Category Archive

The perils of using stock photographs for a book cover! My publisher almost always hires a model, rents costumes, and pays for a photo-shoot, but on Against the Tide they used stock photos. It costs a fortune to buy the exclusive rights to a stock photo image, so this is why you occasionally see the same model showing up in numerous pages. I expect I’ll see more of this lady over time, as there really is something oddly mysterious about her.  Should you ever spot her anywhere else, please beam me an image!

Ironically, it is my favorite cover of all my novels.

Alternate covers for Until the Dawn:

I always hold my breath the first time I get to see the cover of my upcoming novels. I don’t have a lot of say in how they look, and the cover is a hugely important aspect in selling a book. For the most part I have been very lucky, although I have sometimes been frustrated when I think there is a mismatch between the tone of the book and the cover.

My publisher usually does mock-ups for several alternate versions of a cover, and I rarely get to see them, but this time I got to take a peek, so I’m sharing them with you. I confess to really liking the close-up of the gate…I think it sets a classy, mysterious tone and looks a little different from my standard cover. Still, I’m quite pleased with the picture on the right, which is the cover which was ultimately chosen. I love the image of the mansion at the bottom, which plays a huge role in the book.

Here are a couple of other covers that were also under consideration, but didn’t get much traction:

Until the Dawn will be released in early December…. I can’t wait!

Summer still seems a long way off, but memories of being curled up with a good book under the trees is always a cozy thought, isn’t it?

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Cover Wars: The U.S. vs. the UK

I’m always a little fascinated at how different countries chose entirely different cover art for the same book.  On rare occasions there can be copyright restrictions that prohibit selling a cover overseas so a new one must be made…. But usually it is simply a matter of the marketing departments thinking they know their national audience best, and want a custom-made cover.

Compare these two images for Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book. Both covers are lovely, but the U.S. version (on the left) has a delicate, antique feel, while I’m not sure what the vivid, almost stress-inducing color scheme of the U.K. version is trying to convey.

For more fun looking at rival book covers, click here

Who Reads Romance these days?  A lot of people! 

I was very gratified to see the following statistics of what is selling this past year:

Romance :  1.438 Billion
Mystery/Suspense: 728 Million
Religious/ Inspirational: 717 Million
Sci Fi / Fantasy: 590 Million
Literary Fiction: 470 Million

(source: Simba Information, 2012)

I was pleased to see romance maintain its dominant position in the industry, but was especially pleased to see the strong showing of religion and inspirational titles.  Sales of this category are hard to track because so many titles are sold through churches or Christian bookstores, which are not generally tracked by the traditional measures in the book industry.

(Photo courtesy of Rachel Sian)

The J.K. Rowling – Robert Galbraith Scandal

I have renewed admiration for J.K. Rowling after I learned of her recent flirtation with a guy named Robert Galbraith.

For those who have not heard of the incident, a detective novel called The Cuckoo’s Calling was released by purportedly “first-time author” Robert Galbraith in 2012. It received no special promotion or advertising from its publisher, few noteworthy reviews in famous outlets, and sold a paltry 1,500 copies. Although plans were announced for a follow-up to the novel, this book caused barely a ripple in the literary landscape.

Then came the rumors that Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling.

Apparently, the wife of a lawyer for the publisher of the book had gotten wind of Galbraith’s identity and let the secret slip in a careless Twitter post. It was noted that Rowling and Galbraith shared the same agent and editor. Sales of The Cuckoo’s Calling sky-rocked 4,000 percent after J.K. Rowling admitted authorship, and the book remains at the top of all the best-seller charts.

Rowling claimed to be heart-broken about the public outing of her pseudonym. She was appalled that a woman she had never met felt free to blow her cover, especially after Rowling had been carefully guarding the secret from most of her friends and family. She stated she wanted to write a novel without the ghost of Harry Potter hovering over everyone’s perception of the book. “It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name,” she said about her fleeting months of anonymity before her cover was blown.

The obscurity she craved is gone, but I am fascinated by this story. As a new author who is struggling to get gain in a foothold in the publishing world, I truly admire Rowling for going back to the starting line and trying to see if she could make a name for herself without the advertising, excitement, and general hoopla that would automatically attach itself to any project released under her name.

I’m also secretly thrilled that even J.K. Rowling had such modest sales for her pseudonymous book. I expect it gives all struggling writers a bit of guilty pleasure. Writing a novel is hard. Getting attention, acclaim, and decent sales figures is harder, and it was nice to know that J.K. Rowling, if only for a fleeting moment, was among our ranks.

Kindle Matchbooks on the way!

I am beyond thrilled by the recent announcement that those of us who purchased print copies of books from Amazon from 1995 to the present can buy steeply discounted e-book versions of the same titles beginning in October.

Ever since becoming addicted to my Kindle I have bemoaned my inability to read the hundreds (thousands?) of print copies of books I’ve got cramming my bookshelves, mounded in corners, piled on desks, and stuffed under my bed. I simply could not bring myself to buy an e-version of a book when I had a perfectly good print copy just a few feet away.

That ends in October! Publishers who participate in the program will be offering e-books at 2.99, 1.99, .99, or FREE! It will be fairly easy to log into your amazon account and scan to see which books you purchased through amazon that are edible for the steep discounts.

More information here.

The Evolution of Romance Covers. Few things have come so far, so fast!

Let’s take a peek at some of the covers that have graced NYT bestselling books from the 1980s (on the left), and the current versions of the same book on the right.

Oh….. the horror!

These books are all from the mainstream romance market, so although they have some graphic love scenes, but the books contain much more emotional depth, character development, and downright good story-telling than the original covers would suggest. Was I the only girl who was horribly embarrassed to approach the counter at the checkout line with these books in tow?

What accounts for such atrocious covers?

Some people in the business speculate it was because the salesmen who marketed the books to retail stores (and yes, in the 1980s they were mostly men) insisted that such books sold better because women needed help identifying a romance novel on the racks. Hmmmm….even when I was a teenager I could read the back blurb and figure that one out! I was also intensely loyal to my favorite authors, and bought the books despite the covers, not because of them.

The pretty landscapes and evocative covers of today’s book market still clues in most readers that this will be a romance book.

Now, let us speak of one of the worst tragedies in book cover publishing history. Yes, it’s Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale. This is perhaps one of the most moving romance novels ever written. Twenty years after publication, it still makes the Top Ten List of romances ever written. And yet… brace yourself for the original cover:

I am deeply grateful for the evolution in marketing romance novels, as I work very hard to write moving, emotionally uplifting and insightful novels… and I would have been heart-broken to get stuck with an 80s-style cover. I give daily thanks that my publisher, Bethany House, has such a fantastic team of in-house designers.

Good question! Although sometimes books will have the same cover overseas, the foreign publisher will often believe their audience will not be as receptive to the American branding. American covers tend to have a slightly more commercial feel, while British covers will be a little more understated. The graphic designer of a book cover is trying to convey the essence of the book, and people in different parts of the world will perceive that message in diverse ways.

British novels are slightly less likely to feature a character on the cover. Darren Nash, a British editor at Orbit Books, says that the UK audience is not as open to having preconceived images of what a character should look like. They are far more likely to convey the tone of the book by portraying landscapes or architecture.

Most of the covers look very different, but do a good job of capturing the mood and genre of the book.  Being able to identify a book at a glance as a romance or sci-fi or mystery is a Big Deal.  Sometimes I like the British version better, sometimes the American.  Without further ado, let’s have a look at a few covers:

I lean toward the UK version for Redeeming Love.  This is one of my favorite novels of all time, and I’ve always thought the American cover as terribly frumpy for such a dazzling, turbulent novel.

This one is a draw for me.  Both classy, both nice.

Leaning toward the US version on this one, even though I think the UK version captures the spirit of the book better (the is a maninstream romance in which the heroine is terribly shy and overwhelmed by a darkly dangerous hero.)

Leaning toward the US version again…..maybe because the artist is appealing to my American sensibility?

Oh my…..beauty and the beast.  Best not to comment on this one!