cover reveal: the ambition monster paperback is here!

and i am love with it

It’s almost here! If paperbacks are your thing (they are very much mine!) you can pre-order the book Harper’s Bazaar called “intimate and intensely resonant,” Esquire named one of best memoirs of the year and my mom said was “a shitty thing to do to anyone” now and it will arrive on May 13th.

Check it out:

The new cover image is by the artist Roxana Halls, whose work depicts “women on the verge” and honestly could not be more perfect for a book where the protagonist is often at least a bit unhinged. I love the hair, I love the shirt, I love how the one shoulder is wilding out. I LOVE this cover.

As my friend Emma wrote last year, getting a book cover right is a tricky beast. My editor Kate and I were deeply aligned on the creative direction for Ambition Monster in both iterations (I love the hardcover too), but that is often not (and maybe rarely?) the case for most authors and was in no way the case for my first book (a career guide for misfits) where the starting design point was an anthropomorphized pissed-off stiletto, then moved on to a stock photo of a puppy in a tie, then a rainbow giraffe and on and on.

It was the #girlboss heyday and I had to fight to keep, among other terrible corporate tropes, the “sexy biz lady” vibes at bay. In one of my final Hail Marys on the final cover, I asked if we could un-crop the woman’s button down so she wasn’t baring midriff and cover up her cleavage so she didn’t resemble the “slutty bank teller” costume you’d snag at a Spirit Halloween pop-up.

I can’t find all of the iterations as it was zillion years ago now, but dug up two below.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart for all your support of this book — I’m still receiving letters and messages about what Ambition Monster has meant to people and they always leave me feeling humbled and grateful. Writing this book changed my life — it brings me sincere joy that’s impacted a few other lives too.

xo

P.S. I’ll be doing a little mini-promotion tour surrounding the paperback release — if you have any suggestions for podcasts/Substacks/dance halls where you’d like to see me hawk my wares, DM me or let me know in the comments below.

P.S.S.

1. This was after the stilettos/puppies/giraffes when we were “getting close.” I spent a long time zooming in on that zany “mouth.” 10/10 recommend doing the same.

2. This one is close to the final cover but note the title placement (who can read it?!) and the too-aggressive-for-work boobs. I fought every detail — not until I loved it, but until my agent told me I needed to stop as I was “eroding good will.” LOL.