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Behind The Scenes of My Cover Shoot

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I’m fascinated by the process of creating covers!  I’m especially fascinated when the cover in question happens to be one of my covers.  Last time I blogged, I introduced you to Stephanie and Leigh, Meant to Be Mine’s cover models.  Today, I’m excited to share behind-the-scenes photos taken the day of the cover shoot.

Last September, when I learned that Meant to Be Mine’s shoot was approaching, I contacted cover designer, Jennifer Parker.  I asked her if she’d be willing to snap some candids for me of the models and crew and she graciously agreed.  Jennifer has designed all three of my covers so far, and to say that I’m grateful to her for her excellent work is a huge understatement.

These covers were all created by Jennifer.

These covers were all created by Jennifer.

 

For the shoot, the crew gathered at a farm near Minneapolis, Minnesota (where Bethany House is headquartered).  In the below picture, Jennifer is standing alongside Paul Higdon, the Creative Director at Bethany House. The sheets of paper they’re holding were prepared by Jennifer, and they include information about the book’s plot, directions for the shoot, reference photos, sketches, ideas about lighting and mood.

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Below is the rest of the crew. The woman in the black pants is the photographer’s assistant, the woman in white is the hair and make-up artist.  The man you can hardly see (in the gray shirt) is photographer Mike Habermann.

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About a year before a book’s release, Bethany House asks me for my cover ideas.  For Meant to Be Mine, I submitted a picture of actress Ashley Greene as my heroine inspiration.  Stephanie looks so much like that picture and exactly like the heroine of my imagination!  In my cover idea notes, I also mentioned that my hero dresses in t-shirts and that it might be cute to put my heroine in a pair of cowgirl boots that feature in the story.  As you can tell — he’s in a t-shirt and she has on cowgirl boots.

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The below pose ended up on the spine of the book.  You’ll notice that in real life Stephanie’s hair is dark brown.  Jennifer lightened it for the cover shots and also changed Stephanie’s eyes from brown to green to make her look more like the character of Celia Park.

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Look who was present at the shoot!  My editor, Sarah Long.

Since the moment Sarah received the manuscript version of My Stubborn Heart from my agent, she has been a great supporter of my work.  She’s kind, smart, genuine, encouraging.  In a word: awesome.  Last fall, she left publishing to take a full time position at her church.  Pass the kleenex!

For more gushing about Sarah, see Meant to Be Mine’s dedication.

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I love this shot, because it shows you how they set up the photograph that would eventually land on the book’s cover.  As you can see, the photographer used a ladder to prop up special lighting and shoot downward on the couple.

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Once Jennifer received the images from the shoot, she prepared several cover ‘mock-ups’ using different photos.  Then the designers met with the editors involved in the project and together they decided which one they liked best.  Here are a few of the mock-ups for Meant to Be Mine that didn’t quite make the grade….

alternatecoversIsn’t it fun to peek behind the scenes of a cover shoot?

This Friday, I’m signing off with a video!  Melissa Tagg, Victoria Bylin, and I noticed that many readers of Christian Fiction are historical romance fans (aren’t we all?) who rarely dip their toes into the contemporary romance pool.  So we put together a short and humorous ‘video tutorial’ about modern-day love stories.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XheqIApA8-c?list=PLh0YFvPmJd14iMjqPC5gTKMOlIXIaXuJ_]
I’m currently running a giveaway via my facebook page centered around this video, so I invite you to swing by my page. One lucky winner will receive three new books!

Have a great weekend!  -Becky

 

 

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Becky Wade

Author at Bethany House
Becky makes her home in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children. She absolutely loves writing funny, heartwarming, and inspirational contemporary Christian romance.
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Comments

  1. I just LOVE these cover shoot stories! And especially seeing the also-ran covers––any of which would have been fabulous! Great post, Becky!

  2. This is fascinating! Thanks for sharing this aspect of the book that readers don’t get to see most of the time. I really like the cover that was chosen for Meant to be Mine, but I also really like the one in the middle of the three mock-ups. Looking forward to reading this book!

  3. I love behind the scenes peeks, Becky, and this one was great. I actually really liked the center cover with the characters laying down on the grass. The way she’s looking at him is perfectly romantic. BUT – I agree that the final design was the best choice. 🙂

    And your tutorial video was so cute! I loved the cameos your kids played in each of your segments. So fun! Great humor from all three of you. Loved it!

    • Yep, I think the final design was the best choice. Her smile is just so engaging and the twinkle in her eyes communicates the humor in the book well.

      Glad you enjoyed the video! I taped it on a Sunday afternoon when my kids were underfoot. I hadn’t expected that they’d be the slightest bit interested in a video about my writing. But they were! They wanted to be involved and came up with all those funny cameos.

  4. This is so cool! I’ve never really thought about all the work that goes into making the gorgeous covers I love. The mock-ups look cool, but the cover that was chosen is definitely the best. 🙂
    Thanks for sharing, Becky!

  5. I can’t wait to read this book! I’ve love all of yours so far 🙂 What a fun behind the scenes look, I like all the covers, it must’ve been hard to choose. Thanks for sharing!

    • The designers have a great job, don’t they? In fact, if I wasn’t writing books I think I’d really enjoying designing covers for books…

  11. I LOVE the other alternatives they came up with! Makes this hopeless romantic give a warm sigh. 🙂 I think I even love the one all the way on the left the best–even over the one picked for the final–and I think that’s an awesome cover too. Thank you for sharing this besides the scenes peak! Love that!

  12. I enjoy these behind the scenes photos and stories. It is interesting how much different the model looks on the final cover than in the other photos. Her hair looks much shorter in the cover shot. It is fun to see the “hero” in the other photos since his face isn’t shown on the final cover. Thanks for sharing all this. I have your book in my towering stack of books to read and am looking forward to reading it.

    • Yes! Stephanie does look quite different on the cover than in the candids. My heroine’s hair is closer to shoulder length, so the way her hair appears on the cover is very close to how it’s described in the book. And, I also enjoyed getting a chance to see what the ‘hero’ looks like. Thanks for including Meant to Be Mine on your TBR stack! I hope you enjoy it.

  13. Hi Becky! I’m really late chiming in today (super busy day) but LOVED your blog post. Wow, it’s amazing how much work (and how many people) are involved in putting together the book cover. I enjoyed seeing all those photos and now want to read your story even more!
    Loved that video too! 🙂 Especially cute how you included your kiddos in your segments.
    Thanks for sharing, and blessings on your weekend.

  14. Blessing on your weekend, Patti Jo! I was surprised by how large the crew was. I hadn’t anticipated that a make-up/hair person, a photographer’s assistant, or the head of the design team from Bethany House would be on site.

  16. Hi Becky!

    What beautiful covers for your books and what an enormous amount of work that goes into just producing the covers. They look fantastic.:)
    I thought the video was so zany and .your children are a delight. I also was interested in your voice because I thought I detected a little bit of “Aussie Strine.” How long is it since you lived “Down Under”? LOL.

    @ PJ I’m later than you are my friend!*GRIN*

    • Hi, Rosie! My kiddos are funny, aren’t they? As you could probably tell from the video, we like to laugh here at the Wade house.

      It’s been 17 years since I lived Down Under. Where did the time go?!!

  17. It was so fun to see all that went into creating the cover! They had a lot of good shots to choose from. I really love the end result…but some of those that didn’t make the cut are cute too. Thanks for sharing!

  18. LOVED your latest book, Becky! Just read it over the weekend during a long drive to and from a family wedding. (My teen daughters both read it too and loved it!)

    I really love your idea about getting some pictures from a photo shoot! I may have to ask for that sometime too! It’s so fascinating to see behind the scenes. You might even be able to use some of those photos at a speaking engagement. I find that my readers always ask about how covers are made, and it would be fun to show them some of those pictures!

    And the video is super cute!! I love how your kids “help” with the props! Too cute!!! 🙂

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