Win a Copy of Fast Fiction

Rather than doing a traditional interview-filled blog tour, Denise Jaden is celebrating the release of her new nonfiction writing book, FAST FICTION, by dropping tips about writing quickly at every stop of her blog tour, and offering some awesome prizes for commenting on any of these posts (including this one!) The more you drop by and comment, the more chances you have to win these great prizes:

1. Compliments of New World Library: They will be giving away A BOX of copies of FAST FICTION by Denise Jaden and GET IT DONE by Sam Bennett (US and Canada only):

2. Compliments of Denise Jaden, TWO BOXES of great fiction (US Only). Details on Denise's blog.

3. Audiobook copies of NEVER ENOUGH by Denise Jaden!

4. A critique of your first five pages, compliments of Denise's agent, Michelle Humphrey from The Martha Kaplan Agency!

See how to enter at the bottom of this post!

And now, here are Denise's Thoughts on the Cover of Fast Fiction:

Since I’m very new to writing nonfiction, I had no preconceived ideas for the cover of FAST FICTION. My publisher sent me a few ideas, all similar with different color schemes, and asked for my input.

Really, I was thrilled with all of them, but I suggested a few small tweaks and my first choice of color. They followed all of my suggestions, which felt really honoring to me (only slight changes of a “speed” look to the font). The finished cover changed very little from the original choices they sent, but I loved it so much, it inspired me to redesign the cover for my first nonfiction book, WRITING WITH A HEAVY HEART. Now I love to look at these books together on the shelf!

About Fast Fiction:

Writers flock to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) each November because it provides a procrastination-busting deadline. But only a fraction of the participants meet their goal. Denise Jaden was part of that fraction, writing first drafts of her two published young adult novels during NaNoWriMo. In Fast Fiction, she shows other writers how to do what she did, step-by-step, writer to writer. Her process starts with a prep period for thinking through plot, theme, characters, and setting. Then Jaden provides day-by-day coaching for the thirty-day drafting period. Finally, her revision tips help writers turn merely workable drafts into compelling and publishable novels.

A portion of publisher proceeds will be donated to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

 

Where you can find Fast Fiction:

New World Library  |  Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  IndieBound  |  GoodReads

The giveaway:

Remember, all you have to do is leave comments to get lots of extra entries to win some great prizes.

Don't know what to comment about? Tell us the name of your favorite writing book!

Access the Rafflecopter giveaway here.

Cover Stories + Win-It: Never Enough

Denise Jaden was here in 2010 to share the Cover Story for Losing Faith, and she's back on her GCC tour for Never Enough, which has a cover with amazing light! Here's Denise: "I didn’t have much in mind for the cover of this book. I feel like there are lots of things I wanted it to encompass, and because I don’t have much of an artist brain, I didn’t know how to do that.

"With my first novel, I was told I would have time to make some suggestions, but then it never came up again. With this one, the cover was not mentioned until they had a final version to show me.

"I really love my cover, but to be perfectly honest, the girl on the cover doesn’t look like either of the main girls in my novel. I was a little bothered by this initially, but I must say, I think they’ve chosen a picture that covers a lot of the themes and fits the tone of the book. The image is a stock photo, which is fine with me. I hope that one day one of my novels will have a live model, but this photo works so well with the tone that I don’t think one was needed for this. I really think the people in the art department at Simon Pulse are masterful!

"I did mention my concerns over character congruity. We discussed it, and eventually both agreed that capturing the tone of the book is more important.

"The original version said 'Title Here,' because my book did not yet have a firm title, but otherwise it is exactly the same, with an added tagline.

"I’m thrilled with the cover overall. I think Simon Pulse does an amazing job with covers, and I really think mine is eye-catching in its final version."

Thanks, Denise! It bugs me when the cover model doesn't resemble a character, but I agree with you that the tone is most important. I have to say that I love the light play in this cover. The branches almost obscured by sunspots, the green tones with blue title font--lovely.

What do you guys think?

PS-Denise is holding a contest on her blog for four boxes of great books! If you comment here, you're automatically eligible to win. HOORAY.

PPS-Check out the trailer!

PPPS-Last week's Win-It Wednesday winner of Tara Altebrando's latest is... Brianna! Send me your address, B.

Win-It Wednesday: Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

The winner of last week's contest for You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz is... Mitzy! Send me your address, M. You'll love this book, even if it makes you weep.I featured Denise Jaden's Losing Faith Cover Story last month, and today she's offering up a copy of the book to one lucky commenter! The story deals with assumptions about people, outcasts, and the twisted mystery behind a sister's death. Read more on The Contemps! Losing Faith is the perfect purply book to show today since I'm wearing purple in support of Glaad's Spirit Day to honor the lives of the GLBT teens who've committed suicide. Go find some purple to wear! (And watch the incredible We Stop Hate video at I Heart Daily -- this organization is one to watch and to make your own video for, asap!). So how do you enter to win? Tell me one way that you're stopping hate in your corner of the world. You can say that you're wearing purple or you watched Alyx's amazing video or that you're spreading the word about We Stop Hate or that you stood up for someone recently -- everything counts and adds up to more love. (They're here on Facebook and Twitter.) Happy Wednesday! PS--Ooh, Jen's first comment made me remember that I so wanted to mention the "It Gets Better" project too -- amazing! Even Hilary made a video today. And if you haven't seen Fort Worth City Councilman Joe Burns and his incredible speech at a recent meeting, get out your tissue box and press play:

Cover Stories: Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

Last week on The Contemps, there was a spotlight on Denise Jaden's new novel, Losing Faith. Her cover is pretty unique, in that it doesn't have a model or one single iconic image on it. Here she is to tell us how it came about:

"I had a few ideas in mind for my cover after it had sold. I didn't really think about the artwork until then. Usually what I envisioned included a cliff of some kind and a girl with arms outstretched, but I admit, I'm not much of a visionary in this area.

"My editor let me know a few days before they would have a finalized cover design for Losing Faith. To be honest, I expected there would be more of a conversation about their plans or my expectations, but that's not how it went in my case.

"I was so incredibly impatient waiting to see my cover art for the first time. As soon as I knew it was coming, I didn't leave my computer all day! Then, would you believe, when the email did come, for some reason the attachment didn't come through. My agent wrote me immediately, wanting to know what I thought of the cover, and my reply was something like, 'What I think is that I want to see the flippin' thing. RIGHT NOW!' She emailed another copy off to me, and when it arrived, it was a very small jpg copy of the art, and because it was white, on the white background of my screen, it really was not very impressive at first. In fact, it kind of just looked like a smudge on my screen. I spoke with my agent and she suggested I print it out. Best suggestion ever. In full size, and away from the computer screen, I fell in love, and have been in love ever since.

"I did make a few comments to my editor about the vague nature of the image at the bottom of the cover. She explained that this vagueness was purposeful, as they did not want the image to seem too morbid. That made perfect sense to me. "The only changes from the original version I saw, were the addition of a tagline reading, 'A terrible secret. A terrible fate.' And with the finished copies, the spine includes purple and butterflies (a winning combination in my opinion!)

"My cover was created strictly with stock photos. I've always been drawn to covers with real-life models, and I had hoped for that, but as I said, I really do love the finished version of my cover.

"There are lots of hidden meanings and underlying messages in the cover, at least in my opinion. But I think the Losing Faith cover is one that everyone may take something a little different from, and that's okay with me. The figure at the bottom was not apparent to me at first, and it took a lot of staring and contemplating to figure out exactly what it was supposed to be. I'd rather not explain it, as I think it's better if it's one of those things that people take what they see from it."

I'm still trying to find the figure! Thanks, Denise! Here's a look at the spine, which I think stands out with the butterflies.

What do you guys think of this cover?