Create Your Debut YA Cover
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Usually I don’t do YA, but…
A few months back I posted the steps to Create Your Debut Fantasy Novel Cover. Now it’s time to do something for the Teens. Above is my debut YA cover. I had to modify the rules for this sort of cover to ensure the appropriate YA clichés were represented:
What will yours look like?
CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER
1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
The name that appears is your author name.
2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml
The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.
3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.net
Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.
4 – Use Photoshop, PicMonkey, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.
5 – Post it to your site along with this text.
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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tanita says
Heh. Perfect cap to the coverFAIL 2009 kerfuffle. Here’s mine.
Elizabeth says
Awesome! Mine’s here.
jennifer says
cool idea, i made one, it’s up on my blog!
DaviMack says
Fun fun FUN! here’s my attempt!
Str4y says
I just couldn’t resist…
Keep
Scope Notes says
Man, these are lookin’ good. I’ll be adding them all to the gallery.
Melissa (Book Nut) says
I had fun with it. Thanks for the diversion!
Diana Peterfreund says
Okay, I had to LOL at this, given that my debut YA, RAMPANT, actually does have:
1) a one-word title
2) a cover with a face on it.
So I did two mock-ups, one for a girl book, and one for a boy book. I am surprised how realistic these look, and I really, really want to read YANK now!
My “girl” book, REMINISCE:
http://bit.ly/e8d6R
My “boy” book, YANK:
http://bit.ly/iEksY
Scope Notes says
Ha – yeah, these turned out great! Keep Yank in your back packet for future use – I can foresee a banned book in the making.
Anna Jarzab says
Here’s mine. Warning: it’s really creepy.
jmlib923 says
My faux cover is at http://nbplteenbookblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/create-your-own-ya-book-cover/
Shalan says
Mine is really weird:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3jJtonujxLQ/Sm9I9VYn-VI/AAAAAAAAAgc/n7Lnk-3Qbzo/s320/GuzzleBookCover.jpg
Sorry I have no clue how to link.
🙂
Alyson says
A fun break
Scorn
Abby says
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.
Here’s my book, WHISK
www.nabzradio.com says
Reading posts like this make surfing such a pleasure
Emily Ellsworth says
Way awesome! Mine is here
http://emilysreadingroom.blogspot.com/2009/07/wonder-my-debut-ya-novel-cover.html
melissa says
Loved this. Mine wasn’t as cool as yours. But, still so much fun. See it here
Holly says
That was fun! Here’s mine: http://hollysredbike.blogspot.com/2009/07/elude-my-fake-ya-novel.html
thereadingzone says
Haha, too fun! Mine is here: http://thereadingzone.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/create-your-debut-ya-cover/
Sarah
Elizabeth says
Your YANK cover is amazing. I would definitely pick it up in the store. Possibly to mock it, but still — into the reader’s hands is half the battle, right?
aquafortis says
This is a perfect idea. I can’t resist these. Here’s mine:
http://writingya.blogspot.com/2009/07/create-your-debut-ya-cover.html
birdseyemaple says
Fun! Thanks for the idea.
http://maplesandfiddleheads.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/my-debut-ya-title/
Jennie says
Fun stuff!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spinningjennie/3767347255/
Dean says
Fun stuff. I’m not convinced that mine will sell, though…
http://seagullboy.blogspot.com/2009/07/showcase.html
Lisa Chellman says
What a fun meme! Thanks! The gallery looks amazing. Most of them look as good or better than a lot of what’s on the shelf! Here’s mine.
Ink Mage says
Mine is another “Pluck,” although I used a different picture and completely different style. Cool idea!
Sophie says
I had fun making mine, although I didn’t realize at first you were supposed to put a person on the cover.
http://notemilybookblog.tumblr.com/post/151637237/fake-cover-time
KHazelrigg says
Intriguing challenge. I really like the one I ended up with, although I have to say it looks too creepy for me to read.
This girl has obviously been through something incredibly traumatic. And for reasons I cannot articulate, I think there’s definitely something supernatural going on here.
Linz says
This challenge was awesome. It was fun being artsy and just having fun. I don’t have a site or blog, but this is my cover.
http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z294/ill_be_waiting_18/?action=view¤t=image.jpg
C.K. says
Argh, I messed up by reading the instructions too quickly and not realizing the photo had to contain a person so the result isn’t as YAish as it could’ve been. Still fun though.
http://theportableartist.hypermart.net/ck/archive403.htm
The Vintage Reader says
Oh, this was great. Presenting: Pitch.
Boni Ashburn says
Oh, this was way too fun 🙂 Thanks Travis!
Mine’s up on my blog http://boniashburn.com/blog/
Boni Ashburn says
Hey Travis- I added a cover that my son Henry did to my own blog post (he doesn’t have a blog). If you could add it too, that would be cool 🙂
http://boniashburn.com/blog/
Thanks!
Scope Notes says
It has been added – very nice.
Bridget says
I found this from Alyson’s post on our Youth Services blog : ) So here’s the one that I made: http://twitpic.com/c332g. This was pretty much the most entertaining part of my day.
Gretchen says
Amazingly accurate!
http://blogwasstar.blogspot.com/2009/07/thrash.html
The Alien Onions says
Hilarious and wonderful!
We’re a bit late to the party but we’ve put a couple up on our blog.
kay says
I did one too, and had so much fun with it! My verb was sober!
http://infiniteshelf.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/sober-by-hellie-p-hart/
teacherninja says
Here’s mine, thanks!
http://www.teacherninjas.com/2009/07/betray.html
margo says
The gallery is amazing!! 🙂 I love seeing how everyone did their own! I’m going to post it on my book blog where hopefully more people will see it. May I link them back to you or let you know so you can do what you will with them? My friend Sara Dragonfly Book Review did one too. I didn’t know where the comment thing was for your gallery thing so I posted here. Nice work!!!
-Margo
Scope Notes says
Link away – thanks!
Phil says
Fun! Here’s mine.
KLHoward says
This was so much fun! Thanks for this!
I have two up on my blog (I couldn’t resist).
Becky says
Thanks for a fun activity! =) Now I want to write a book. Here’s my cover. http://libridilectio.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-debut-ya-cover.html
Lauri says
I made one!!
You can see it here:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BQQ2F2rxi9E/SnMluLb909I/AAAAAAAAAJ8/QmwX6tsR_v8/s1600-h/YA+book+Focus.jpg
Arielle says
This was fun 🙂
My debut YA cover: http://bookatopia.blogspot.com/2009/08/create-your-debut-ya-cover.html
Amber says
Can I play too?
http://ajbreadcrumbs.blogspot.com/2009/08/debut-book-covers.html
My ‘random VERB’ was ‘afraid’, though.
??
Amber says
Oh…the ‘person’ rule. Duh. Read the instructions.
O well. It was fun anyway.
Linz2 says
Awesome challenge. I had so much fun that I made 4 more!
http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z294/ill_be_waiting_18/?action=view¤t=weep2.jpg
http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z294/ill_be_waiting_18/?action=view¤t=mime.jpg
http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z294/ill_be_waiting_18/?action=view¤t=end1.jpg
http://s191.photobucket.com/albums/z294/ill_be_waiting_18/?action=view¤t=burn-1.jpg
I think, although I forgot to keep the names the same, End and Burn could be part of a series. The feel of the covers kinda makes me feel that one’s a sequel to the other.
Fear Death By Water says
http://exitofhumanity.blogspot.com/2009/08/bit-of-departure.html
Ivy says
Great challenge!
Mine is here http://willingtoseeless.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-debut-ya-novel.html
Vicki says
This was so much fun!!
http://ilratb.blogspot.com/2009/08/create-your-debut-ya-novel-cover.html
Kim says
What fun! One more safe addiction . . .
http://zqueenbees.blogspot.com/2009/08/create-your-own-ya-novel-cover.html
Jen says
Ha! This is amazing. Aren’t we all a sucker for YA fiction?
Here’s mine… Bluster! (with a rather English pen name too.)
http://divinest-sense.blogspot.com/2009/08/little-fun.html
Fun!
Bill Bartmann says
Excellent site, keep up the good work
Tiffany says
My cover is at http://tiffanygholar.blogspot.com/2009/09/widget-wednesday-create-your-own-young.html and because I liked the concept so much, I have included it as my Widget Wednesday generator for this week.
scrumptious says
I hope it’s not too late to join the party! I just found this and your fantasy book cover and had a great time with them. I really like how you tailored the instructions for this one to generate a very YA cover.
Mine turned out pretty creepy, so check out Order, the latest in the deluge of dark, dystopian, disaster books being published for young adults!
Meghan Elyssa Gunz says
I had so much fun.
http://meghangunz.tumblr.com/post/539926715/http-100scopenotes-com-2009-07-28-create-your-deb
Kirsten says
This is great! I’m going to use this in one of my programs with my teens at my library!!!