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Welcome to the Tuesday Telegrams, a semimonthly newsletter from award-winning author Naseem Jamnia. You're currently reading a writing-related Telegram, where I update you on projects, offer behind-the-scenes looks, delve into craft, and other publishing and writing topics.

Last week, exactly four months before its release, we revealed the cover of The Glade on social media. I'm utterly delighted at the reception thus far and hope when galleys go out—soon, from what I hear!—that early reviews will also be positive!

I often say I've been blessed by the cover gods. I feel 100% fine bragging about them because, in reality, I've had little to no hand in their design. Below, I go through each of my covers and the little bit of process I was privy to.

Publishers differ on when (or if) they bring in the author for a cover conversation. Sourcebooks, for example, gives (or used to give) a whole presentation on potential cover options. Some artists will create a variety of mock-ups of similar but different enough covers to present from which the final is chosen. I can imagine that there is a decent amount of back-and-forth between artist, art director, marketing team, and editor before the author is brought in. While many authors have a "final say" for the cover built into their contract (you should, after all, love your book's cover, or you're not going to want to advertise it), few have a real hand in the creation process.

Anyone who says you shouldn't judge a book by its cover doesn't understand how integral covers are to bookselling nowadays. They have to carry a lot of information, including the target audience, genre, general vibes, and—for some, though not all, covers—potential content hints. (For example, if you have a doctor's bag on a cover, you'd infer the main character is likely a doctor, or, depending on other context clues, masquerading as one.)

The wrong kind of art can draw in a reader inappropriate for the book at hand. Illustrated characters tend to signal a younger audience than photorealistic characters, for example. If a book is in a series, then you might see the second book's cover have a markedly different style than the first book's—this usually means that the original cover did not reach the target audience or give the appropriate impression of its contents. Publishers will often use that opportunity to create a new cover for the paperback release of the first book to "correct" this.

Font choices give you similar information; you wouldn't have a round, bubbly font on a Serious Literary Book, for example. Fonts can help subvert or heighten whatever vibe the cover is going for. Covers that are basically just the title in a stylized font tell you something about that book depending on what that font is. Is it clinical, implying a pop nonfiction or self-help? Is it cursive-y, implying something more autobiographical or historical? Are there any little flourishes to give you a hint of something more, like the "old timey" Black man tucked into the first letter on the cover of National Book Award-winning novel James?

Books absolutely are and, frankly, should be judged by their covers in a time where a gazillion books are published weekly by a gazillion and one presses. In this day and age, a good cover is worth its book's weight in gold.

See what you can glean about my books based on their covers!

For the original cover of The Bruising of Qilwa, I had absolutely zero input. Almost a year out from release, it appeared in my inbox, and that was that. Elizabeth Story, Tachyon's book designer and artist, is a wizard. Truth be told, especially at this stage, I wouldn't have known what to suggest were they to have asked me. Instead, I got a perfect cover on the first shot.

I did later see alternate color mock-ups of this cover, ones in the green/pink/blue area of things. Red, purple, cream, and gold were the right choice in the end—these colors are reminiscent of what one might find on a Persian carpet and just feel right to me.

For the Rainbow Crate exclusive hardcover of Qilwa, I suggested a list of artists whose styles I jivved with, and one of them, Pauliina Hannuniemi, agreed to do the artwork. After having no input on the OG cover, I thought long and hard about what might work for the RC edition. I already had a hand in the hardback itself, styling it to look like a Persian divan (book of poetry), with calligraphy on the front and back. I decided I wanted a cover that would reflect the slice-of-life content of the book.

I sent Pauliina a list of possible scenes that might work as a cover and relevant passages. She created rough draft sketches of two of the scenes, to which I had little feedback. I couldn't decide, so I helped commission both of the images; one for the cover (seen below), and one as inside art.

I particularly enjoy that this cover is so very different from the original in color and composition, but with the unifying factor of the city.

For the Crononauta translation of Qilwa, I received a rough mock-up of what the final cover would look like, to which I gave feedback regarding Firuz's body type and clothes. Then I received a line drawing of the final image, which I approved without edits, before getting the gorgeous finished version.

The illustrator Elsa Velasco recently posted how they used textures to create the cover, something I registered but couldn't articulate about the fine details. This is EXTREMELY cool, and I'm all the more excited to finally get a print of this on my wall.

Again, this cover links to the others by having the city-state of Qilwa rising in the background. I love that the city motif has been so common. The original title of The Bruising of Qilwa was actually The Last Free Clinic in Qilwa because, to me, the clinic was always the focus of the book. The point was the setting; to have it highlighted in such a profound way over and over feels true to what I was hoping to accomplish.

This brings me to The Glade, the newest of my covers. I received a draft version last spring that was extremely similar; the difference was in Pina's hair (it covered more of her face) and in her hands (they were loose, by her side; I suggested having them clenched). Everything else—the coloring, the background—were already in place. I threw in the idea of maybe having a spider somewhere here, but the faint webs were already drawn in, and my editor (who hates spiders) nixed that idea.

The artist Marcela Bolívar actually just shared the full jacket on IG, which I hadn't seen before. I am FLOORED at the level of detail for the mushroom forest in which many of Pina's (mis-)adventures take place.

What I particularly love about this cover is that it feels very different from other MG covers, even other MG horrors. It stands out in a meaningful way. I don't love photorealistic covers, but Pina looks illustrated enough that this works for me, and also stands out from the cartoon-y images that tend to dominate MG. The coloring screams "eerie," and Pina's body language tells you so much about her and the situation she finds herself in. There's no way someone looks at this book and goes, "Ah yes, this will be a pleasant time for all! No scares in here!"

They'd be very wrong!

Upcoming Events

If you're in Washoe County, head over to the Sparks Library at 2:30 on February 16! Freedom to Read Nevada be screening Free for All, a document tracing the history of public libraries in the US. We'll also be sharing how to get involved in library activism here.

Concerned about stuff? Let's do something about it.

I'm a huge fan of human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid, who has a newsletter called Let's Address This. He sends out an issue almost daily distilling down the nonsense in US society and what we can do about it, as well as a weekly recap.

The latest is, of course, that the fascist billionaire (redundant?) and his cronies now have access to sensitive financial information that could devastate millions of USians.

If you've got thirty seconds, you can send an email to the US Department of Treasury to demand that aforementioned fascist billionaire stop violating our rights under the Privacy Act of 1974. You can get the email script here.

Also, if you care about trans and intersex rights, please sign the open letter that the Society of Gender Professionals (Breaking Binaries Circle) has written to the United Nations OHCHR Special Procedures Coordination Committee against the misleading information Reem Alsalem, their Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women and Girls, has been reporting. The full letter is long but illuminating.

I've done both of these things this morning, and I encourage you to do the same.

Solidarity Corner

If you have organizations or causes you'd like me to spotlight here, please send those links my way. We get through these things when we do so together.

• ​A list of charities grouped by recent events around the world
• ​Community-supported initiatives for recent events, courtesy of author Sarah Gailey's Stone Soup newsletter​
• ​CARE provides both ongoing recovery care for those impacted by Hurricane Helene
• A list of crowdfunding campaigns for displaced Black families, displaced Latine families, displaced Filipino families, and displaced disabled people from the LA fires.

To help Palestinians facing genocide (a "ceasefire" is not an end to violence):

• Information from the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund on supporting Palestinians
• ​UN organizations helping Palestinians
• ​Gaza Funds spotlights current crowdfunding campaigns. Operation Olive Branch does similar work. (There have been some allegations against OOB, so definitely do your homework.)
• The BDS Movement calls for specific brands to be boycotted in order to be effective in their targeting, but we can also be discerning individually. Here is another list of companies profiting off genocide. The only ethical consumption under capitalism is when we trace where the money goes.
• A list of Palestinian-owned brands and Palestinian goods​

Other groups undergoing atrocities:

• Some resources to help Lebanese communities affected by Israel's bombings
• ​UNHCR's donation page to help Syrian refugees
• The International Rescue Committee's page on Sudan
• ​Oman Tigray and the IRC's page on Tigray
• ​IRC page on the DR Congo
• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has pages for these various conflicts

Other forms of activism:

• ​ResistBot is my favorite way to reach out to my representatives. It's free, although you can pay for more effective methods of reaching out, like letters.
• Don't forget to get the latest COVID booster with your annual flu shot! It's never too late! Look for a local pharmacy here.

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