Diversity in books: Seeking Stars has a new cover!
February 3, 2023 | General
I recently received feedback about the cover of my debut romance novel, Seeking Stars. Some of it had to do with the business side of it, which created questions about the message my cover was sending to potential readers. But the comment that really stayed with me had to do with an important piece of the design itself: I talk a lot about diversity in books, but it’s not clear enough in this cover that my book has plus size representation. This led me down a rabbit hole… and I’m very excited to announce that Seeking Stars is getting a new cover!
The old cover of Seeking Stars
Let’s break down the old cover for my book. We have the Los Angeles’ skyline in the background and the beach as the setting; this is because Liam is a Hollywood star, and they spend a lot of time at the beach alone. There are paparazzi loitering in the sand, trying to get a photo of them, because paps are gonna pap, and they are part of this celebrity romance. Half of the image is water, because important things happen in the water (👀). In the forefront, the main characters. Now, play close attention to Ana. You can see she has light brown skin, and you may take note of her thick thighs… but can you see her belly rolls? They’re not that clear, are they?
That’s the piece of feedback that really got to me. Representation is one of the main reasons I’m motivated to write. I want there to be stories that would have changed my life at twenty years old. To see pieces of me in books with guaranteed happy endings would have really helped, you know? So I write them, and hope they mean something to other people, too.
The above being the case, I had to decide how I was going to include representation everywhere in my work, not only in the story. That meant thinking about the covers I was going to create for my characters. Did you know that photos of multicultural couples are scarce? And almost non-existent for fat people. If you try to mix the two, it’s almost impossible. So I went for illustrated, and created this version.
Why diversity in books is a big deal
I’ll let you in a little secret: I wasn’t 100% in love with the previous cover for my debut novel. I personally enjoyed a lot of it, like the floaties and Ana’s thick thighs. But if you couldn’t see her size, it didn’t serve me.
Like I said before, representation is critical to me. When we look at structures of power in society, and we compare it to the publishing industry, we can see the distribution of people making decisions is similar. At least among traditional publishing, the majority of actors continue to be white, cis, straight, and abled-bodied. In the case of Latine people, estimations suggest we represent 7% of the industry. We are way more than that in the world; evidently, we’re under-represented. In terms of total books published, the numbers don’t look better. Some of the last surveys report only 11% of all publications were written by folk identifying as People of Color. Historically, it looks like up to 95% of all books published since the 50s were written by white folk.
These numbers are staggering, and they’re only reflecting studies looking into the race/ethnicity conflation typical in North America. In the references I cited here, you can see stats for other identities, such as gender and sexual orientation. If you look for data on body size diversity in them, you will not find it. I’m not surprised; except for those of us actively working in fat liberationist spaces, most people don’t think of fatness as an identity to be included in diversity and inclusion efforts. This should change; it’s important that we include body size in DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) conceptualizations and that we think of fatness as a social justice issue.
But it should not stay in theoretical places only. We need action. From policies to something as small as what bodies we represent on a book cover, we need to be purposeful. That’s the only way in which we will help create and sustain change.
Seeking Stars gets a new cover
With all of that in mind, I had to evaluate if I should change the cover for my book. I had to weigh what mattered most: avoiding the risk of confusion after a cover change, or updating the balance of diversity in books by changing the design. The latter won. Logistical problems aside, representation matters. If I want to make posts like this more than just rhetoric, I need to be willing to prioritize inclusion.
So I did. I created a new cover for my book, one where you can see Ana’s size much more clearly.
In general, I’m much happier with this cover. The colors are more vibrant, and you can still see Los Angeles in the background. I love the way Liam looks at Ana, like he’s stealing a peak while she’s busy working. In the wraparound cover, the one for the paperback edition, there’s water and a hint to the cabin in which they spend all that time together. And her belly rolls occupy a much larger illustration area! They make me so happy.
I will be updating everything with this new design in the upcoming days. You still have a couple of days left to buy the original cover, if you prefer! After this weekend, though, this will be the official cover for the book 💜
If you’re a creator, I invite you to study your work to assess how you’re actively working toward inclusion. If you don’t create but consume art, whether visual or literary, you could evaluate how you’re purposely seeking the diversification of the media you choose. That way, we can all come together and create the change we need.