DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING
Fierce Reads Tour
Have you visited my events page recently? I have a ton of new events coming up this year, and I want to make sure you know if I’m coming near you! Check out my events page here for more details. Below I’ll be posting the stops for the Fierce Reads Tour, which I will be a part of along with authors Mary E. Pearson, Maurene Goo, and Taran Matharu.
5/8
Schuler Books
Grand Rapids, MI
May 9
Red Balloon
St. Paul, MN
May 10
Boswell Books
Milwaukee, WI
May 11
Main St. Books
St. Charles, MO
May 12
Tattered Cover
Denver, CO
May 13
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
May 14
Books, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
Please visit each bookstore’s website for times and details. Hope to see you on the tour!
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Books, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, Fierce Reads, TourDAUGHTER OF THE SIREN QUEEN Cover Reveal
For my first book, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, we had to get the ARCs printed before the cover was finalized. I’ve done many blog posts showing the changes from first draft to final.
This is also going to be the case with DAUGHTER OF THE SIREN QUEEN.
BUT—
This cover is VERY close to what the final will be. We are only making minor tweaks. But my publisher and I have decided to go ahead and share it with you, since everyone is going to see it once ARCs start circulating anyway.
So here it is!
What do you think?
Also, you can preorder it now!
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | BAM! | Indie Bound | Powells
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Book Covers, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KINGPirate Takeover Tour
Nicole Castroman and I are going on tour! Here are our stops! Hope to see you there!
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BLACKSOULS, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, Nicole Castroman, Pirate Takeover TourDotPK Launch
I want to thank everyone who supported (and is still supporting) me and DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING. I had a wonderful launch party and release week!
I thought I would share some fun pictures from the launch!
We had the Provo City Library covered in pirate decor! My mother put together an amazing display table, with pieces my father built from scratch, such as two pirate chests and cutlasses! The chest on the left has ring pops for the kids and the one on the right has chocolate, gold-covered coins. With delicious Belgian chocolate inside!
I dressed up in a gorgeous pirate corset made by Damsel In This Dress. My mother made the matching pirate hat! I gave a short presentation on how I became an author. My dad fixed up the podium so I could be at the “ship’s helm” while I talked. We had a big flag behind the signing table, which had even more fun pirate stuff on it. I just love how supportive my family was for the whole event. Couldn’t have done it without them!
While I was signing books, I had one of the best surprises. A lovely reader made me DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING fanart, and I cannot stop looking at it!
My brother and sisters were also present for the event. I love that they dressed up with me! There was a pirate costume contest for everyone who participated!
And here is me and my mom!
Dad didn’t dress up, but I was so happy to have him there. The amazing King’s English Bookshop was there selling books on site. All in all, I’d say the event was a huge success. My cheeks hurt by the end of it from smiling so much!
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DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, Launch PartyPre-order Incentive!
When you pre-order DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, email your proof of purchase to tricialevenseller(at)gmail(dot)com, and I will send you a bookmark and signed bookplate! International purchases may redeem, too! Offer stands until 2/27/17 or until supplies run out!
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Book Swag, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KINGARC Giveaway!
Just wanted to let everyone know there’s a giveaway happening on Goodreads for DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING ARCs. Twelve winners will be selected. Enter by 1/6/17! Click here to go to the giveaway page!
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DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KINGCan You Spot the Difference?
Every time I get an updated version of my cover, I feel like I’m playing a game of Can You Spot the Difference. But I shouldn’t be the only one to play. So here’s the newest cover (top) and the older cover (bottom). There are six changes. Can you spot them? Answers below.
New Cover
Old Cover
Answers: Background (the new cover is brighter surrounding the girl and darker surrounding the map), My Name (wavier in the new cover), Waves (they extend all the way to the right side of the page in the new cover), Sword (the hilt was changed from blue to black), Corset (changed from gray to black), and Blood (fewer splatters around the girl).
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Book Covers, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, DesignThe New Cover
There are various reasons why covers change in publishing, but it happens more often than you might think. I’m happy to say that I think my cover has changed for the better! I absolutely love the new color scheme my publisher decided on. I think the new cover fits the tone of the book better, and I’m excited to hear what everyone thinks about it! Also, I absolutely adore the blurb Anna Banks gave (you can see that at the top of the cover shown below).
Don’t forget you can now read the first chapter of DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING here.
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Book Covers, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, piratesExciting Things Coming Up!
A lot has been happening. Here’s a post to catch you up on things you might have missed as well as some information on new things coming up!
First off, the release date for DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING has been changed to February 28, 2017—just one week later than the original pub date. My mother is very excited about the change in release date (it’s her birthday). There are several reasons for the change. One thing is that we’re revamping the cover. It will still go in an illustrated direction, but the design team is going to try and age it up even more (see my last post on how the cover came to be here). So while it’s always sad to have to wait longer for a book, I think the wait will be worth it. On top of the changes to the cover, the cover copy will also change. So we’ll have a new synopsis going live soon. No changes have been made to the words INSIDE the book. Only the packaging will be different.
In case you missed it, the daughter of the pirate king, herself, gave an interview over on Read Write Love 28. I think it gives some fun insight into Alosa’s personality. You can find that here.
Also, DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING was selected by the American Booksellers Association to be an Indies Introduce title for winter/spring 2017. I’m so excited and honored beyond words. You can learn more about what this means here and see the other books selected. And here you can find the blurbs that various book store owners gave about the book. I’m so flattered and excited that DotPK is being spoken of so highly.
Now for upcoming things!
I have two exciting things coming up. First, there will be a first chapter reveal for DotPK. It will be revealed by A Perfection Called Books on September 29th at 1:00 PM EST. You will find it on their website here when the time comes. So excited for everyone to get to read it!
And second, I will be participating in a Twitter chat with Brittany’s Book Rambles on October 1st at 8:00 PM EST. You can participate, too! Follow the hashtag #BBTC (easiest way to do this is to get on Tweetdeck. From there you can follow the tweets and jump in with your own!). For those who don’t follow me on twitter, my handle is @tricialevensell (because there wasn’t enough room for the E and R).
Comment below if you have any questions!
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DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING, First Chapter Reveal, Twitter ChatThe Makings of a Cover
I’m so excited to announce that DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING has a cover. Here it is!
Artist Credit: Jen Wang; Design Credit: Liz Dresner
I thought it would be fun to talk about how the cover came to be, and I received permission from the good folks over at Feiwel and Friends to share some earlier versions.
I had no idea how long and complicated the process of creating and choosing a cover was until it was happening to my book. So many people have a say on the cover, such as the sales and marketing teams, design team, the publisher, etc. Surprisingly, the author is actually not one of the people who has a say on the cover. We may be asked for an initial idea of what styles we like or on our opinion between two different options. But the general direction the cover goes in? Not something we’re a part of, which makes sense if you think about it. Writers write. We’re not usually illustrators or design specialists, and we’re not as aware of the cover market as the professionals.
I’m so thankful for how hard the Feiwel and Friends team worked on this cover. It was an especially long process for my cover in particular, I’m told.
At first, they tried a cover more realistic with a photograph of a girl dressed as a pirate on a ship. Think of something reminiscent of Robin LaFevers’ GRAVE MERCY, but with pirates instead of assassins.
I believe it was decided that cover didn’t quite stand apart from other books on the shelves, (which isn’t to say LaFevers’ books don’t stand apart, just that they came first) which I’m sure is usually the reason why original covers are discarded. After this, they decided to try a title heavy cover. Something decorative. Like EVER THE HUNTED. I’m told all the attempts at this kind of cover (and I believe there were around twelve different mock ups) also weren’t working. (By the way, I love Erin’s cover. Isn’t it gorgeous?)
After that, the team wanted to try an illustrated cover. There’s an illustrated trend happening with adult covers, and the team wanted to try fitting DAUGHTER OF THE PIRATE KING in with those. (Such as the covers of UPROOTED or A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC.)
While these are decidedly dark, the team really wanted a light cover, something that would hopefully stand out among all the dark, grittier covers in YA (don’t get me wrong, though, I love dark and gritty covers). Now this whole process happened without me seeing a single cover option. There’s little point in showing the author anything when it could be shot down by the people in sales or marketing or design. So the very first time I saw a cover for my book was when these two images showed up in my inbox (there was a little confusion on whether or not “the” was in the title, but we got that fixed right away):
I was entirely surprised. I hadn’t pictured anything like this at all, and when I learned just how much work F&F had already put into the covers, I was blown away. It’s amazing to know that other people have worked so hard on your book. I expressed my preference for the blue color scheme rather than the purple and yellow. I also preferred the corset to the pirate coat.
F&F also wanted to try a more muted look so the illustration wouldn’t look too cutesy or lean toward middle grade. DotPK is an upper YA, and it’s an action adventure/fantasy/romance with pirates. Not exactly a cutesy book. So they altered it to this:
I loved the new color scheme, and the picture above is what got put on the ARCs (advance reader copies). The colors looked even better when they were printed, and it was incredible getting to hold an actual book in my hand.
Even so, the cover wasn’t final. They wanted to make some more changes. Yesterday, I was shown two new covers, the one below and another that looked exactly the same except without the blood. (If you look closely, you can see more texture was added. Particularly to the sword and Alosa’s pants.)
I like the addition of blood on the map in the background. This is, after all, a pirate book, and swashbuckling is a must. So this is the cover we went with!
I’m sure the journey is different for every author, but there’s a slight look into the makings of a cover. I’d love to hear thoughts and questions below!
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