Behind the Scenes: Cover Art discussions for Three Kisses, One Midnight
Three Kisses: Cover Art
Our publisher has started working on the cover art for Three Kisses, One Midnight, so I thought it'd be fun to give you a behind-the-scenes peek at what the early stages of that process looks like!
One of the most important things about cover art is that it should give a potential reader an immediate sense of what kind of story to expect. So our editor asked Roshani, Sandhya, and me if we had any preferences for the book cover. Did we envision light colors or dark? Font-focused or illustrated or photography-based? And what kind of vibe did we want the cover to give off?
Three Kisses, One Midnight is Halloween and fall magic and warm pumpkin spice. It's three best friends and hopes and misunderstandings. There's a love potion (that may or may not work), an opulent Midnight Gala, and a grumpy but loveable black cat. How do you sum that all up in a single cover?
Rosh, Sandhya, and I got together on our group text to brainstorm. We also started a Google doc, where we could drop in images of other book covers that might help our publisher's Art Department understand what Three Kisses, One Midnight "feels" like.
After that, we circled back with our agent and our editor to decide on an overall direction. I can't tell you yet what we landed on, but I can say that we are all super excited about it!
Finally, our editor asked if there were any specific aspects of the story that should be represented on the cover. So Rosh, Sandhya, and I put together a list of the most important visual parts of the book: stuff like the larger-than-life settings, the details of our characters' Halloween costumes, and of course, that crotchety black cat. (I really hope he makes it onto the cover!)
Now our work is in the hands of the Art Department, and we'll probably see a preliminary draft in the next month or two.
In the meantime, our publisher is printing a few early, bound manuscripts of Three Kisses, One Midnight, so look out for a giveaway soon!
Happy Autumn!
~evelyn
P.S. You might have noticed that my newsletters are no longer monthly. I decided that my mundane musings belong on Instagram (lol, yes, I'm rejoining the world of social media), so feel free to follow me there if you want to keep up with my writing, etc. more often. I'll save the bigger announcements and insider looks for this newsletter--maybe quarterly or maybe just when something very interesting happens!
Book Updates:
Three Kisses, One Midnight (YA) by me, Roshani Chokshi & Sandhya Menon
coming Fall 2022 - our editor has signed off on our manuscript! Next up: copyediting.
Works-in-Progress:
Project Sun (MG) - big revision finished. Went from 47,000 words to 65,000!
Project RJ (adult) - currently revising.
Project Whimsy (adult) - on the back burner for now.
READER Q&A
Q: How were you inspired to write The Crown's Game and how did it get published?
-Amelie Z.
A: To be honest, I almost quit writing before I wrote The Crown's Game. I'd received rejections on all eight of my previous manuscripts, and I had serious self-doubts about whether I was meant to be published.
But a few of my dear friends, including Stacey Lee (author of The Downstairs Girl) told me I wasn't allowed to quit. So I decided to give it one last hurrah and write the story I wanted to write, not what I thought publishers wanted or what the mainstream market would like. Just a story for me.
That story was a historical fantasy based in an esoteric period of Imperial Russia that few people know about (the Romanovs before Anastasia). I chose it because I'd majored in Russian literature and history in college, and the early 19th century was always my favorite time period to study. I didn't know if anyone else would want to read about it, though!
I also wanted big, beautiful magic that was dangerous but laced with kindness. I wanted flawed characters with bold dreams. And I wanted an epic, impossible love story.
I wrote the book the way I wanted to, not the way I thought other people would want it written. And lo and behold, that was the secret to getting published: pouring my entire heart and soul onto the pages, and giving what was uniquely me.
Nine manuscripts and many years into writing, I finally got a book deal.
So that's the advice I have for any aspiring writers out there. Don't try to write the book you think others want. Write the book that you want, and don't hold back.
About me:
Evelyn Skye is the New York Times bestselling author of The Crown's Game and other books. She is an alumna of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, and her novels have been spotlighted by Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Goodreads, Apple Books, and IndieNext, among others.
Evelyn was once offered a job by the C.I.A. (she turned it down), and if you challenge her to a pizza-eating contest, she guarantees she'll win. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Tom, and their daughter.
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