#15 - This Newsletter Has The So Let Them Burn (2024) Cover In It
AKA "eeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!"
PROLOGUE
It’s May, which means we’re now almost halfway through 2023. Isn’t that wild? I’m still processing 2020, personally, but time creeps ever onward. Last month was my birth month, during which I turned 33 whole years old, and it was also when I saw the final draft of my book cover, which I will be sharing with you all today!
Before that, however, I just finished reading a 2024 debut, FOUL DAYS by Genoveva Dimova, and it was so good, you guys. Television wise, I’ve joined the RuPaul’s Drag Race crowd. I'd never seen the show, so I started from Season 1 and now I’m up to Season 6.
Finally, there’s no real song or album that I’ve been listening to regularly, but Sabrina Carpenter dropped an extended play of emails i can’t send called emails i can’t send fwd:, and it’s just as good as the original.
Happy Met Gala 2023 Day, all. Let’s get on with the show!
CHAPTER 1: LOOK AT MY COVER!!!
Today, I finally get to share the cover for SO LET THEM BURN! But I figured I would also demystify my journey to this, the cover of my dreams, in case anyone is interested in all of that behind-the-scenes stuff. First of all, here is the cover. Please don’t share this anywhere until I post it to my social media in about an hour.
SO LET THEM BURN is the first book in the Divine Traitors duology, and it would mean the world to be if you would preorder my book so I can write more of them in the future. The official synopsis is as follows:
Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who’s forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland—perfect for fans of Iron Widow and The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.
When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.
As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.
Now: how did this cover happen? First, my editor, the wonderful Alexandra Hightower, asked me to submit some covers that I liked—a request for which I have been training my whole life. I have a Pinterest board devoted to saving covers I find particularly striking, and the ones I ended up pulling from it were the below.
I also took the initiative of adding some art I’d collected from artists who had captured the general vibe I wanted. With their names included, of course, in case my publisher wanted to actually hire any of them for my cover.
Finally, I gave them one major and likely controversial note: NO ORANGE. Orange is my least favorite color, and I begged for them not to include it anywhere, even though… a book called So Let Them Burn? With no orange? OK, Kamilah, go off then.
The next time I heard from Alex, it was to let me know that they would like to hire Taj Francis as my cover artist. In addition to my cover, Taj has also done the cover for BLOOD SCION by Deborah Falaye and WINGS OF EBONY by J. Elle. He’s also a fellow Jamaican, so I felt like I was in good hands not only with him but with my publisher.
I absolutely cried, you guys. Especially when I saw the original quick sketch of the direction they were thinking of for the cover. It was PERFECT. Prior to the final version, I was shown two works-in-progress, and at those stages I was allowed to weigh in on the art, the color scheme, the positioning, etc. But every step of the way, my notes were pretty minor. I mean. Look at it. LOOK at it. Taj and LBYR knocked this one out of the park, and I could not be more pleased.
My journey to a final cover isn’t uniform across the board, I know. But if you’ve ever wondered about one way of getting from point A to point B, I hope this helps! I’m going to go back to staring at my cover now.
CHAPTER 2: HAVE A LITTLE PODCAST, AS A TREAT
Whether you’re writing a romance novel or just writing a book with a romance subplot, Romancing the Story hosted by Sarah Gamez is for you!
CHAPTER 3: THE REC ROOM
Welcome to the Rec Room, the section of my newsletter that I use to highlight books coming out each month I’m really excited about. For May, we have…
COURT OF THE UNDYING SEASONS by A.M. Strickland
When nineteen-year-old Fin volunteers to take her secret love's place in their village's Finding, she is terrified. Those who are chosen at the Finding are whisked away to Castle Courtsheart, a vampire school where human students either succeed and become vampires, fail and spend the rest of their lives as human thralls...or they don't survive long enough to become either. Fin is determined to forge a different path: learn how to kill the undead and get revenge for her mother, who was taken by the vampires years ago.
RILEY WEAVER NEEDS A DATE TO THE GAYBUTANTE BALL by Jason June
Femme, gay teen podcaster Riley Weaver has made it to junior year, which means he can finally apply for membership into the Gaybutante Society, the LGBTQ+ organization that has launched dozens of queer teens' careers in pop culture, arts, and activism. The process to get into the society is a marathon of charity events, parties, and general gay chaos, culminating in the annual Gaybutante Ball. The one requirement for the ball? A date.
CHAPTER 4: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
As you may know, I adopted a shelter cat in December 2021, who I named Sora Mittens. Sora has been extra cuddly lately and she takes any excuse to nap with me., look.
EPILOGUE
Thank you for subscribing and/or for sticking around! I hope you like rambles, shenanigans, and nonsense, because that’s truly all this is. Next month is the official start of summer, which means my sister’s birthday, Summer Fridays, and even more book marketing, so protect your joy!
This cover is so gorgeous!
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, LOOK AT THAT COVER