Are You Alone On Purpose?
U.S. Trade Paperback
(Puffin, 2007)
If you read below about the long, sad history of the cover of Are You Alone on Purpose through its various editions, you will understand my joy at receiving this cover design from Puffin/Penguin for the reprint edition (due out in spring, 2007).
I love this cover. I love it. I've been waiting for it since 1994. And you know what? It was worth the wait. I am incredibly lucky. All these years, and my first novel is not only getting to stay in print, but with this cover.
That's my lovely, bookish Alison! That's her! Hooray! Hooray for Puffin!
U.S. Hardcover
(Houghton Mifflin, 1994)
I cried when I received this jacket. This was my first novel, and I hated the cover! I still hate it. Alison is supposed to be pretty! And what's with that awful mustard color? I thought about lodging a protest, but I knew it would do no good. Sigh.
Years later, the woman who reviewed this book for School Library Journal told me that she'd loved the book but hated the cover, and asked the publisher at a convention to ask if he couldn't make a change. Of course it was far too late, and the book was far too small-time, for that, but I love the reviewer, Sharon Grover, for having made the effort. (Sharon, by the way, was shocked when I thanked her years later for the lovely review. "You remember who reviews your books?!" Well, um, yes. Is that strange?)
U.S. Paperback
(Fawcett Juniper, 1996)
I didn't like this cover either (and the edition went out of print fast), but I have to say that it's better than the hardcover. Harry looks like a young Rob Lowe (nothing wrong with that, I guess), and the scene on the cover doesn't happen in the book, but at least Alison is pretty.
German: Ausgerechnet Harry!
(Loewe, 1995)
Well, I was pretty beaten down in the area of cover pictures by the time I received this one, and in comparison to the American covers, I thought it rocked.
I still kind of like it. It's certainly a little kitschy, but that is definitely my Alison and my Harry.
Danish: Er et Meo Vilje, Du er Alene
(CDR Forlag, 1998)
At last! The '90s came to a close with a cover for Are You Alone that I really liked. Interestingly, like many of the covers of my later books, this one focuses deeply on the faces of Alison and Harry, indicating that character psychology is a big part of the book. And that really, really, really is Alison and Harry on the cover. Big kisses to the Danes.
