The Girl on the Cover

Phyllis replied:

A lot of readers have asked that question.  For those of you who had followed the series, from first to last, you’ve seen many different covers for the Alice books.  They started out with funny sketches, morphed into photographs of real girls, then covers that showed just a pair of flip-flops, or cosmetics on a counter, to a long string of covers of what I call “body parts” covers–girls from the neck down, the waist down–the marketing department calls the shots on what is currently popular on book jackets for young adults, but there were a few books that had the same model on them in different poses, representing different ages.  I never knew who the model was, nor did my publisher.  The art department describes the character in the book, and the model agency sends photos of various models, all with numbers or letters, not names.  The editor sends photos of the models they like best to me, and I help choose those who seem most to represent Alice.  But each one of us has our own idea of what Alice looks like, and somehow the real Alice stays inside me.