Slated: Getting it Covered

by Teri Terry

It has been a year with a lot to smile about: the last twelve months have seen an agent, and not just any agent but Caroline Sheldon; a publishing deal for Slated with Megan Larkin and Orchard Books; and finally: a long-awaited moment. An actual book cover!!
Read on, and there just might be a chance to read Slated before the 3rd May publication date...

One of the most exciting moments on the road to getting my book on the shelves:

Seeing the final cover for the first time!!!!

Ta-da!!

Isn't it gorgeous?

OK, it has been appearing on the internet here and there for a little while, but this is my official unveiling. And, for the first time anywhere, you can see the back cover, too:

Seeing the final cover was one of those wooo-hooo moments that made it feel more real.

This book is really and truly happening. Isn't it?

Of course, I didn't have that much to do with the general awesomeness of the cover.

I might be unusual in this, but I can honestly say that until the cover was raised by my editor, I wasn't thinking about it. Yes, I was doing that whole picturing-my-book-on-the-shelf thing every time I went past a bookstore, but how it looked was curiously blank in this fantasy. I didn't have a pre-conceived idea what it should or shouldn't look like. I mean, I was pretty sure it shouldn't be pink and fluffy, but apart from that? Nope.

As it turns out this is a good way to enter the process.

This is how it happened. My editor called one day and asked if I had any ideas about the cover. Then she briefed the designer, the very talented Thy Bui.

To the left is the first cover I saw: the one everyone liked the best. Especially those eyes. The whole thing looked a bit Celia Rees, and everyone was excited.

Now that I had something concrete to look at...while I loved it, I wasn't sure it conveyed the futuristic, psychological thriller that Slated is. I thought it needed something I called the 'Freaky Factor' - the weird and different - for this dystopian tale. I came up with crazy ideas which were wisely ignored; they sent me more covers to look at to aid discussion.

This was when I started to fully appreciate the amount of hard work designers like Thy do. They sent me another three covers - all completely different designs, different faces. I later learned these were just some of the original designs Thy came up with. There was another I liked: a different girl, in profile, with an interesting slate type effect background. The original face was still preferred by all of us, but they came up with the idea of changing the first cover to include that Slating effect: brilliant!

The next version, to the right, was the first attempt at this synthesis. I loved it.

Cue panic: the Australian photographer could not be contacted. Every means, even Twitter, were attempted. With deadlines tight, Thy created yet another cover: a similar idea, different face and execution. It was gorgeous, and I was torn: I loved them both.

Then the photographer was found, and there were two covers in the running. Other factors were considered: the availability of other photos for the next book was also important. I kept changing my mind which I loved the most.

In the end - you can see the original face was the one chosen. I felt some regret at letting the other one go, yet over time, I'm sure the right decision was reached. The other cover was gorgeous, and very pretty. In the end this one as developed into the final version was a much better choice: far darker, more arresting. A better representative of the story.

And I must admit, I like the idea that both model and photographer are Australian - since I am, too (I'm sort of a Canadian/Aussie hybrid with a few other things thrown in).

Slated - complete with gorgeous cover - is published on 3rd of May! But there is a way you can read it before then...minus the gorgeous cover, but with a pretty nifty proof cover on it, as modeled here by chief muse, Banrock.
For a chance to win a signed proof of Slated, go to the Slated website - all the details are there. This closes in two weeks, at 12:01 am on Feb 16 EST (5:01 a.m. UK time), and is open internationally.

UPDATE: I've interviewed Hayley, the cover girl on Slated! You can find it on teriterry.com, here.

Write A Great Synopsis with Nicola Morgan

It's a bargain!

The 'Crabbit Bat', Nicola Morgan, is on a 'Write a Great Synopsis' blog tour and we welcome her to Notes From the Slushpile along with her Twitter Buddy and SCBWI member Rebecca Brown. Over to you Rebecca!

With apologies for their shameless advertising of twitter friends products! Maureen 

*tiptoes onto stage, peers nervously into darkness and taps on microphone* Is this thing on? Ooh, yes it is…Hello Slushpilers! I’d like to thank the Academy, my parents…hold on, wrong speech. Ah, here we go.
I’m very chuffed to be doing a post on Notes From the Slushpile, and I’m even more chuffed to be interviewing the fabulous Nicola Morgan about her new ebook, Write A Great Synopsis: An Expert Guide. I intend to write a couple of synopses myself this year and the thought was enough to make me curl up into a corner. Until I read Nicola’s book. Anyway, enough preamble. It’s not really me you want to hear from, is it? 

 *deep breath, cheerful voice, TV smile* Hi Nicola! Thank you for being my guinea pig on Notes from the Slushpile.

Hello and thank you for inviting me! *cracks open Botham’s of Whitby Tops’ cake*

So, think back to those dim and dusty days when you were on the slushpile yourself. Many of us approach the task of writing a synopsis with horror, fear, and the kind of sickly dread that comes of trying to putting yourself and your work into a concise work of staggering genius (pause to pour drink with shaking hand at the very thought). How did you cope with it before becoming published?

I am afraid I have no memory of horror, fear, or dread! Not because I’ve blocked it out but because I honestly never knew there was a problem. I was on the slush-pile for 21 years and I must have spent most of that in a state of ignorance. (Possibly why I stayed there so long – who knows?) I just did the best I could, and I’ve no idea whether my synopses were crap or not, only that they never bothered me. (Probably best I didn’t know, tbh.) It was only in very recent years, since starting my blog and interacting with writers on Twitter that I realized that almost all writers hate or fear them.

And why have you decided to help out us poor Slushpilers now by publishing Write A Great Synopsis: An Expert Guide? Wouldn’t it be more fun to let us fumble our way through?

No, it’s no fun at all watching people fumble! I was born in a school to teaching parents, lived in a school 24/7 (including holidays) until I went to university, and teaching is in my every cell, I suppose. So, I am quite unable to stop myself trying to teach people who look as though they want to be taught, and quite often those who don’t J. So, I’m publishing Write a Great Synopsis because it’s not there.

If you were in a lift with a Delusional Wannabe who was too awestruck to deliver their elevator pitch, what would be your 30 second piece of advice to them (in synopsis writing, I mean. You’re not allowed to recommend alcohol or shoe-shopping)?

If I were in a lift with a Delusional Wannabe, I would pretend to have a highly infectious disease. They don’t listen, you see, so I’d only stress myself talking. But, if you mean that I am in a lift with an aspiring writer, I’d say, “Forget how much you love your book and step into the shoes of someone who has to sell it. Now, get a piece of paper and brainstorm words/elements/episodes; choose the fifteen most compelling-sounding, of which at least 5 must relate to the main character; create a 25 word pitch which only contains what sounds fabulous and which the agent will remember tomorrow because the book sounds special. No alcohol necessary.

Finally, imagine you have written your latest book and are about to start tackling your own synopsis with a light and carefree heart and an inner calm to rival the Dalai Lama. What three things would you have to hand to keep you going? Charms? Lucky boots? Expensive chocolate?

Bearing in mind that I need none of these things, of course, but am never averse to a spot of indulgence: chocolate from Coco of Bruntsfield (in Edinburgh); sparkling wine of reasonable quality and extreme dryness; and new boots, because I always get new boots when I sign a contract and the synopsis will help secure that. (Though, as I emphasise often, it is most unlikely to be the deal-breaker.)

I know you’re on a blog tour at the moment and there’s a competition to enter with a brilliant prize. What do we have to do to be in with a chance of winning and what will we win?

All commenters below (by Feb 15^th) will be entered into the Big WAGS Competition, with chances to win a critique of your synopsis by the Crabbit Old Bat herself! One comment per person on each blog – though you can add to your chances by commenting on the other posts on the tour. Details of all stops on the tour will appear on my blog (Help! I Need a Publisher!) as they go out.

Thank you for asking fun questions. I hope all the writers reading this will soon stop fretting about the synopsis – it’s not nearly as stressful as you think J

*wipes brow* Hey, that wasn’t so bad after all! Thanks, you’ve been a marvellous audience! Rebecca. 

Nicola Morgan, a mega blogger and tweeter of advice on how to get published, is a prolific children's author and runs regular competitions for aspiring authors.

You can follow her here

http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/

and here

http://www.nicolamorgan.com/author/

and here

https://www.facebook.com/NicolaMorganAuthor

and here!

https://twitter.com/#!/nicolamorgan

and there's probably lots of other places too.

Rebecca Brown is an aspiring author and you can listen to her podcast interviews with debut novelists and industry professionals here

http://inthewishingchair.tumblr.com/

and you can follow her on twitter here

https://twitter.com/#!/rebeccaebrown

Planning and Researching your novel, with Linda Newbery

Linda Newbery is an author of many talents. She started off writing books for young adults, winning the Costa Children's Book Prize in 2006 with Set in Stone. She has now published more than thirty books for children and young adults, including picture-books, and books for early readers and older children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, with The Shell House and Sisterland, and Catcall won a Nestle Silver Award.

Here are some of her thoughts on the all-important planning and researching process…

1. I would never choose to plan in a hurry. When I start to have an idea, it needs to settle, and other ideas gather around it. It takes time to see the possibilities of a story.

2. Depending on what you're planning to write, spend time reading, visiting galleries, watching films, going for walks, visiting special places - it all helps to make the world of the story begin to feel solid.

3. Enjoy this stage! I often don't make any notes at all while an idea is fixing itself in my mind - that comes later. But I do start filling a noticeboard with pictures and words, and keep adding to it.

Linda's research noticeboard

4. But don't wait till you've done all your research before you start writing - you might never start. Eventually you have to take the plunge and just begin. You can find out other things you need to know on the way - or afterwards.

5. Writers work in different ways. Some wouldn't start without a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, but that doesn't work for me. Often I start writing when I'm happy that I've got promising ingredients. Planning is very different from writing - more logical, more reasoned - but it can only get me so far. I know that my best ideas won't come until I immerse myself in the writing. I prefer to have an idea of "stepping stones" - important marker-points in the plot - and to see what happens in between.

Linda’s new book, The Treasure House, will be published in May by Orion Children's Books.