Here is the second part of our interview with Sarina Lepore, Gemma’s intern from the Pace University/MS in Publishing Program. Last month, Sarina shared her experience using AI programs to create new SnapReads! —first-grade-level adaptations of our books to help new readers approach the bigger book. Her insights on AI and the “human the loop” were fascinating. Since then, Sarina has contributed to other parts of the publishing program, and I caught up with her to learn more.
Trish: Can you tell us about other projects that you’ve worked on in your internship with Gemma?
Sarina: Yes. Recently, we were working on picking out cover images for a forthcoming book, Pressure by Rebecca Rolland. I also had a lot of fun doing that because I’ve never done any cover design or anything like that before. That was a really great experience. I enjoyed it because I got to use my creative mind, which of course, I do with editing, but visual creativeness was very fun. I loved doing that.
Trish: Because we publish for new readers, our books are unusual. We start that narrative process with the cover. And I think you got that! So perhaps you can talk a little bit more about what kinds of images you were looking for, what the process was?
Sarina: We were looking for stock images, photos that already exist. What was interesting was putting in the prompts for those photos. It was different than working on the text prompts because I had to start with a broader prompt and then get more specific whereas with the text, I had to be very specific to get the lower reading level. For the book cover, I just started with prompts like “images of storms” or “images of weather,” something like that just to get ideas. Then if I saw something I liked, I would add more specific prompts like “photos of images and watches” or “weather and watches” or “weather and technology.” That’s when I started to find images of clouds over people’s heads and then from there, it got much more specific.
Trish: It’s funny that we both gravitated toward the less literal clouds over people’s heads to the more evocative, dramatic pictures of storms. It’s a subtle aspect that you understood, Sarina. The cover image should not be too literal because that takes the work of understanding what a story is about away from a new reader. They have to find their way.
Cool. So, what else? Didn’t you do something else?
Sarina: Yes! We worked on the back cover copy for Poison Pen by Susan Thompson. That was very fun for me. In my classes, we have done some work writing cover copy and things like that, but to actually do that for real was so different, especially because when I practice for class, I see someone else’s copy first on a book that is already published. That makes it hard to come up with something completely original. So, I was really excited to work on back cover copy for a real book. It’s so interesting to see how you have to tell so much—but not too much—about what the story is about. At the same time, it all has to flow and make sense. You can’t just throw something in there if it doesn’t match the messaging of everything else that’s on the back.
Trish: What else did you learn when you were working on the copy? We start with the author’s draft to see what’s important to the writer and do a couple drafts. Your second draft was completely different from the first!
Sarina: In the second draft, I learned that you have to allude to the fact that the book belongs to a series. So ,I had added “Follow Tammy on her next mystery,” implying that she had mysteries before, talking about the previous titles. Putting the previous title in the copy is something I would have never known if I hadn’t done this.
Trish: The author loved it! And I tweaked it just a little bit more because I can’t leave anything alone, but it’s going to be your copy on the back cover. That’s so great. You’ve done a lot in a very short period of time, and it’s really great to have someone who understands the power and the limitations of AI and using it really well. Is there anything else you’d like to say about this program or your internship?
Sarina: Of course. I think this has been a really great experience for me, helping to build my skill set, and gain hands-on publishing experience. I’m just excited to bring those skills into the rest of my publishing career. This is a great jump start.