All About Covers + a Sneak Peek - Songbird Cafe Girls Cover

Songbird Cafe_Mollie final cover

The first book in my new series, The Songbird Cafe Girls: Mollie Cinnamon is Not a Cupcake is out in March next year. Here's a sneak peek of the cover:

The book is about Mollie Cinnamon, who's 12 going on 13. While her tv-presenter mum films a new travel show, Mollie has to stay with her great-granny on a tiny island called Little Bird. Mollie is bored, bored, bored until she starts to make new friends in the Songbird Cafe. But disaster strikes and the Songbird is threatened with closure. Can Mollie and her new friends save the cafe?

Readers often ask how a cover is designed. And do writers have much say in the process? What happens in Walker (all publishers work slightly differently) is this: ideas for a possible cover are sent to me and my agent by the designer and we have a look at the various suggestions and feed back our thoughts. Booksellers are also asked for their opinion, people in the other departments in Walker (editorial, sales and marketing etc), and also the target market (girls age 9+). Then the designer takes all this on board and produces a cover.

The designer who worked on the Mollie Cinnamon is Not a Cupcake cover is called Maria and she's wonderful. It took her a long time to find the right girl for the cover but she's just perfect.

Maria and my editor, Annalie (who has a book out in January called Captive) also commissioned a map for the book. I love maps in books so I'm over the moon about the map of Little Bird, the island where my series is set.

The Map of Little Bird

The Map of Little Bird

Book covers are so important. You've heard the expression 'Never judge a book by its cover'? Readers do exactly that. Judge a book by the cover. The cover has to say so much about a novel: the age group (for children's books), the genre - is it an action/adventure book, a horror novel, or it is about friendship and family (like Mollie Cinnamon) - and it also has to set the tone for the book. It's a very hard thing to get right. But I think Maria has captured my story perfectly.

Do YOU have a favourite book cover? I'd love to know.

Yours in books,

Sarah XXX

This post first appeared on the Girls Heart Books website.

Getting Published - Irish Publishers Tell All

I was at an excellent event at the Dublin Book Festival today and I took some notes just for you. They are particularly relevant if you are writing for children or teenagers. As you may know, it's my area and I love sharing news about the children's book world, especially good news. And there was lots of good news at this event. 

Grainne Clear from Little Island Books

To be accurate I was at the first 1/2 of the event (I had to talk at my own event after that) - Meet the Publishers and Agents with Grainne Clear from Little Island Books, Sarah Davis-Goff from Tramp Press, Nicki Howard from Gill and Macmillan (soon to be just Gill) and Peter O'Connell (ex Liberties and now book pr). Sadly I missed the second part - with the agents.

Grainne Clear gave an excellent talk about the children's book world and Little Island Books in particular. She reads chapter 1 of a submission (and yes, they take unsolicited) and then the start of the next few chapters - to see how the story progresses. If she likes what she reads, she asks to see the whole book.

90% of their sales are printed books (not e books - most young children up to age 12 are not ebook readers).

Her job is not to give you feedback on an early draft - so don't send first drafts or ideas. She wants to see finished books which have been worked on.

She likes honesty and personality in a cover letter.

Nicki Howard, Gill and Macmillan

Nicki explained that Gill and Macmillan publish Irish interest books, mainly non fiction but are NOW ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR CHILDREN'S NON FICTION AND FICTION. This is great news for children's writers. They also accept unsolicited manuscripts.

She said 'publishing adds value to the space between the writer and the reader'.

Sarah Davis-Goff from Tramp Press

Sarah Davis-Goff from Tramp Press is looking for 'stonkingly brilliant fiction', including genre fiction and YA. She also gave a thumbs up to unsolicited manuscripts.

She hates submission letters that begin 'Dear Sir' as Tramp Press is run by two women! Little Island Books also.

All three women said that your cover letter is your calling card and to work on it and make it great.

Interesting facts:

Tramp Books - they would consider a debut novel a success if it sold 2k copies in a year

Gill and Macmillan - would look for at least 5k sales for a title over a year (but some of their books, like the Neven Maguire cook books would sell up to 10k a year, and The Pope's Children by David McWilliams sold 100k)

Little Island - a debut novel would be deemed successful if it sold 1.5k to 2k over a year to 18 months - Grainne mentioned that they are looking for longevity in a title and said award winning novels have a good track record for them in the long term.

Thanks to Grainne, Sarah and Nicki for all the useful information. And great to hear Gill and Macmillan are now looking for children's fiction.

Yours in books,

Sarah XXX

PS I met a young man who is writing for teenagers - I asked him what he liked to read, he said he wasn't a big reader. NEVER SAY THIS TO ANYONE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN GETTING PUBLISHED. Poor man, think I gave him a bit of an earful.

PPS If you are serious about getting published, www.writing.ie is a super website - do check it out.