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Elizabeth Gilbert asks fans to help her choose a new book cover

'Eat, Pray, Love' author Elizabeth Gilbert is using her Facebook page to allow fans to pick the cover of her new novel.

Pictured is one stand-in cover for Gilbert's new novel as voting continues for the official book jacket.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Writer Elizabeth Gilbert says she and her publisher were arguing over what cover to use for her new novel for months. 

The solution they settled on? Let the masses decide.

“I was going to be a diva and throw my weight around,” Gilbert told USA Today. But then, she says, she thought, “There's a very easy answer to this question.”

Gilbert put three covers for her upcoming novel “The Signature of All Things” on her Facebook page, and invited readers to vote for their favorite until March 24. The chosen cover will be shown on March 25.

The author said that while choosing the cover was a tough process, writing the book itself was quite the opposite.

It was “such a joy and homecoming,” Gilbert said of writing fiction in comparison to memoirs and nonfiction.

“Signature” follows Alma Whittaker, a scientist living in 19th-century Philadelphia who becomes involved with a painter who holds different ideas about life. The book is due to be released Oct. 1 through Viking.

Gilbert is best-known for her bestselling memoir "Eat, Pray, Love," which followed her journey across the world as she tried to recover after a divorce. The book was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts in 2010. The author also published a follow-up memoir, "Committed," in 2010 about her exploration of the custom of marriage as she prepared to marry. Before "Eat, Pray, Love" turned her into a household name, Gilbert also published "Stern Men," a novel, in 2000; "Pilgrims," an award-winning 1997 short story collection; and a biography, "The Last American Man," in 2002.

Check out the possible covers for the author's newest book on Gilbert’s Facebook page here.

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