People always ask, "Do you have any say in the covers of your books?"

I'm lucky to work with a wonderful publisher that always shares their ideas with me, but I can't take any credit for the fabulous ideas and designs. It's all them! Thankfully I always adore what they do. I'm particularly excited about the cover for my upcoming novel, Reality Check, which is about four best friends whose lives change dramatically when they get their own reality TV show. The book's designer, Erin McMahon, and my editors, Kate Sullivan and Cindy Eagan, came up with the look for each doll, and they did an amazing job. The clothes the dolls wear were all designed by Erin! I wish she'd make clothes for me. Aren't the outfits cute?

I love, love, love the idea of dolls on the cover of this book. Each doll looks like one of the four best friends in the novel, which is great, but when you dig further, and think about the story, having dolls represent the girls says something else about the book as well. I don't want to give too much away, but you'll know what I'm talking about when you read the book.

My editor and designers were nice enough to let me tag along to the photo shoot in New York City for the cover where I got to hang out with all the dolls for the day. And I do mean the day -- you'd think photographing dolls would be quick, but it's not. So much goes into the dolls' positioning, the backgrounds, their hair, their outfits (some of the dolls had costume changes), everything! It was so cool to watch photographer Dan Saelinger at work.

When the dolls were through with their modeling the Poppy team was nice enough to gift me the Keiran doll. She now sits on my desk. (She is staring at me as I type this, actually.)

Here are some behind-the-scenes pics:

   

   

Learn more about the book!