Blog Tour: Cinder and Ella - Melissa Lemon - Cover Post

I was so excited when Corrine suggested doing a post about the cover of Cinder and Ella. Why didn’t I think of that? The cover of Cinder and Ella is AMAZING!

One of the things I was asked to send to my publishing company after signing the contract was a character description page that included some cover ideas. Well, it seems to me that a lot of covers lately have characters on them, so that was my first suggestion. I only asked for them to make sure Ella was in the background since she is always overlooked. I can understand why they didn’t go with this option. I tried drawing a picture of Cinder once myself, and it wasn’t pretty. Finding a model would have been difficult, and let’s face it, photoshopped hair isn’t flattering on anyone.

The next suggestion was to do something with the trees or the castle. For those of you who haven’t read Cinder and Ella, and who haven’t noticed the cover, I will tell you that trees are important in this book. Every person is connected to a tree. And sometimes that connection can mean life or death. In the book, you learn a little bit about the king’s tree, Weston’s tree, Ella’s tree and the prince’s tree, while the trees of some characters will not be introduced until the sequel. (Wait, did I say sequel?) And these trees, well, sometimes they glow, especially when they are about to do something really cool.

My acquisitions editor sent me the first draft of the cover and said I could make comments and suggestions. I loved the initial design and that they had decided to do something with the trees. I did make a few suggestions and the final cover turned out stunning. I have pulled the two up to compare them and while the design stayed true, the changes they did make brought a brightness and clarity that really make the cover shine. Give a shout out to the designers who worked on the cover!

To me, the cover shows us a few things. First, the glowing tree represents the legend of the trees. The grove of trees behind the glowing tree represents Ella, since she wanders through forests for most of the book. And third, the castle represents Cinder, since that’s where she is dwelling throughout. Put the three of those things together, and you have not only an awesome cover, but a truly incredible story.

Thank you for being here today, Melissa! The cover IS absolutely gorgeous!! Love the insight you have given us about it! 

Melissa can be found on her blog, on facebook, on goodreads, or on twitter.

You can follow along with the "Cinder and Ella" tour here.