Erin Bowman On the Stunning Cover for Vengeance Road

I love talking to debut authors. Our experiences are so similar, yet so very different, that every one of us has a new story to share. Everyone says that the moment you get your cover it really hits you - you're an author. The cover is your story - and you - packaged for the world. So the process of the cover reveal can be slightly panic inducing. Does it fit your story? Is it what you hoped? Will it sell? With this in mind I put together the CRAP (Cover Reveal Anxiety Phase) Interview.

Today's guest is Erin Bowman, author of the TAKEN series, and the upcoming VENGEANCE ROAD. When not writing, Erin can often be found hiking, geeking out over good typography, and obsessing over all things Harry Potter. She drinks a lot of coffee, buys far too many books, and is not terribly skilled at writing about herself in the third person.

Did you have any pre-conceived notions about what you wanted your cover to look like?

Western movies and literature seem to have a very passionate but narrow audience, so while I knew I wanted the VENGEANCE ROAD cover to immediately feel like 1877 Arizona, I also wanted something fresh and relevant to today’s YA landscape. No author wants a cover so fitting of their genre that it scares off readers who are hesitant to pick up that kind of story.

How far in advance from your pub date did you start talking covers with your house?

We started discussing cover art in the fall of 2014. So maybe about a year before pub.

Did you have any input on your cover?

I had tons of input, and I am so, so grateful because this isn’t always the case in publishing. Early on, I was asked what I might like to see on the cover, which resulted in big email exchanges and a few shared pinterest boards between myself and my editor. Once the design team at HMH came up with some preliminary concepts, I was allowed to weigh in on those. I think I saw about ten different directions for the cover, but I loved a highly typographic one best, which included some western-y illustrations framing the title. I told my editor it was hands-down my favorite, and luckily they were feeling the same way internally.

After HMH hired an illustrator to finalize the artwork, I got to weigh in again. There were a few different color palette options to choose between (I again stated my favorite, and it again aligned with HMH’s top pick), and I also requested a couple minor tweaks to the pistols to make sure they were historically accurate and better matched the model my main character carries in the book.

How was your cover revealed to you?

Via email, and I might have dropped an F-bomb when I saw it. In a good way. Because SERIOUSLY. This is the most gorgeous cover I have ever seen and I still can’t believe its the face of my book.

Was there an official "cover reveal" date for your art?

Yup. I first shared the cover over on Publishing Crawl.

How far in advance of the reveal date were you aware of what your cover would look like?

A few months, I think? Or maybe just a couple weeks…  I had a baby recently and the last four months have been a giant blur.

Was it hard to keep it to yourself before the official release?

Yes. Soooo hard. I wanted to share it immediately, because SHINY.

What surprised you most about the process?

How unique my cover ended up being. I can honestly say that I don’t think there is a single cover like it on YA shelves right now.

Any advice to other debut authors about how to handle cover art anxiety?

Whether you are involved every step of the way or end up as more of a spectator in the process (I’ve been both, and have loved my covers in either instance), remember that your publisher is the expert. They know what the market looks like and what gets people to pick up a book. And ultimately, that’s what you want. You can’t get sales if no one picks the thing up!

I’ve found that being flexible, open-minded, and polite is the best route to take when approaching cover designs. (It’s also good publishing advise in general). If for some reason you don’t dig your cover, call/email your agent before you shoot off a massive list of change requests to your editor. Your agent can help you formulate a plan to address your concerns.

How To Do A School Visit Without Psychologically Damaging Yourself

The thing about being an author is that most of us are a little off in one way or another. Maybe we talk too loud, or too quietly. Maybe our hair isn't quite right, or even if we do get it perfect then you can bet our mascara is screwed up -- and that's probably because the only tube we own expired five years ago but we're a frugal people and it's still half full. And this is us as adults. Functioning ones who carry full time jobs on top of writing.

Imagine us as teens, and you get an even more awkward picture. A lot of us were the girl in the library, the quiet guy who was nice but it wasn't quite enough to get him out of the Friend Zone. Or we made awkward jokes that most people didn't get, and inundated the few close friends we had with enough pop culture references until at least one person laughed (that last line might be a little too close to home).

So when you take that person - one who has acquired a least a little more self-confidence through the process of getting published and achieving their life goal - and you put them in front of a room full of high schoolers... they should be fine, right? I mean, they made it. They're cool now.

Except in our own heads, we're none of those things.

We're still the kid who didn't have the right clothes because we couldn't be bothered to care (then or now), or whose chin was always breaking out because we rest our face in our hands when we're thinking - and we think a lot.

This is why a lot of authors have a knee-jerk aversion reaction to doing school visits. It's like pulling us off the ladder that we've tried so hard to climb, asking us to willingly put ourselves back into high school and - even worse - be the center of attention.

A lot of the advice I've seen about doing school visits has to do with reminding yourself that you're an adult now. That you can walk through the halls without having to worry about fitting in or if you look perfect. And before I continue - don't get me wrong, I never look perfect. That takes a team of professionals.

But I don't walk into high schools and remind myself I'm an adult (except for the one I work at, because, you know, continuing employment is good). When I do a school visit I wear jeans and a t-shirt, I look around and wonder what it's like to be a student there. I peg the cool kids in the hallway, the quiet ones and the angry ones, the resentful ones that don't want to be here - and they definitely don't want to have a goddamn assembly with an adult talking down to them.

And just like with writing I know that there's a sliver of exactly who they are inside of me. Every character I write - even the heinous ones that you despise - have a little bit of me in them. And if I take that and apply it to the real world that means there are 400 seats in the auditorium filled by versions of me - the quiet, the angry, the confident, the lovestruck, the bitter, the anxious and the self-assured.

And I know exactly how to talk to myself. I do it all the time.

I'm a writer.

Thursday Thoughts

Thoughts lately...

1) Anytime the internet challenges me to prove I'm not a robot it causes some anxiety. I don't think I am, but what if that's how I find out?

2) I'm pretty sure my center of balance is located somewhere in my bra.

3) The muscles in my eye have been jumping a lot lately. It makes me wonder if I'm shorting out.