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Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 6 YA Changes to Consider

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New catalog season on Edelweiss always makes me excited. It’s not just about the new books; it’s also about those books that end up getting makeovers from their hardback looks into something fresh in paperback.

I’ve rounded up six recovered YA titles hitting shelves in the next few months that have caught my eye. Some of these are winners and some…well, they should have stuck with the original idea. Perhaps most interesting is something I’ll note at the end of the post. There’s definitely a new trend emerging in YA cover design, and while I think I get the point of it, I’m not sure it’s entirely successful at what it’s attempting to do.

I’d love to hear what you think about these make overs, too. Which ones are great and which ones leave you feeling a little cold? Sound off in the comments and feel free to share any recent cover changes you’ve spotted that have stood out to you. As always, the hardcover image is on the left, with the paperback iteration on the right.

I picked up Jennifer Longo’s Six Feet Over It last year and talked about it a little bit in a post last fall about the microtrend of the death business in YA fiction. This book runs on the lower end of YA in terms of its voice and appeal, as the main character is a young high schooler, as opposed to the older ones that have become more abundant.

When I first saw the hardcover of this book a couple of years ago, it seemed to me like the model looked photoshopped. I spent a long time looking at it, and then I asked multiple people to explain to me what seemed “off” about this image. Everyone said the same thing: her neck looks really, really long. While people who are tall can have very long necks, the way she’s posed in the picture doesn’t show her height, so she looks strange if she’s not been digitally edited. The placement of the book’s title on the headstone is really creative, but the overall feel of the cover itself is dark and not particularly appealing. I like the use of the blurb on this one, as it’s from Jennifer Holm, suggesting that this is a suitable read for the younger teen set.

The paperback makeover for this one doesn’t really do much for me on a personal level, as I’m becoming really over the illustrated cover trend. However, I think this cover fits the book a million times better. It’s not as dark or foreboding, and it has a tiny bit of tongue-in-cheek humor to it, with the way that the girl is on a headstone that has a cartoon-y skull on it. It’s really appealing and inviting in the way that the original look simply isn’t, and more, it speaks to the bit of dark humor in the book itself. The tag line here actually works better than the blurb does on the hard cover, as it says essentially the same thing to readers, just in different words and a different approach. I do find it interesting that Longo is introduced as the author of Up To This Pointe beneath her name, since that book will publish after Six Feet Over It came out.

For me, the paperback is a winner here, even though it’s not my personal taste. It will hit shelves January 12.

Ellen Hopkins was always a go-to for me for readers seeking a good, fast-paced, edgy, dark, realistic YA book at the library. And for a long time, her packaging was brilliant — the books were shorter and fatter than most, and they were easily recognizable on the shelf.

But something happened and all of her work got a redesign to it, making the trim more in line with standard YA trade paperbacks, rather than they had been. The redesign meant a new marketing look, but somewhere in there, it just got really lost.

I’m not sure how I feel about the hardcover for Rumble, as it tries to blend the original Hopkins cover looks with the new one, and I’m not sure it entirely succeeds. But compared to the paperback, which has absolutely zero connection to Hopkins branding….it’s worlds better. The paperback looks really cheap and uninspired, and since it stands apart from all of her other books, I’m not sure it’s going to draw in long-time fans nor engage potential new readers. In many ways, the paperback looks more middle grade than it does upper YA, which is actually a bit of a problem, since her books aren’t aimed at that audience in any capacity.

Who is that stick figure? Why is the font for the title so thin? How come we don’t have the signature look of Hopkins name on the redesign? This looks so flimsy and forgettable in a way that Hopkins and her work simply are not. I have a hard time imagining a teen — or any reader, really! — looking at this cover and thinking it’ll be an intense, dark, gritty read. It looks sad.

Part of me hopes this isn’t a real paperback redesign and it’s instead a mistake that got out. It’d be a real shame to see these books get this sort of treatment because it weakens the work and absolutely weakens the appeal of the way these books look. Cover art and design is really important, especially when it comes to reader’s advisory and connecting the right book to the right reader. This cover is doing this book zero favors.

The hardcover is the winner here by leaps and bounds, even though it’s not spectacular itself. The paperback hits shelves February 2 and I really hope they reconsider this look.

Rachel DeWoskin’s Blind cover is doing something that differs in the redesign than all of the rest of the covers in this batch of makeovers: it adds a model to it. The original hardcover is pretty stark — it’s black, with a title that drives the cover, even though the title itself isn’t full. It’s an unfilled set of letters. Above it are the braille designations and the simple tag line “What do you see when your world goes dark?” You know immediately what the book is about, and the tag line further amplifies that this is a story about a blind character.

The redesigned cover brings a model into the picture. Notice on all of the other cover redesigns in this post, that the human models have been removed. The redesigns are moving more towards using an image-driven, people-less look or they’re using illustrations to render an individual. Not so in this case: but it also really works here, as this particular redesign tells us even more about the story than the original hardcover. We know it’s a girl who is blind, and we know that it might have something to do with fireworks, based on the font used for the title (and spoiler, it’s a firework that causes her to lose her sight). The tag line remains the same, but I think here it’s even more effective.

While both of these are solid covers that fit the story, I suspect that the paperback might have a tiny bit more appeal. Or, at least, gives readers even more insight into what the book’s about. The paperback edition of Blind will hit shelves April 5.

Maybe it’s because I read a little bit in an echo chamber, but wasn’t Skink No Surrender supposed to be a really huge book a couple of years ago? I can’t remember seeing a whole lot about it, other than it’s a title by Hiassen and he’s popular without additional significant hype.

This redesign is really fascinating to me because it definitely feels like the intended audience for this book is being shifted. The hardcover features handcuffs — so you know there’s a crime story here — and you get a tag line that reads “A missing girl, a hungry gator, only one way out…” The title font is what drives the image, and the white-on-red makes it really pop. This cover isn’t spectacular, but it stands out quite a bit from other YA titles since it’s so simple.

The paperback edition of Skink is so different and feels like it’s trying to reach an adult, rather than YA, readership. Or perhaps this cover is really aimed at those adults who read YA and are familiar with Hiassen. Look at the pull quote — rather than make use of the tag line, this one pulls out a review from Time, which calls Hiassen a master of Florida crime fiction. Is that something teenagers care about at all? Adults, on the other hand, will know what that means.

But the thing that’s most interesting to me in the redesign is how the title looks. Where the hardcover tells you the title is Skink No Surrender, the paperback redesign looks as though the title is Skink with the “No Surrender” being almost a tag line within the life raft. This particular redesign looks in line with his adult novels, while the original hardcover looks in line with his middle grade novels.

There’s not one that does it better here. Both elicit about the same reaction from me, but I think that’s because they seem to be serving different readerships. You can snag the paperback December 1.

The redesign of Kate Hattemer’s The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy might be my favorite of the bunch, which is saying quite a bit since I don’t dislike the original look, either. I think that the hardcover is pretty appealing, especially as it has two teen boys featured on the cover in a way that makes them look like your average (art school) boys. The font drives the cover and I think the choices used in mixing the fonts really works. Likewise, the green on yellow color scheme is memorable to me, since I can’t say I see it frequently in YA. Maybe by some eyes it might look a little dated, but I don’t see it.

The paperback, though, I love. I love everything that it says — this is a book about art kids. But it’s a book about art kids that’s not necessarily traditional and that might be quite funny. I get that from the scissors cutting the string there, along with the mustache drawn on the figure’s face. I will say I’m not super keen on the title font treatment, as that thin wispy look just feels weak. And interestingly, there’s been an added tag line to the redesign, which reads “can four best friends, a manikin, and a heroic gerbil save Selwyn?” I find that particular tag line intriguing because what does a heroic gerbil have to do with this?

You can grab the paperback edition, which I think edges out the look of the hardcover, on March 8.

Finally, I don’t want to talk too much about the redesign of Charlie Price’s Dead Girl Moon aside from noting that this is another interesting example of new covers moving away from having anything resembling a real human model on the cover. Both covers convey the mystery here without much problem, though their color schemes and their execution of design differ.

Also interesting to me is that there’s been a pretty sizable chunk of time between the hardcover’s initial release — October 30, 2012 — and when the paperback will hit shelves — October 20, 2015. Generally, though not always, paperbacks tend to hit shelves about a year after their hardcovers come out. This can change depending upon a number of things, including a book’s popularity. That’s why books like Fangirl and The Fault in Our Stars had a good chunk of time between their hardcover edition and paperback. While I had a copy of Dead Girl Moon when it originally came out, I’m curious about the story here. Did it sell really well? Or, as I suspect the case may be, is the market right now a little bit stronger for these types of stories, so the holdup was to make sure it’d hit at the right time? That’s a question that may never be answered.

Both covers are fine, but again, the removal of actual people and models in this batch of redesigns really strikes me as noteworthy.

Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 5 Changes To Consider

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How about another round of books getting new looks in their paperback editions? I’ve been letting these pile up in a draft post and I’m ready to talk about a handful of them now; I’ll talk about some more soon since I’ve got a ton.

Let’s take a look at five of them this time — some of which are great makeovers and some which aren’t maybe as solid as their initial look in hardcover. Which do you think does it better? Have you seen other recent changes you’d love to talk about?

Ally Condie’s Atlantia is getting a pretty dramatic makeover in paperback. Where it looks like an adult science fiction title in its hardcover edition on the left, the change in paperback looks a lot more like a generic YA novel geared toward teen readers on the right. The paperback tells the readers almost nothing — it could be a book in any genre, since it’s nothing more than a big face. The tag line, which is repeated from the hardcover, doesn’t give much insight, either.

While I think there’s maybe more teen appeal on the paperback, I think that’s at the expense of being distinct and memorable. Also sort of interesting is that the author name seems to have shrunk in the new edition. Where it took up two lines and was more prominent than the title on the hardback, it’s gotten smaller on the paperback and the title has sized up.

The hardcover is a stronger image on this one and wins for me. The paperback edition will be available October 20.

The original look for Una LaMarche’s Like No Other followed in the tradition that began with Eleanor and Park — an illustration depicting two teens who clearly have some sort of romantic relationship with one another. It’s a cover trend I’ve never been fond of, since I think illustrated covers like this tend to not only tell you too much as a reader, but more, they actually begin blending together after a while (imagine someone asking for the book that’s got an image of a couple that’s illustrated — you could probably name a pile of them that all came out around the same time). I also think they tend to look a little young. Which isn’t to say I hate all illustrated covers, but rather, I dislike the ones that look like they’re modeling a trend. More, this one bothers me since it’s a story with people of color at the center and we don’t get to see them face first. We just get their backs.
The paperback for this one is a winner, though. While I’m not wild about the models’ faces being cut off, the fact we have their faces facing the readers is noteworthy. These are two people of color, and seeing that on a book, especially with the implication that they’re in some sort of relationship in the story and aren’t the same race, is important. This is a book you face out on a shelf because you know that readers are not only looking for these books, but readers are going to instantly identify with these faces. 
However, because we can’t skip a beat with following in the footsteps of trends, I find the pull quote on the paperback unnecessarily distracting. Any comps to The Fault in our Stars at this point feel like they’re a real reach, and while I get it’s an EW review, I think the fact that it’s called “one of the best” since a book published in 2012 really undermines so many other books at the expense of the one it’s featured on. I much prefer the blurb as featured on the hardcover. 
Though frankly, you could ditch the quote all together on the paperback and use just the title and image to sell the hell out of it. This is a book that has a nice look that will appeal to teen AND adult readers easily.
Like No Other will be available in paperback on July 14. 

I’ve got complicated feelings on the cover remake of Delilah S. Dawson’s Servants of the Storm, and it’s not because I dislike either of the covers. I think they’re both pretty great for depicting a horror story that follows in Gothic traditions. They have similar color schemes; the difference is primarily that they feature a different central image. The hardcover uses a girl who looks creepy, while the paperback makes use of a sign, a storm, and what is probably a not-too-happy carnival in the background. 
The paperback’s biggest difference in terms of the feel it gives off is through the tagline: “When we die, we belong to her.” Imagine that on the hardcover. THAT, I think, would offer up a different feel with that cover and be more effective. On the paperback, who does the “her” refer to? There’s not a person on the cover, and thus, there’s not a lot of intrigue in terms of who we’re supposed to be fearing. If the tagline were pulled off the paperback, it would be more effective, as there’s a lot of feeling in the image alone that isn’t necessarily contradicted by the tagline. 
I’m not sure one of these covers is better than the other. Both are actually pretty intriguing and would appeal to the same type of reader. 
Servants of the Storm hit shelves in paperback on June 2. 
The redesign for Sara Polsky’s This is How I Find Her might be one of the most dramatic in terms of the feeling it gives off that I have seen in a long time. The hardcover on the left has, since I initially saw it, made me immediately think of an Amish story. I don’t think that’s the intent, as this is a story about a girl dealing with her mother’s bipolar disorder and suicide attempts. The hardcover, aside from that, does give off a more somber feel than its redesigned paperback on the right. 
I’m having a hard time understanding the paperback. This looks like a lighthearted beach read, complete with a repeat of the tagline from the hardcover but in a context that makes it sound like a summer love, as opposed to dealing with a family challenge. More, I’m not sure I understand the font choice (I dislike the font here, period) and the decision to make the “I”s and “How” and “Her” pink, leaving the rest black. Is there something symbolic in it? Am I supposed to read another word in there? I am confused, rather than intrigued. 
Neither of these covers tells me anything about the story and neither is particularly appealing or memorable to me, except for how they don’t work. The hardcover might appeal more to older readers, whereas the paperback looks like it might reach younger readers more readily…even though it doesn’t exactly get to the heart of the story. 
The paperback edition of This is How I Find Her hit shelves on May 1. 

I saved the biggest change to talk about last because there’s so much to talk about with this one. The book on the left is Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleaders, a standalone novel that came out from Geoff Herbach last year. I love this cover for so many reasons; it’s bright, it’s different, and the can is representative of the story and actually plays a role in it. This cover is memorable and stands out on a shelf.

The title, though. While it’s accurate — this is a story about Gabe, a fat boy, and it’s about the things that happen to him in a turf war at school — it’s also sort of a turn-off. It generalizes the characters and creates a strange stereotyping of characters in high school. Since there’s not a lot to go off in terms of the story’s feel from the cover, even though it’s a good one, that title becomes the anchor for readers in terms of what the book will be about. And the title isn’t telling them a whole lot (or maybe it’s telling them everything and that’s not great, either).

The paperback makeover for this book means not only a facelift, but it received a title change, too. Rather than being Fat Boy vs. The Cheerleaders in paperback, it became Gabe Johnson Takes Over, which is a title that is so much better, more engaging, and less reliant upon stereotypes, which really are not at the heart of the story itself. The cover itself is fun, looking like a defaced school notebook, along with ephemera that is relevant to the story. The pop can hasn’t disappeared, though it’s taken a backseat. In many ways, this is a much more generic cover, but it’s not generic in the way you’d forget about it, like a large image of a girl’s face is. Where I usually don’t love when a review or blurb from a review is used on a cover, it works here. Part of why it works is that this book really got lost in the shuffle and because the title changed, this signals to readers that it’s a book that’s earned recognition before. It’s clearly not brand new or fighting for a spot. It’s instead working toward reaching its audience better.

What I like about this makeover, too, is that the cover doesn’t hide that it had a different original title. This is a useful tool for not just readers who may have picked up the book before, but it’s extremely useful for those who will wonder whether it’s a book they’ve purchased for a collection before.

While I’m sad that the cover isn’t the pop can anymore, I think the makeover, both the title and the image itself, does a huge service for this book. The paperback of Gabe Johnson Takes Over is available now.

Old Books, New Titles: Cynthia Voigt’s (Tales of the) Kingdom Series

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One of my most favorite books from when I was a child is On Fortune’s Wheel by Cynthia Voigt, the second book in a loosely-connected non-magical fantasy series called the Kingdom. The other books in the series are Jackaroo, Wings of a Falcon, and Elske. While they’re all fantastic, On Fortune’s Wheel occupies a special place in my heart – it was the first I read and it fundamentally changed my idea of what a book could be. It was set in a made-up land, but it didn’t have any magic. It dealt with slavery in a way that seemed very frank to me at the time. I learned what an amanuensis was and how to pronounce it. It made me see personal identity in new ways (I read certain sections of the book centering around this idea so often I have them committed to memory). The protagonist had sex (the fade-to-black kind, but it was there). And it ended with the girl deciding what was best for her, what she really wanted, and then doing it. And she was happy. I was in middle school when I read it, and I think these books are just right for that age group.

Voigt has always garnered much (deserved) recognition for the Tillerman cycle (Homecoming won a National Book Honor, Dicey’s Song the Newbery Medal, and A Solitary Blue a Newbery Honor), and those books tend to eclipse a lot of her other work. I always wished that her fantasy books were discussed a bit more, which is why I was so pleased to see that Atheneum is re-releasing the Kingdom books with a new look and new titles in May of this year.

With the re-release, the titles have been homogenized and simplified greatly. Jackaroo is now The Tale of Gwyn, On Fortune’s Wheel is The Tale of Birle, Wings of a Falcon is The Tale of Oriel, and Elske is The Tale of Elske. The entire series has been renamed The Tales of the Kingdom to match. I’m of two minds about the title changes. On the one hand, I like that they match each other, that it’s immediately apparent they belong in the same series. I also like the legend-like feel they give to the stories. This works especially well for Jackaroo, which is about a Robin Hood type of figure and the legends told about him. It also works well for the series as a whole: the books are loosely connected not by re-use of characters, but by stories – legends – passed down about these characters generations later.

On the other hand, the titles are a bit boring. Voigt’s fantasy character names aren’t terribly original (they’re kind of cliche, actually, but I forgive her) and so I don’t think they feature all that well in the titles. I think the original titles are more interesting and – with the exception of Elske – better reflect the meaning of the stories themselves.

I actually really loved some of the older covers for the books. At one point, they featured Vermeer paintings, which I found terribly romantic. Vermeer is one of my favorite painters and a big reason is because he is forever connected to these books in my mind. Here are three of the Vermeer covers (I don’t think Wings of a Falcon ever had one):

The 2015 releases aren’t the first time the covers have been redesigned. Simon Pulse published some paperbacks in 2003 that still look pretty modern to me, in that a lot of current fantasy novels feature an object central to the story on the cover. Again, Wings of a Falcon seems to have been left out.

I like the new designs, pictured at the top of this post, though I think they’re pretty generic (much like the titles). They skew a little more middle-grade for me, probably because they’re illustrated. On Edelweiss these books are listed as YA – grades 7 and up. When I read them, the books were located in the J section (though to be fair, YA sections weren’t really around much then), and I’d say the writing is more of a middle school YA than a high school YA. The cover for the Tale of Elske is the most interesting by far. Frustratingly, Edelweiss doesn’t have the cover for the Tale of Birle up yet. Don’t they realize that’s the one I’m most interested in?

Have you read these books? What’s your take on the new titles and new designs?

Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 6+ Changes To Consider

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It’s a new year, and with that comes another round of cover makeovers, many of which are books that came out in hardcover last year. I’ve pulled together just a few of the changes I’ve seen popping up and I’ve saved a pile more for future posts.

Some of these redesigns in paperback are winners and some of them don’t seem to change much about the hardcover. In some instances, maybe the hardcover is all together better. One of the more interesting trends I’ve noticed is where the hardcover was unique — either a design or completely font-driven — and the paperback makeover turns into a stock photo of a girl. It makes the paperbacks blend together, as it’s hard to sometimes differentiate one girl from another on those covers, whereas a cover that has the title written across it largely or features some other memorable image just stands out more on the shelf and stands out more in my head.

Let’s dig in. As usual, the original hardcovers are on the left and their paperback incarnations are on the right.

Tease by Amanda Maciel came out in hardcover last spring, and the design of this one was really noteworthy. It looks like a gray cover with the title in cursive across it, but in person, it’s extremely shiny. Both the silver-y background and the pink-red title text pop in the treatment of the hardcover design.

The paperback, out April 28, goes in a completely different direction. The title is still the focal point of the cover, though rather than pop like it does on the hardcover, it’s more subdued in white. It’s also in a completely different — and I think less effective — font. Where the hardcover didn’t include the blurb on the front cover (they were on the back), the paperback makes use of the Hopkins blurb at the top left corner. I’m not really inspired by the stock image used here at all. It looks like a million other side-profile girl faces on YA covers. It’s hard for me to tell whether the new look is meant to draw a different audience or not. I can’t figure out whether it’s appealing to teen readers more or less, as the girl herself looks older than a teenager.

The hardcover of Tease is the better cover here, hands down. Neither cover necessarily hints at what’s going on inside the book, though.

Elizabeth Scott’s Heartbeat cover went through a few design tweaks before the final hardcover version appeared.  Though it’s a cover of a couple kissing, the way the title is treated makes this one pretty memorable. The design is eye-catching and in thinking about how this book looks face-out on a shelf, it’s really appealing. The hardcover plays into the idea there’s a romance in the book — and there is — even though the romance isn’t the driving force of the novel.

And perhaps that’s the reason for the paperback redesign, due out March 1. The makeover on this one goes to a stock image, and rather than play up the romance, this one plays up the grief aspect of the story. The girl is off-center, and she’s looking off in the distance. Her body language is one that’s sad or longing, and that fits with the story itself. Unlike the hardcover, which did everything in all capital letters, the paperback redesign went with putting everything in all lowercase letters. There’s a certain understatement to that and aesthetically, it’s really appealing. It’s quieter. That said, the paperback is almost forgettable — it’s a girl on the cover with nothing super distinguishing or remarkable about her. It doesn’t feel fresh or new.

This one is tough to call a better cover on in terms of what it tries to tell the reader about the story, but in terms of straight eye-catchiness and memorability the hardcover does it better.

Scholastic has been rolling out redesigned covers for Siobhan Vivian’s backlist, and her first YA novel, A Little Friendly Advice, will be seeing the paperback makeover treatment on shelves March 31.

The hardcover for this one is straightforward and simple. This is a book about friendship and a group of girl friends, and Ruby, the main character, receives a polaroid camera for her 16th birthday. That gift translates onto the hardcover, as each of the girls are depicted in a polaroid image. There’s a nice sense of each personality in the four photos, even though they’re all stock photos. More, all of the girls look like they’re teenagers.

The paperback maintains the feel of the hardcover, but it makes it even fresher. There are still four girls, and they all look quite similar to the original girls. But what really stands out — and what Scholastic’s done with the other redesigns of Vivian’s covers — is that these girls look like they’re 16. Where the girls on the hardcover do look like teens, there’s zero question about the ages of the girls on the paperback. They aren’t wearing styles that are dated, either, meaning that this cover has a long shelf life ahead of it, despite being a cover with people on it. I love, too, that the main character is looking right at the reader.

While I think both covers for A Little Friendly Advice are good, the paperback is a really nice, fresh update of the original. For readers who didn’t pick this one up the first time around, this will be especially appealing and exciting.

For those who haven’t seen the other redesigns, here are the updated looks for Not That Kind of Girl and Same Difference.

I always thought the hardcover of Jon Skovron’s Man Made Boy was pretty great. I love the big Frankenstein hand, and more, I love that it’s holding the title of the book itself. The font for the title is made up of circuitry, and I think the heart in place of an “O” was a clever touch. There’s no need to talk boy book or girl book, but this book cover definitely has a masculine feel to it, and I think with that feel, there’s appeal to guy readers especially. This cover, faced out, should go. Even with a heart on it. The heart is malfunctioning anyway.

But the paperback for Man Made Boy, due out July 7, takes what the hardcover does well and amps it up even more.  In a lot of ways, this cover feels powerful because it’s so understated. Where the hardcover is a bit loud, but packed with fun detail, the paperback is one cohesive image. More, though, I love how this cover undermines gender. We get that in the hardcover with the heart, but in the paperback, we get it because the image replicates doll pieces (do those push-out dolls still exist today?). Interestingly, the paperback ditches the big John Corey Whaley blurb in honor of a tag line, and it’s much more effective and useful to me as a reader — “A boy among monsters, a monster among people — a hero above all.” I know what this story is going to be about more with that than I do praise for the story.

Also interesting: the author is introduced to readers as the author of This Broken Wondrous World, which is the sequel to Man Made Boy and also features a similar cover treatment . . . but publishes nearly a month after the paperback is released. Maybe that’s a placeholder, but if it isn’t, that seems weird to be advertising an author by a book not yet published.

Both of these covers are pretty good, but because the sequel is going with a similar look to the paperback, maybe the paperback is a winner for cohesiveness.

Here’s a much-needed, very well-done, and memorable cover change for 21 Proms, an older anthology of short stories by 21 authors. The original cover on the left isn’t bad at all. It gets right to the point of the book: these are stories about prom. The authors on the cover include all contributors, rather than just the biggest, most well-known names (at the time — this book published in 2007). It’s a stock image, and the tag line fits for the collection.

The redesign, which came out December 31, does in a bit of a different direction but without sacrificing the feel of the original or getting away from the purpose of the anthology. The cover, which is an illustration, highlights the stories within the anthology. You don’t just see heterosexual couples represented here — there are multiple gay couples, as well as a lesbian couple, as well as individuals who are without a partner, as well as groups. There’s a nice range of representation on the cover, which is fitting with the content itself. One interesting and noteworthy change, though, is that because of how the illustration takes up so much of the cover, the author listing has been pared down greatly to just the biggest, most recognizable names in YA. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s an interesting change nonetheless.

The paperback for 21 Proms is a winner here. It’s fresh, it’s contemporary, and it’ll give life to this anthology for another generation of teen readers and prom story enthusiasts.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the cover for Lucy Christopher’s The Killing Woods when it came out last year. It’s not a bad cover by any means, but it’s kind of forgettable amid a ton of YA book covers featuring a shadowy person running through the woods. The tag line was kind of interesting, especially because it got to what was really going on in the story itself. This wasn’t so much a book about woods which were deadly, but rather, about the deadly games played in the woods.

The paperback redesign, which came out December 31, changes the cover quite a bit, while still maintaining a sense of foreboding to it. We’ve got the woods in the background, but rather than being blue, they’ve been made into a deep red color. And rather than feature a haunting moon, there’s a bird on a branch — keeping with the fact birds are a hot cover feature, this isn’t too surprising, even though it doesn’t play a role in the story. What the redesign does that I love, though, is the title font. If anything, the new font is what gives this cover the sense of fear to it. I’m an even bigger fan of the typerwriter font for Christopher’s name.

While neither cover knocks it out of the park, I think the paperback is a little more my taste. In terms of audience appeal, this is a tough one. The hardcover mimics a lot of adult thrillers in how it looks, which could be a draw for teen and adult readers. The paperback is quieter and more “literary,” which almost makes it feel like it’s reaching for more adult readers, rather than teen readers.

I’m less interested in talking about the paperback redesign for Miranda Kenneally’s Breathe, Annie, Breathe than I am about the fact this is the fourth incarnation of this book’s cover. The hardcover, on the left, came about after two previous designs were nixed after being revealed. Here’s what the two original-but-ditched hardcover designs:

After seeing so many designs of this one, my mind is muddled with which is the real one and which isn’t the real one. I wonder if that’s part of what drove the decision to choose yet another design for the paperback? If anything, though, the final paperback look fits with the look that the rest of the very loose “Hundred Oaks” series has going for it, with romance being what the driving image force is. If it hadn’t been redesigned, it would have been the only book that was just a girl on the cover.

Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: Backlist YA Covers To Consider

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We talk a lot about cover makeovers when it comes to new books, and recently, I talked about a slew of books that had their titles changed when they were rereleased. But after spending a little time with recent publisher catalogs, I noticed a pile of older YA titles — those which aren’t front list but have been out for quite a few years — being rereleased with new paperback editions. Some of these are for anniversary editions and some are being redone in conjunction with a new release by the same author, often as a way to garner attention for the older title for when readers get hooked on the new book.

Some of these redesigns are winners and some of them aren’t as great. While the designs tend to mimic trends going on in the moment, it’s always interesting to see which of the older designs managed to become somewhat iconic in reader minds and to conjecture whether the same can be said about the newer designs. If we’ve read a book in the past, do we tend to prefer that cover? Will a new cover bring new readers who haven’t otherwise discovered the book before? 
All descriptions are from WorldCat. As always, I’d love to hear what covers are speaking to you and which ones were better left in their older versions. All of these are single titles being repackaged, except for one, which is a trilogy. In some cases, this isn’t the book’s first redesign, so I’ve tried to grab the original hardcover and original paperback design. 

On the left is the original hardcover design for Gail Giles’s Shattering Glass and on the right is the original redesigned paperback. They maintain a lot of similar elements. It’s just the perspective and focus changes a bit. In the hardcover, the boy’s face is hard to make out behind the glass. In the paperback, the shattered glass is focused around his eye and the rest of his face can be made out. The design for the title and author name differ quite a bit, too.
Out January 6, 2015 is the new paperback design of Shattering Glass. This cover goes in an entirely new direction, and it’s a positive one. There’s no longer a face nor a pane of glass. Instead, we have broken glasses. It showcases the violence within the book, and the fact there’s blood on the cover is enough reason to pause. How often do we see that? How often do we see a book with such a violent cover written by a woman? This cover is reminiscent of Winger and that’s not a bad thing. 
My only issue with the new cover is that the alternate coloring for “Shattering” isn’t extremely clear. It took me a long time to pull out that the red says “Hate,” and maybe that’s because it’s an uneven spacing between the letters — I kept reading it as “Hatte,” rather than “Hate.” I almost think the impact would be greater if that weren’t how they chose to color the title. 

I always thought the cover for John C. Ford’s The Morgue and Me was pretty good. It tells you everything you need to know about the book: it’s a murder mystery. But the new paperback on the right, out February 19, 2015, is such a winner. It’s creepier than the original, but it’s creepier in a way that has tremendous appeal to fans of murder mysteries. Where I think the original cover is a little young, the redesign has more appeal to a wider range of readers. I’m a big fan of how creepy toe-tags are on book covers, and the redesign still managed to get the money into the image (you can see it just below the “E” in “Morgue.” The fact this is void of most color is what makes it most eye-catching, too, and it sets the tone for the book. 

Jandy Nelson has a new book out this month, and so it’s not really a surprise to see the cover of her first book getting a redesign. Above are the original hardcover design on the left and the original paperback redesign on the right. I’m not a particularly huge fan of either cover, though they both fit the tone of The Sky is Everywhere and both definitely give off the “literary YA” vibe. Both also do a pretty solid job of making clear this book is meant to have crossover appeal to teen and adult readers, perhaps more so in the hardcover edition than the paperback. I think it’s a little bit of a stronger, more iconic cover, as well. The paperback falls into the trend many paperbacks at the time had: a girl who is on the cover, and in this case, she’s lying down (asleep probably more than dead in this instance). 
Penguin’s catalog keeps trying to tell me that the newly redesigned paperback, as seen above, came out in 2011, but I know that’s not the case. You can see it as available for purchase on retail sites, too, though on Amazon, when you look at the back cover of the “view” feature, it shows the original paperback redesign image. And the kicker for knowing this isn’t an older redesign? It notes that Nelson is the author of I’ll Give You The Sun, meaning that this book is either just out or won’t be out until her sophomore title comes out. That also tells you why the redesign: they’re banking on I’ll Give You The Sun to be the reason people would want to pick up The Sky is Everywhere, which now looks a heck of a lot like the second book in terms of design. 
The new paperback look is neither here nor there for me. It’s pretty enough and clearly, it’s angled toward literary readers and being put in a position to capture crossover readership. While I think it’s also going for an iconic look to it, it looks too much like I’ll Give You The Sun to be really memorable for me. It’s nice, but it’s not particularly special. 
Polly Shulman’s Enthusiasm has been a staple selection for “clean reads”/younger YA but the cover hasn’t always done it a whole lot of favors. On the left is the original hardcover and on the right, the original paperback redesign, which didn’t change a whole lot from the original, except to superimpose the image atop a well-known Jane Austen cover. The hardcover always felt a little too enthusiastic to me in terms of color choices, though that’s toned down in the paperback. The jumping girl though, I’ve never quite understood. I do appreciate she’s not wearing heels and instead has gym shoes. She’s rebellious. Note the Stephenie Meyer blurb beneath the girl on the paperback — that was an especially big deal when the book published in 2007.

Like The Sky is Everywhere‘s new paperback, I can find no information about the new paperback for Enthusiasm. It appears to be available now. This cover is a refreshing change from the originals, though I am curious about the fact there’s now a boy in the foreground and the girl has been relegated to the mirror in the background. The design of the mirror, as well as the wallpaper, really do get at some of the classic influences of Austen that fit the novel. More interesting, the blurb for this book is no longer the one with Stephenie Meyer’s name attached. It’s been changed to a Time Magazine blurb — in many ways, that’s a smart change. Not because Meyer isn’t still important, but because Meyer’s influence on today’s teens, as opposed to the teens who may have been compelled to read this in 2007, 2008, 2009, is definitely different. This redesign is a winner. 

The original hardcover design for Chris Lynch’s Inexcusable was fairly risque when it came out 10 years ago. The bra on the cover! While it was certainly eye-catching, I do wonder how that design choice impacted the readership. Would boys pick up a book with a bra on the cover? I’m not entirely convinced. The paperback redesign of the book, on the right, easily has more appeal for a wider audience. There’s the football field under the lights. There’s the half a face of a girl, her mouth covered by the title, which in effect silences her. Laurie Halse Anderson’s blurb is a big boon on the cover, too: the design feels a little like Speak and that only further gives insight into what the book is about. The hardcover, on the other hand, is less effective to that point. 
On January 13, 2015, the tenth anniversary edition of Lynch’s Inexcusable will be published with another new cover. This one is exceptionally eye-catching and powerful. Design-wise, it’s great. But I don’t love it for this book. Although the title tells you that what happens isn’t excusable, the bed with the rumpled sheets almost makes this look too romantic. The tone feels off and at a disconnect with the title, and I think it might be a bit of a hard sell to teen readers (especially boys, for the same reason noted with the original hardcover). I think were this an adult novel, it would work much better than it does as a teen novel. I’m a much bigger fan of the original paperback look. 

Here’s what the first two books in Margaret Peterson Haddix’s “Palace of Lies” series look like. These are definitely on the younger end of the YA range, if not considered outright middle grade books. The covers remind me quite a bit of Meg Cabot, and that’s not a bad thing. I think there’s some good appeal for these titles with fans of Cabot’s The Princess Diaries.
There’s a third book coming to the series April 7, 2015 titled Palace of Lies, and with it, all of the books in the series are getting a redesign. They’ll all be available on the same day.

These are gorgeous, well-designed covers that will appeal to the same group of readers who loved the series initially. That’s not a bad thing. But what makes these covers even more special is that they are much more timeless than the originals, which look a bit dated design-wise because they used models on them, rather than illustrations. The colors are fresh and memorable. If I were buying books for my library collection, I’d order the entire redesigned set and retire the older covers. 

I can’t track down the exact timeline on the cover evolution of Let It Snow, the holiday short story anthology featuring John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, so here’s a look at the three cover designs it’s hard. All three have been pretty straightforward in what the book is about. These are holiday short stories. The book features three heavy hitters in YA. I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the designs since they all get right to it, and I think they’re all pretty good. They’re all the kind of images that work and will work for a long time.

But there’s a redesign coming September 30 of this year. And you know what this redesign does that none of the other covers did? It gets to the romance angle of these holiday short stories. It’s definitely a pretty cover, and clearly, there’s some love going on here. But to me, it’s less of a long-lasting cover image than any of the other three, and I wonder about the ages of those models (teenagers? I have a hard time buying that). I suspect part of why this book gets redesigned like it does is because it does feature such big names in YA, so the new looks get it to new readers who may not know about it in the same way they know about the authors’ other works. More, in this case, I suspect the fact that there’s a new anthology of holiday short stories written by New York Times Bestsellers and edited by Stephanie Perkins, out in early October, helped fuel the redesign (and focus on romance).

I remember when the redesign for E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks came out, the paperback was such a disappointment to me. I love the hardcover. It embodies the story so well, and it’s got something iconic to it. The paperback, on the other hand, features a girl who looks far too young to be Frankie. The entire design of it, including the school in the background and the way that the title is rendered on top of a piece of old, torn paper, feels mismatched. 
Recently — and, as far as I can tell, available now — there was another paperback redesign of Frankie. This one is better than the original paperback, but it’s still not as iconic as the original hardcover. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, though, and I’m not sure it tells me anything about the book nor about how feminist it is nor about how awesome Frankie is as a character. Sure, those things aren’t evident in the original hardcover, either, but this redesign looks like so many other books that I’m not sure it does anything special or new. In fact, Frankie, if that’s her on the left, is wearing pretty nice clothes and toting a nice purse for someone who is who she is in the story. Or maybe Frankie is the one on the right? If that’s the case, I can be into that a little more. 
But I want to know: what happened to the dog emblem?