Jacket Reveal (+ Advice on How To Get a Jacket You Love + Baby's First Preorder Link)

I have a book jacket! And why Pinterest isn't just for weddings and kitchen renovations.

I have a book jacket! (And a preorder link; please go ahead and do what you will.) You can read more about how my jacket came to be and about the book design process more generally speaking in this interview with jacket designer Emily Mahon on LitHub. I also include advice on what authors can do to get a jacket they’ll want to share, much of it cribbed from TAKE IT FROM ME, a book you can now preorder.

I had a very easy jacket design experience, in large part because Pantheon was so attentive to my initial input, which included this Pinterest board. Are you an author about to enter jacket design season? Please steal my approach and feel encouraged to share your own jacket thoughts and wishes (and mood board) with your publisher before they start designing. While you can’t art direct your own jacket (nor should you), and while I can’t promise they’ll follow your every directive, being proactively but respectively involved can prevent you from sending panicked, all-caps emails to your agent when you receive your first jacket design concepts.

I quite liked all my initial mockups, so much so I had to take a poll of colleagues and friends to narrow it down. Here is what Pantheon initially sent:

Everyone agreed this one was bold, but I ultimately felt it was too masculine and business-y for my vibe, and by that I mean penile.

I immediately loved this one and I really love Tiffany blue (once a bow girl, always a bow girl), but thought the color might be giving “etiquette guide” and feel fusty. We asked if we could see it in other colors.

This one also felt close, but was less visually compelling than the others (and how much easier my life would be if my name were actually spelled like that).

Here are the jackets mocked-up in colors we ultimately rejected.

I suggested we try “bottle green.” This is what I mean when I say “authors shouldn’t be art directors.” I find this far less legible than the cream (or as my editor calls it, “beige,” a word I refuse to apply to my own jacket).

This one was the runner-up and the internal polling at the Gernert Company was pretty evenly split between the red and the cream. I have no regrets!

AMA about the jacket design process & feel free to vote for your fave. Inshallah there will be a paperback.

PS: Should my next tattoo be that pen? Y/N/Maybe?