Holy crap, I love the cover of my next book!

My next novel, Little Brother, is my first kids' book, a young adult novel about hacker kids in San Francisco who fight the anti-terrorist cops to reinstate the bill of rights ("A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion, as necessary and dangerous as file sharing, free speech, and bottled water on a plane." - Scott Westerfeld, author of UGLIES and EXTRAS). Tor Books's brilliant Art Director Irene Gallo worked with designer Peter Lutjen to create the cover for the book -- the best one I've had to date. She's got a post up on her book design blog that goes into some detail on the creative process.

Peter Lutjen came up with a bunch of different designs that eventually evolved into the final. The penultimate version used a photo-realistic illustration that everyone almost loved. One last tweak of the design was to have the imagery re-drawn in a freer more organic style by Yuko Shimizu -- that seemed to unify everything to everyone’s liking.

Link

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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herkamer

I’m buying it.
mindysan33

That’s awesome! Good artwork is a big help in selling a book, I think.

I’m looking forward to reading this to my daughter. More writers I like should write children’s/YA books. But really only because it gives me an excuse to read good fiction during my semesters- since I never have time to read for fun during them. That’s what I get for studying history, I suppose- a life of non-fiction reading.

Mindysan
mycophage

“I can make it on my own!”

Aww. li’l brudda.
Brian Damage

Kind of looks like a poster for “Vote YES on prop 31337 – Kids Against Cockroaches bill”. It’s nice though. Plus, you get bonus points for using the word “penultimate.”
JDubsMontreal

Slightly unfair that you’re showing us the cover to a book that won’t be available until April, but I agree, great art. Looks like a fun read. Looking forward to it.

JDubs
mwiik

I’m looking forward to a series of kids-lead-world-revolution books.
diane

Sounds like a great 21st century story.

I’m hoping that one of the teenagers decides to go into librarianship – we’re always on the frontlines of the battle for First Amendment rights!
lamarlowe

Love it?? Hell, they’re not even wearing chucks. Cripers, and might I add, jiminy!

:) Of course, one should never judge a book by it’s cover.
normanack

I’m so happy you’ve written a book for kids! One tiny gripe: Why isn’t it available NOW? I want it NOW! ;)
Pyros

Nice.
Subvertia

I’m going to pre-order a copy for my 14 year old. Thanks for the early notice and good job on the cover!
dan

I’m so glad you didn’t end up with the Blair Witch Project cover.
Joel Johnson

I hope you are listening to southern rap group Little Brother, as well as their fantastic team-up Phonte Coleman did with Dutch DJ Nicolay called “Foreign Exchange.” For serious.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

MoeJoe, there always has to be someone who liked the old cover design better. Thank you for stepping in to fill that role.
shortfatsteve

Nice cover, but I think there’s a grammar problem with your tag line. “Who’s watching back?” implies that “you” from the first line (or something else in the second person) should be the answer, not the titular (third person) “Little Brother.” Wouldn’t it be better to ask “Who’s watching him?” or another question that implies a third person answer?
Kyle Goetz

I’m going to get a copy for myself and one for my little sister, who just turned 13. She doesn’t like reading too much, but I’m hoping I can turn her to our side (of reading and resistance)!
Frozen

Imagine a trainer stamping on a human face – forever.
Irene Delse

#14: Just what I thought when I saw that cover… A wink to both 1984 and Good Omens, I guess ?
dwiff

Please be informed that your use of the letter “X” (X, x) in your cover design constitutes an infringement on the intellectual property owned by Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) and licensed to 20th Century Fox Film Corp (subsidiary News Corporation) for use in feature films.

Please remove said “X” from future trade dress for the publication “Little Brother.”

cc: estate of George Orwell, Apple Corp circa 1983, CBS & Endemol, bbsa.org…
MoeJoe

Hey, is it okay if I like the penultimate cover better?
Seth Finkelstein

Maybe it’s just that I remember “blaxploitation”, but that big “X” and the “Little Brother” and the characters in shadow (dark) makes it look like it’s about Malcolm X’s little brother – i.e. the title reads like “Little Brother X”

It looks very early-70′s to me. Take a look at the logo here for “Mod Squad”

http://www.chezgrae.com/modsquad/
The Mad Hatter

Moonbat, I for one think 12-15 year-olds can think for themselves. It’s not like that Daily Show segment some of us have seen where politics are being marketed to kids who don’t know how to read yet. I think we have all read an opinionated book by the time we are twelve, as we should.

I take that all back if you were being sarcastic, like Dwiff, in which case, you are very funny.

I can only hope it will be great.
jphilby

Looks good! Where’s the PDF?