ALLEGIANT Cover!

So, how are you today?

I myself am doing quite well.

Why, you ask?

Well, this:

LOOK at it. Isn't it gorgeous?

Joel Tippie at HarperCollins is the creative force behind this cover, and he is so talented and always works so hard to get everything just right. (Also a shout out to Amy Ryan and Barb Fitzsimmons, also at Harper-- you guys are awesome!) I have been so fortunate to get three covers that I love. I couldn't be happier with this one and I can't wait to see all three books lined up on my shelf!

A short note about that symbol: no, it is not a faction symbol. It is, however, a symbol that appears in the book. I can't really share more than that-- you'll have to read it for yourself! (I can't wait for that either!)

Also, yes that is O'Hare at the bottom. No, I can't say more. AHH! Too many secrets.

If you missed my Today show interview with Ryan Seacrest in which we reveal the cover for the first time, you can watch it here: http://www.today.com/video/today/51828575

I am a lucky girl, to have so many amazing opportunities and great people supporting me. So much to be grateful for today.

Free Four! Official Info and Cover

(I know I posted about this yesterday, but I have more fun and official things to say today.)

Before the release of Insurgent, I wrote a scene from Divergent from Four's perspective to be released via facebook if we reached 35,000 pre-orders, as a kind of thank you for my very dedicated and spectacular readers. In a lovely and exciting turn of events, we did reach 35,000 pre-orders! And Four was free! But only on the Internet.

(By the way, the scene in question is "the knife-throwing scene." A scene from Tris's initiation training.)

I started to get a lot of requests for a more permanent version of the scene that people could keep on their computers or read on their assorted e-reading devices, and my publisher decided it would be a good idea to make the scene available as an e-booklet.

So right now, you can pre-order the scene from all the usual sources-- there are links to all the retailers on this page, right at the top-- for 99 cents. And it will be yours! Permanently! On August 7th!

Okay, so that's the Official Info. But also, there is a really awesome cover. I even thought about printing it out and putting it on my wall. Or wallpapering my office with it. As usual, a huge shout out to the designers at Harper for being fan-freaking-tastic.

Anyway, here it is:

YESSSS.

Seriously, I am in love.

That is all.

P.S. As someone who did not own an e-reader until fairly recently, I can vouch for the fact that you can in fact buy e-books and still read them on your computer, you just have to find the right format and the right program to view them in. If anyone has advice about this, feel free to share it in the comments.

P.P.S. That said, no, it won't be in paper form, because it's so short. 

New UK Cover! And General Thoughts on Covers

HarperCollins UK designed a new Divergent cover!

For those of you wondering why there's a new cover, this is the B format paperback edition, to be published in February 2012. This is the equivalent of when books are published first in hardcover and then in paperback in the States-- sometimes covers change between hardcover and paperback here (or rather, there, because I'm in Romania), and sometimes covers change between trade paperback and B format paperback in the UK.

There are a lot of reasons this happens. As far as I know, it's to make a book more appealing to readers who haven't picked it up yet. For example, you might have been one of the people who saw the first cover in a bookstore and went all grabbyhands on it. The person browsing books next to you might have looked right past it, but she might go all grabbyhands on the new one.

I think of covers and flap copy (the book summary on the inside flap or the back cover) as either windows or walls. A cover that is a window allows you to "see inside" the book before you ever open it-- it gives you a sense of the tone of the book, and what the story might be like. A cover that is a wall prevents you from seeing the book as it is, and keeps you from picking it up, or from seeing it as it really is inside. Ideally, you want all your covers to be windows, right? But the problem is, this is a highly subjective thing. A cover might be a window to one reader and a wall to another. So a cover re-design helps to resolve that problem.

So, yes: Divergent is a book that is accurately represented by a bold fiery symbol and a skyline and a gathering storm. But it is also about a girl who is somewhat isolated, in character if not literally, who marks herself with the figurative representation of one of her worst fears (the birds). This design emphasizes something different about the story, which I loved seeing.

Other things I like: you can't see the girl's face, so you still get to imagine her, yet she looks sort of scrappy like Tris is. And the birds! Of course I love the birds. And the color is eye-catching.

So, UKers: I hope you like it!

INSURGENT Cover!

You may have seen this already, since it was up on Entertainment Weekly's website yesterday (thanks, EW!), but I figured it would be good to post here, too. And this one is larger, for those of you who want to make it their desktop background *coughMEcough*:

All I can say is: Joel, Amy, and Barb...you've done it again.

My reactions were:

1. Ooh.

2. THE TREE IS AWESOME.

3. Look, a train!

And then, when I was capable of coherent thought, I was able to appreciate the color of the clouds (which are that greenish color you get right before a storm hits-- appropriate, I think), and the fact that the tree is sort of mid-decay, with the leaves swirling away from it, and also, that little line above my name that is so very nice to see.

A few questions answered:

1. Is that tree thing the symbol of Amity? Yes.

2. What happens in the book? You'll find out soon enough.

3. When does it come out? May, 2012.

4. Can I get an ARC? You can request one, but not from me, because I'm not the one who decides where the ARCs go. I will provide you with an e-mail address to send your request to as soon as I have it. (I will put it in the FAQs and at the bottom of this post.)

5. Do you like the cover? Are you kidding? YES. And I am excited for you to read what will be behind it.

Thanks to those of you who have shared in my cover!excitement already!

Bookanistas: Sci-Fi/Dystopian Cover Love

Recently I found myself with the great fortune of being invited to participate in the Bookanistas, a group of YA authors who write about books on a weekly basis. And to this invitation I said YES PLEASE.

Recently I have also found myself paying attention to book covers more than usual. This happens often in life-- you're thinking about getting a haircut, so you pay attention to everyone's hair; you're looking at houses, so you start knocking on other people's floorboards to see if the wood floors are real or fake (that might just be me). Anyway, because I was getting so jittery about posting my cover, I started paying special attention to book covers, which is why I'm going to be gushing about some covers this week.

More specifically, I will be gushing about sci-fi/dystopian book covers, because A. I love this genre, B. I write this genre, and C. I am SO pleased that sci-fi/dystopian is really getting a foothold right now, because it's what I've always liked to read and I find it extremely interesting. So, some gorgeous sci-fi/dystopian covers of upcoming books, for your viewing pleasure.

1. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis (January 11th, 2011)

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

(Must. Read.)

When I first got a look at this cover, it looked like this:

And though there were many covers to look at, at the time, my eye sort of drifted toward it independently of my brain and then fixated on it, because not only is it very different from a lot of the YA covers you see out there, it is also beautiful. While I was perusing Beth Revis's blog the other day, though, I saw that she revealed an updated version that looks like this:


Now, if you had asked me if the first cover could be improved in any way, I probably wouldn't have come up with anything, but after seeing the new version, I keep having to wipe drool off my keyboard. I think replacing the white space with, uh, space space was a great call, because it looks richer now, and I like that the tagline is now in a more prominent place, because I don't think I really noticed it in the first version.

Also, now you get to see what Kiersten White says about the book, which is always a good thing, because Kiersten is awesome. So, in a few words, this cover: different, beautiful, eye-catching. I was initially attracted to the book by its cover (I read the summary a little later), which is the point, yes? SUCCESS.

2. POSSESSION by Elana Johnson (June 2011)

In a world where thinkers control the population and rules aren't meant to be broken, one fifteen-year-old girl is tired of belonging to someone else.



I generally gravitate toward simplicity, which is why I loved the cover of MATCHED so much, and the same is true of POSSESSION. That whole "butterfly fighting its way out" thing is just saturated with meaning, particularly given the concept of the book. It's such a surprising and intriguing image, so I'm glad the rest of the cover allows you to just stare at it and consider it, rather than getting distracted by anything else around it. This cover also has the desired effect of making me want to read the book even more than I did when I just knew the tagline. So: gorgeous and thought-provoking. So excited.

3. DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver (February 1st, 2011)

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

The ARC of this book had a different cover, which had a more melancholy feel to it, and I liked that one, but not as much as I like this. First of all, it's simpler, and I feel like I am staring into it to discover something about the girl's image. And once I've ogled at it for a few seconds, I can finally piece together her expression, which is interesting in and of itself-- she's got her eyes closed, but her mouth is slightly open, and not in that "I've fallen asleep and I may drool" way. To me that expression looks a little like she's steadying herself as she waits for impending doom, which is absolutely perfect for this book.

It's lovely, just like the writing inside. That Lauren Oliver has some serious talent-- as do her cover designers.

4. XVI by Julia Karr (January 6th, 2011)

In the year 2150, being a girl isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when your sixteenth (read sex-teenth) birthday is fast approaching. That in itself would be enough to make anyone more than a little nuts, what with the tattoo and all – but Nina Oberon’s life has taken a definite turn for the worse. Her mother is brutally stabbed and left for dead. Before dying, she entrusts a secret book to Nina, telling her to deliver it to Nina's father. But, first Nina has to find him; since for fifteen years he's been officially dead. Complications arise when she rescues Sal, a mysterious, and ultra hot guy. He seems to like Nina, but also seems to know more about her father than he’s letting on. Then there’s that murderous ex-government agent who’s stalking her, and just happens to be her little sister’s dad.



This cover and the Delirium one have a similar vibe, but I put them next to each other on purpose-- because I love the idea that two covers could have a similar design concept but come across in completely different and equally amazing ways. First of all, while I was staring into the Delirium cover, the XVI cover is staring at me. I love that the girl holds your gaze-- and therefore, your attention-- and also that she's a little blurry, so the letters are more prominent. Actually, it seems like the letters are stamped across her like a giant label, which, if you read the first chapter on Julia Karr's website (and you SO SHOULD), seems accurate. The black, the size of the title, it's all working for me.

This is also an example of a seriously good tagline. Innocence expires at sixteen. It's just soaked with disturbing, intriguing dystopian goodness.

So, now that I have overwhelmed you with awesomeness (and with my intense cover analysis), this is what the other Bookanistas are up to this week...

Beth Revis and Jamie Harrington are spreading some cover love for POSSESSION.

Christine Fonseca is raving over THE REPLACEMENT.

Elana Johnson has a special Friday edition, where she helps launch the book, EMOTIONAL INTENSITY IN GIFTED STUDENTS.

Carolina Valdez Miller is crying over JOHN BELUSHI IS DEAD.

Lisa and Laura Roecker are crazy over MATCHED.

Shelli Johannes-Wells is tempting us with a DESIRES sneak peek!

Shannon Messenger is showing some serious MG love with MG SPOTLIGHT.

DIVERGENT Cover and Summary

So. About this surprise.

I've talked a lot about writing DIVERGENT, and about writing generally, but I haven't discussed the book itself much. So the surprise is: that ends here. Now.

With the cover and the summary.

Ready? (Because I am!)

Here we go!

(Well hello there, gorgeous. Want to go out sometime? Like, say, May 2011?)

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her.


So, there you have it: DIVERGENT. In stores May 2011.

And when I saw the cover for the first time, I made this face:

("Oooooooh!")

And then I did this little chair dance:

(Yes, that's mid-fist-pump.)

And then I couldn't stop smiling:


I think every author is a little afraid of seeing his/her cover for the first time, because there's always the possibility that it doesn't meet their expectations, whatever those expectations are. What I wanted was for the cover to represent the book, not just technically, but in tone.

And I have to say: Barb, Amy, and Joel (the team responsible for that stunning design)-- you got it. You got it just right. I can't imagine anything better. So, if you're reading: thank you!

Life, my friends, is good.

(Can you guys believe my name is on a book cover right now? Because I certainly can't!)

(Why yes, that IS the Chicago skyline...with a marsh in front of it instead of a lake. Intriiiigued?)

Side Note: just so you know, that summary isn't the jacket copy (the text that will be on the actual book jacket). The jacket copy is really awesome but I can't very well post all the goodies at once, can I? Anyway: I will share that at a later date!