A dirty little secret about book publishing is that authors such as myself rarely ever get to design the cover of their book. Yeah, as a courtesy
the publisher will email you a jpeg and, though they hope the author approves, they will usually go with it whether you like it or not.
Earlier this year, when the editorial team at
Running Press sent me over the cover for Fangirl
– featuring a brunette girl gazing skyward in the direction of a
silhouetted pop star with her head phones in hands – I have to admit that, at
first, I didn’t like it very much. But the publisher made some tweaks that I
had suggested and also explained why they believed the imagery worked for this kind of novel, and ultimately
the cover grew on me. And months later, the cover has proved to be a hit, proving once again that my judgment about many
things is often way off base. My publisher was right!
Then, over time, after signing hundreds of copies and seeing
the image non-stop over the last few months, I suddenly was struck with this
question: Who is that girl on the cover of my book anyway?
I mean, she could be anybody. A farmer’s daughter from
Nebraska. A high school student in Florida. An L.A. valley girl who sat for a photo shoot one day and blew the
money on an X Box. Hey, maybe as luck would have it she was, like the fangirl
in my book, from Bakersfield, California! Or maybe she was from a foreign
country. The truth was that I really had no clue.
The only real information I had was that the image hadn’t
come from a shoot that the publisher set up specifically for Fangirl. Rather,
it was a “stock” photo they discovered while searching the archives of various
agencies that sell images to media outlets.
Still, the journalist in me just needed to know who the “fangirl”
on Fangirl was. So, as I am known to do, I grew obsessed with finding out.
I started with the folks back at my publisher in
Philadelphia, who did a little digging on my behalf and discovered that the
photo agency was Colourbox, which it turns out is one of the world’s biggest
suppliers of photos and images. But, my contact back in Philly wrote me,
“Unfortunately, the agency’s policy dictates that they can’t put clients in
contact or make special requests to photographers.”
Luckily, I was able to get the name of the photographer, Yuri Zhuravov.
And with some help I also obtained his email address. His name seemed to be Russian. I hoped I was getting closer.
So I wrote the photographer, explaining that I was an American
author whose publisher had used a photo of a girl he shot at some point in the
past, and that I wanted to interview her about being on my book cover. His
response can best be described by the sound that is made when a flea is born:
silence. I never heard from the photographer!
So I wrote him again. Only this time, I put the email
through Google Translator into Russian. Still nothing.
A few weeks later, I got an email that my service provider
alerted me it could be SPAM. But it was
far from it.
It was from someone named Anna Kostyleva and it read, “Hello! My name is Ann. Yura Zhuravov, the
photographer, told me to write you. He did a photo for your book.”
After some subsequent back and forth on email – how did people
communicate before Web translation software? – a clear picture of the Fangirl
girl emerged.
Via our email exchanges, I learned that Anna is a Russian
model and student. She lives in the city of Krasnoyarsk, which is the third
largest city in the region of Siberia. Anna is 17 years old and turns 18 in
February. However, the photo on the cover of my book was shot in spring 2011
when she was just 16.
Did she realize that she had become the face of Fangirl? “I
knew that someone bought my photo,” she said, “because usually photos are
bought for different Internet articles and magazines, but I didn’t expect to be
on your book’s cover. It is very pleasant for me.” She calls being on the cover
of Fangirl “a great honor,” explaining that it is something that she has never
experienced in the few years she has been modeling, which is something she
hopes to do more of. “I have done quite a lot of filming, a variety of magazines,
but it is of course only beginning.”
Since Fangirl is about a pop star and a fan, I had to ask
what musicians she likes and she explained that she likes Enrique Iglesias and
Pussycat Dolls, but is not a fan of “any particular style.” She it just “depends on
my mood.”
As for her future, would she ever want to move to the USA
and maybe give it a go in Hollywood? “For now,” she explained, “my goal is to
get a higher education, a good job, maybe something at a chidren’s school here
at home because I love children. I have never seriously thought about if would move to Hollywood, that is at the level of a dream -- that is, something very
desirable but will never be.”
Well, I am grateful that a random photo shoot Anna did back
in 2011 has forever connected me, her and all the readers of Fangirl. Should it
ever be made into a movie, I will personally make sure she is flown to Hollywood
for the premiere!
Here are some more photos of Anna’s other modeling work:
(Photos courtesy of Anna Kostyleva)
.JPG)
