I Lied. This Is the Real Cover.

Maybe you remember the Weeks and Days cover reveal post I did a couple months ago. Maybe you could tell I wasn’t super excited. (“Eh, voila,” anyone?) I’ll admit it now: I wasn’t.

I’ve been iffy about that cover for a long time. It was serviceable; it could’ve been worse–but those aren’t exactly ringing endorsements. I never really liked it. A few days after I got my last proof copy back from the printer, I realized that I hated it so much I was already fantasizing about re-releasing a new edition with a re-designed cover–and the first edition hadn’t even come out yet.

So: re-designed cover. Yay!

I snuck this in at the very last minute, and I haven’t actually seen a printed version yet. (Here’s hoping it doesn’t suck.)

It’s still not, by any means, a gorgeous cover. It’s not going to win any design awards. It’s very plain, and some people might even say it’s boring. But I also think it’s cleaner and more sophisticated, especially when you see it at full size.

One of the problems with the previous cover was that it looked too Dr. Seuss-ish–which is a little younger then the demographic the book is written for. The new version doesn’t quite scream “contemporary YA,” either, but at least it doesn’t obviously look like something else.

I’m a lot happier with this cover, and (because unless you’re already incredibly famous and can do whatever you want, presentation is really important) a lot happier now with the book overall. I no longer cringe every time I think of it.

My apologies to anyone who loved the old cover and is sad to see it go. If it’s any consolation, I’m keeping it as the ebook cover (I actually kind of like how it looks small, and I also think that digitally, a colored cover will display better than a white one) and it’ll probably linger on the website for a while, too. But I hope you’ll like this new, and definitely final, print cover, too.

Any thoughts? I’m really not changing it again, I promise–but I’ll keep input in mind for next time.