here, is wonderful. You should read it this winter. You can borrow the actual crown when you do—we cleaned off most of the blood... I think.

This week'a books!

Here's this weeks haul: Rebel and Free to Fall!

Nice. Happy Spring and weekend to me!

Fall Wrap UP

. . . and we are done! Here's the rest of the Fall 2014 books.

It'll be a while for my next batch I fear. Winter 2015 has proven to be rather sorted. I do enjoy a challenge though, so let's see what happens next.

Until then, some winged horses and space pirates. MIDDLE GRADE!

The Guardian Herd is supposed to be very, very cool. I haven't had the chance to read it yet. But the art for this cover is so stunning. I would die, just die if I were 12 again . . . ok currently dying. Rumor has it the ARE's are on their way down, hopefully it'll be a nice weekend read!

The Sales Conference proofs came in today and they are truly lovely. I was lucky enough to afford a 4C process over silver foil for the title (which is also sculpt emboss). Hopefully we'll be able to keep that 4C over silver going through the series. I'd love to see this in a cool, slate blue.

4C Glossy / title prints over silver foil + sculpt emboss

And my other favorite logo (self pat on the back) Jupiter Pirates #2. The color palette smacked me right in the face when I saw it. I have never ever, ever seen space so illuminated. I just squealed at the pinks and purples coming out of the jets. A wonderful gold logo really pulls this together. If it weren't for the amazing Tom Lintern, there is no way this could ever look as cool as this:

4C over silver foil / embossed title, debossed subtitle

Book day! Thunderhawk edition

Ms. Kelley Armstrong has a new series coming out, I was lucky enough to work on this packaging. I absolutely love how it turned out. It's so matte and velvety. This book looks delicious!

Our thunder hawk is real! On sale April 8!

Oh and if you like a book without its cover:

That's just reading sexy to me.

Course, I'm biased.

Believe it or not It's Fall 2014 (...and I'm walking on air)

Our first round of Fall 2014 book covers are available to share! There are still a few out there waiting for their big reveal but for now how about some graphic novels and a sweeping desert epic romance? Great!

First up, Mr. Neil Gaiman and Mr. P. Craig Russell are back at it again. This time it's a two volume set for THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. This book won the Newbery Medal in 2009 (Is that right?! Time is flying!) This is my first experience with graphic novels and I am learning a lot. While I'm lucky enough to have a real guru work on the interior set up, the cover and going over the printing components have been a lot of fun to hammer out.

Each chapter of these books has been illustrated by a different person. While the handlettering (yea, the whole book is done by hand!) remains constant, the art changes throughout and it's very, very rad. We're also hoping to print these bad boys with a lot of added perks. Everyone cross your fingers for printed end papers! It's a good thing working with a billion talented artists.

Until the books come out with all those extra cool bits, here are the covers!

Matte/Spot UV and some gold foil

Vol 2. more of the same: Matte/Spot UV and some gold foil

And if long, sweeping desert romance is more your style: FORBIDDEN by Kimberley Griffiths Little. I'm still working on the specs for this, but how cool with a four color + gold ink in this be? So cool, it'd be hot. (Get it!?)

Anybody need any Cleary?

Whoa! I came out of a meeting and found this pile at my desk:

Anybody need any Beverly Cleary books? Good to see all that work turned into something tangible. It's a rainbow of happy reading!

My big work trip to Maryland!

My best friend in the whole world, Ericka is from Maryland. When we were there we'd eat some crabs, go motorcycling through chicken farms, (OK this only happened once but it was so awesome I'd like to pretend it was a regular occurrence) and just get out of the city. I have fond memories of Maryland—specifically the Eastern Shore where she was from—so I was kinda psyched for my work trip.

Now I wasn't going to Maryland to ride motorcycles through chicken farms, and I was pretty sure I wasn't getting any crabs to eat either. I was going to take a three hour Amtrak ride to Baltimore then a one and a half hour drive to Phoenix Color to press check Panic in Hagerstown, Maryland. The trip took place in one day. Being that travel alone was 8+ hours, we packed in a whole lotta adventures. Here's the break down!

First up, because I'm a total nerd for all things machinery, let's explore the plant! And yes, it's exactly how you'd expect it to be. If I had better editing abilities I'd make this. And I'd commission music by They Might Be Giants, but you get the idea. Each time I have the pleasure of visiting a plant, or anywhere where people make actual things I think of Sesame Street and the 1980's. Maybe it's all those "buy American" commercials that were popular then...maybe those commercials were only shown in Michigan. Anyway, I'm transfixed by conveyor belts, cutting machines, the rollers on the printing presses, glitter machines, embossing plates—everything!

Two picture books were being collated, bound, and well I guess "put together" while I was there. One is currently the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book and the other was one of my childhood favorites. Behold! The creation of What the Fox Say? and Corduroy.*

*Over simplified and maybe in the wrong order.

But we did work on our book too! After the tour (and again apologies if that was out of order, and I know it's severely lacking in actual information, but still it's fun!) we tackled Panic, and its awesome use of Litho Foil. Now, I don't know how Litho Foil works. A few people have attempted to explain it to me but all I can hear (and see!) is: It makes things pretty. It's awesome. It's new. It's on.

Getting the color of the foil to match proved to be a challenge, a lot of odd trapping (areas where the foil and the ink aren't lining up) issues were apparent. I won't pretend to know how the wizards at Phoenix fixed the white halo issues that surrounded the type. Something I did in my file wasn't translating to printing language. But the left over silver film was pretty cool.

Litho foil for cover and spine

When I say it was a while in getting there, I'm not kidding. A lot of really hard work happens here to get everything just right—most of it before I get to the plant. A jacket would come off the press, people look at it for color and trapping, then discuss what isn't quite right. A whole lot of buttons are pushed. Phrases like "Let's up the cyan by 2%" or "increase the black plate by x!" are thrown around. Then pull another jacket. This happens a few times before all the images in our minds pop out exactly the way they are supposed to on paper. And before anyone freaks out, all materials are reused or recycled, this isn't wasted.

Rejected Panic's!

I'm in so much awe at the people who make this all happen. I only know the process until a jacket gets to the printer, after that it's a mystery. After I hand the files off to my production department, all this magical stuff happens and a few weeks later I get a book, you get a book, we all get books! But it's the awesome visions and talents of a lot people that take whatever I have on screen and transpose it into a perfect piece of tangible stuff. And I have to say, it looks mighty, mighty fine...

Panic's final jacket will be gritty matte, litho foil, and embossed.

Panic is available in stores and on line March 2014.

Christmas and bat poop.

One of the best things about working thru a holiday (or ok just really close to a holiday) is that you can catch up on all your work since everyone else is gone. I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow, and today I got a really nice treat! Not only do I get to finish up the 18 (EIGHTEEN!?!) Beverly Cleary books uninterrupted but I got a few books delivered from production, whee!

UNINVITED and GENIUS FILES #4 : FROM TEXAS WITH LOVE.  I think we've covered Uninvited so I won't pester anyone about it again. But GF#4 has quite a fun story....

I didn't start this series, but it sure is fun to work on now. Especially this book. Perhaps you noticed the subtitle, From Texas with Love. I used to live there! Heck I'm going tomorrow (see above paragraph for repetition, welcome.) Anyway, when the author found out I lived there via his wonderful editor, Andrew, he had a few questions. Our telephone conversation went something like this.

Dan Gutman: Sarah! Andrew tells me you used to live in Austin, is that true?

Me: Yup! I lived there for 5 years, I think you're including the bridge on Congress Ave. with all the bats flying out from under it? That will be a very cool cover!

DG: Yea, Coke and Pep will have to escape the bad men while being tied up under the bridge, right when the bats fly out. It should be very cool action.

Me [interrupting]: That happened to me once! Well, I wasn't tied up under the bridge but I was stuck in traffic on the bridge once right at sun set. At the time I was driving a 1984 Volvo the color of a Crayola green crayon. The AC didn't work so I had all the windows down when the bats flew out, it was terrifying! Why did I tell you the car was green and from 1984? Anyway, it was really cool.

DG: ....

Me [internally]: Why am I such a freaking spazz?

DG: Tell me something, could you smell their guano?

Me: Yes you could sir.

DG: I'm going to thank you in my book Sarah.

Me [internally]: Best conversation ever.

Flash forward a few months, and here we are! And oddly I am just realizing this cover is the exact same color as that car—it's insanely green. I guess I gave myself (and that car) a nod too. Well congrats to that...

Uninvited & GF #4: Gloss UV • title embossed & foil stamped

Enjoy your Christmas y'all!

Thanksgiving presents!

New finished books for the holiday season.

New Stuff: The Book of Love, Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, Lost on a Mountain in Maine!

New paperbacks: Genius Files, Pivot Point, Boundless!

To the future! Summer 2014.

In the words of Angela Chase, we had a time. 

This past summer was by far my favorite. It somehow just came together. I think I was outside almost every day. I ran, swam, rode my bike, climbed a few walls, river rafted, laughed, ate and danced in the rain at Celebrate Brooklyn each chance I got. I am lucky to have had such a summer. While it was hard to push it back inside, at work I'm already wrapping up Summer 2014. If these book covers have anything to say for the future, it's going to be another kick ass summer.

First up, Teen Fiction:

My first time working with Ms. Jody Lynn Anderson, I absolutely love these color combinations, I think they really invoke cool, creepy beautiful:

Matte finish with textured spot UV on title & boarder (by Sarah Jane Coleman)

And my second cover for Ms. Lauren Miller—The effect on this type was the happiest accident I've ever had in Photoshop. Adding in a 5th color will really help this leap off the printed page.

5 color job + matte finish with glossy spot UV

And of course, where would we be in the Republic of Texas without Wren and Callum?
Reboot 2, Rebel (I somehow keep getting away with graphic covers for this, and I love it!)

Glossy finish with matte spot UV + emboss

Ending in Middle Grade:

How are we already on Book 3 of the CASE FILE series? Doug Holgate is really bringing the fun and funk in this series. I can't love it enough: (plus you guys, an orange forest? Come on.)

Matte finish with glossy spot UV

There's a few more floaters out there but they aren't quite available to share yet. I got a awesome Neil Gaiman / Craig Russell project in the works... but that's going to be a while still.

---

So I guess it's on to Winter 2015—while it's too soon to tell what will happen, I've been wearing this crown around the office a lot. It's good to be inspired for work, yes? (That's foreshadowing y'all!)