Together Forever, my second orphan train book, released this week! A book’s birthday is always a special time! And to celebrate the release, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the cover development.
To discover what went into making the cover, I interviewed Senior Graphic Designer Jenny Parker (with input from Bethany House Fiction Marketing Director Noelle Chew).
Senior Graphic Designer is another way of saying “the extremely talented and creative person who designs book covers.” Jenny also created Becky Wade’s cover for Falling For You (which Becky talked about in her post last week here).
Join me in welcoming Jenny today as she gives us a peek into the creative process of Together Forever!
Who are the people on the cover?
The woman on the cover is Jenni—a friend of Noelle Chew’s (Fiction Marketing Director). The little girl is Jenni’s daughter Emma, and the boy is Noelle’s two-year old nephew, Silas. They were chosen as result of brainstorming who in the Bethany House offices had access to young kids.
Two-year-old Silas. Isn’t he a cutie?!
Where did the photo shoot take place?
It was at a studio in NE Minneapolis, models in costume on a white backdrop.
Who picked the costumes and where did they come from?
After running several options by the acquisitions editor, Dave Long, I picked the costumes from a local Costume Rental shop. The costumes in the shop come from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis once the theater no longer needs them. They are of high quality although a little worn-looking sometimes after being used in thousands of shows.
How long did the photo shoot take?
The photo shoot took about three hours including hair and makeup. Usually, we make it four hours, but because we were dealing with small children, we made it a little shorter. The children were wonderfully well behaved, but getting your picture taken for three hours is pretty long when you’re two or four years old!
Were there any complications having children involved in the shoot? Did they cooperate well?
Emma (Jenni’s daughter) was with her mom so she behaved well. Silas (Noelle’s nephew) was fine wearing the costume and being away from his mother (Jenni had actually picked him up from daycare and he knew her). However, when the time came for Jenni to hold him for the photoshoot, he started crying and clinging to Noelle (his aunt).
Silas’s sad expression is perfect for portraying an orphan!
We tried all sorts of things to get him to calm down, and almost had to give up and leave him out of the photoshoot. But then we had the idea to send Noelle off set while distracting Silas by playing with him. He quickly forgot about his aunt and modeled just fine after that.
Emma’s intense gaze on the cover occurred near the end of the shoot, when she was tired from standing for so long and was clinging to her mom for support and was just desperate to be done.
Emma getting tired!
Approximately how many pictures were taken?
We took around 500 photos. Mike Habermann (the photographer) is fantastic at getting good stuff from the models and working with lighting so the shot will work with the background pictures.
Tracey Tischler is the talented hair and makeup artist and was especially helpful in keeping Silas, the youngest model, interested in the photoshoot.
Paul Higdon, the creative director at Bethany House, always brings his valuable expertise and artistic eye to the shoot as well.
How did you decide upon the background?
I decided to work with vintage black and white photos of trains from the 1850s time period (which were much harder to find than I thought going in). I made several sketches from those photos with different poses that our Creative Director and a team of individuals from Marketing and Editorial chose from. Then came the photoshoot as I already explained.
Jenny’s original sketches
What photos from the shoot made the final cut? And why was this particular cover picked over all the other options?
The pictures that usually make the final cut are the ones that tell the best story with body poses or facial expressions. This was an especially difficult shoot in that there were three models who needed to look good in each of the photos, so that narrowed down the final photos quite a bit.
In the end, we chose the cover that conveyed the mood we felt best matched Jody’s story.
The cover that made the cut!
All three books in the series really “go” well together! How did you tie the books together?
We thought it made sense that all the books in the ORPHAN TRAIN series feature a train somewhere on the cover. We just needed each book to be different enough from the others so that the readers could easily tell them apart.
To bring the series look together on all three books, I colorized the black and white photos in the background with subdued tones and boosted the rich colors of the clothes of the cover models in the foreground.
I really enjoyed working on this series and loved how it turned out!
(Thank you, Jenny! We LOVE how it turned out too! You did an amazing job!)
How about YOU? Do you like any of the other cover options above better? Which cover would you have chosen for TOGETHER FOREVER?
Jody Hedlund
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Thanks for sharing about the process. I found this very fascinating and makes me appreciate books (and covers) even more!
I love cover stories and this one was fascinating. Thanks, Jody! The one that made the final cut is intriguing and looks perfect for the story!
Fantastic post! Thank you for sharing! Jenny is so talented.
It sure is fun knowing how it all came together! I absolutely love the cover. I think they chose the right one. The children are adorable.
Loved reading this post, Jody. I had no idea they took historic photos and colorized them. Wow! No wonder they look so authentic. 🙂 And having the little girl peeking through the heroine’s arms is so perfect. Having at least once face showing to the reader draws one in so much more than having all three backs turned. It’s too bad Emma had to get so worn out to get just the right look.
Such an interesting post. Thanks for a look at the process.
I just bought this book Wednesday.
Thank you for sharing the process. I love knowing how covers come together and what a lot of work!
Fascinating! I love all three of the finished covers for this series and, in the case of Together Forever, I prefer the one they went with. The little girl’s expression is perfect! I love that she’s looking straight out from the cover. I feel an immediate and sympathetic connection to her.
Way to go, Jenny (and team)! Another gorgeous cover.
I love the final cover. The little girl’s expression and body language make it. Fascinating look at the process!
I love all three covers! Together Forever has such a feeling of almost pathos with that little girl looking back. This book is on top of my TBR pile.
I like the one where the lady is holding the child. I think it’s a lovely cover for the story.
I would’ve had a hard time choosing. I love all the final pictures. And even though all the covers in the series are beautiful, I think this book with the little “orphans” on the cover is my favorite.
I think the final one that you used is the best. And I love the upcoming one!
I love behind the scenes! The models did a great job :)!
Jody, thank you for sharing your cover story! It is lovely!
I liked all of them; each one depicts the story .. very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
I absolutely love hearing about cover development!! I find them pretty much as fascinating as I do the books themselves 😄 There is so much thought and detail put into this cover! I love how perfectly the cover captures this book’s story! A picture truly is worth a thousand words.
The cover chosen is perfect and conveys the message of the story! Brilliant work! The children are adorable.
This is such a fascinating look at behind the scenes of a cover creation. Your covers look lovely together, Jody. Thanks for sharing this! Lots of fun to read. 🙂
I love the covers you have chosen, and the kids are just adorable! Looking b.c forward to reading them.
I hate to be the negative one here, but while I think the cover is lovely, I didn’t think it was right for the story. (And I loved the story!) When I first saw the cover, I thought it was maybe about a widow or a young mom determined not to lose her children, hence “Together Forever”. And since the little girl and the boy on the cover do not reflect the ages of the main children featured in the story, Dorothea and Jethro, I was confused as to why they were pictured. It makes sense, since these were the only children available, but to me it just didn’t match the story. Again, I think the picture is beautiful, but that’s just my opinion.
I love reading about the process. I think they picked the perfect photo.
I really like the covers!
I really liked the one that was chosen. The three final covers go very well together. I love seeing these behind the scenes things.
What an amazing process. I love how the final copy turned out. Little Emma’s expression fits so well. I can see her as little Dorothea. The covers are so complementary. Jenny, Jody is so blessed to have you on her team. You are so talented and I enjoyed reading about the process.
I loved all three photos, but in the end I chose the very one you did. It just seemed to fit the most. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed the photos and learning about the behind the scenes of the cover shoot.
The children are adorable and I love the final cover.
I am wondering, since I have not yet read the book, why the change in dress colors? Was it to match a description in the book or to brighten up the cover?
I love reading the back story for covers. So interesting! Little Silas and Emma are adorable and I can see that three hours would be pushing them to the limit of patience.
I like where the children are placed in the final cover, but like how they are closer in the middle option.
I am reading Together Forever right now. Enjoying it!
I love the covers y’all picked! They look amazing together. I can’t wait to read these.
I loved this post! How interesting!