On Twitter, Gray explained further that she was proud to have her main character just “being” on the cover and not smiling. While we’ve seen more Black boys in children’s and middle-grade fantasy over the last few years, YA fantasy still lags behind. She wanted Black boys to know this book was another way to see themselves. Gray noted that other than the second book in Roseanne Brown’s duology ( A Psalm of Storms and Silence), there were no other YA fantasy books with a Black boy on the cover. The day after Penguin Teen and the Tamara Hall Show revealed the very different cover for book two of her trilogy, Gray went online to address the reason for this change, which swapped the original version’s artwork for a new version featuring closeups of the characters’ decided to change the covers of my books-here’s why! #writertok #authortok #booktok #books #yafantasy #yalit #elfitup #viral ♬ original sound – AyanaGray Gray regularly responds to readers and aspiring writers via TikTok videos and Twitter replies. One such author is Beasts of Prey author Ayana Gray. To demystify publishing and all sorts of behind-the-scenes decisions, many authors have taken to social media to share information with their audience and devoted readers. In most cases, we just don’t know why it happens.
Sometimes this is derailed because the publisher changes hands or the designer moves away from the project. This is a small problem, but the order of perfectly matching cover art brings moments of relief in a world of chaos.
#Beasts of prey book 2 series#
For readers who like their copies of a book series to match spine to spine and cover to cover, it’s very disappointing when series change cover styles midway through release.