Cover reveal!
Plus: the book cover that almost was
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” said your third-grade teacher, and your local librarian, and your mom, and every adult ever for your entire childhood.
Except that we all did judge books by their covers, and we all still do. We’re only human. And covers are fun!
Recently, I had the extra-fun thrill of revealing the cover art for our UK and US editions of Favourite Daughter, my debut novel about two estranged sisters brought together by their problematic father’s meddlesome dying wish.
The final design comes after a few unexpected pivots—more on this below—so sharing it feels extra special. And it brings us one step closer to release day (April 29, 2025 in Canada and the US and May 1, 2025 in the UK), which somehow feels both impossibly far and terrifyingly close.
I love this cover and think it totally captures the vibe of the book (messy protagonists, dark humor, irreverent family drama). If you’re a fan of Fleabag, Meg Mason, or Emma Straub, I hope you’ll check it out. Thank you so much to everyone who has already pre-ordered, and stay tuned for news on the Canadian cover soon as well!
Now, a bit of backstory on how we got here.
Everything I’ve learned about cover design
Covers need to signal to prospective readers what kind of book they’re looking at. Are there cartoon figures gazing at each other flirtatiously? It’s probably a rom-com. Is there an eerie photo of a porch swing at dusk? It’s probably a thriller.
At the same time, covers need to stand out sufficiently so that readers will want to pick up this rom-com, or this thriller, as opposed to the thousands of others.
Basically, cover design is really important and really hard. And it gets even harder when the book happens to straddle or blend multiple genres—like mine, a book club novel that combines elements of literary fiction (meaty themes and complex characters!) with a fast-paced, more commercial type of plot.
On top of this, readers in different countries tend to have different tastes, which is why my Canadian, US, and UK publishers initially worked independently on their own cover designs.
The covers that almost were
Eventually, we settled on two separate (beautiful!) designs for the US and UK, and I thought that would be the end of it. Then my UK publisher began to reconsider how well the cover they’d chosen truly suited their market, and they presented me with another. My US editor also loved the new design and decided to jump on board.
I was equally blown away by the new cover and completely agreed with my editors’ decisions. But part of me was sad to see the old designs go!
Luckily, the original design for our UK cover will live on in the German translation, which releases in February with the tremendous publisher Hanserblau. I’ve always loved the retro feel and am so happy that this cover still gets to have its day in the sun.
End notes
Currently reading: I recently finished Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin, which was every bit as funny and whole-hearted as her debut, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. I had to wait many months for the library hold to come in, and I’d say it was totally worth it.
On my desk this week: I passed the 50,000-word mark on my new novel yesterday!
What are your all-time favourite book covers? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! And thanks as always for being here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider forwarding it to a friend. I’ll be sending these letters a few times per month in the lead-up to my book’s publication. Find me at morgandick.com or on Instagram @morgandick_author for more.
Ah you must be sooo excited!?
I saw Favourite Daughter up on Netgalley the other day and I totally didn't click it was your book! Very excited, congratulations!
I'm so glad the UK decided to go with the US cover. I think the commonwealth market is tired of the "planking girl" style cover (including facing back like this). It's been about four or five years since it started and markets are already reusing illustrations. I also think the UK market sometimes doesn't allow for more risk with illustrations - the covers for The Wedding People by Alison Espach are great examples of how the UK is underselling a title with such great potential by giving it a mediocre cover that doesn't convey a book as well. I think it's a heavy reliance on outdated trends that aren't so much the case anymore.
Anyway, waffling over! Congrats again and I've already marked FD as one to read, looking forward to seeing it out in the wild!