The cover for A Lily Among Thorns arrived in my inbox a couple of days ago! So, without further ado:
Isn’t it lovely? While those people don’t physically resemble my hero and heroine very much (the woman would if she didn’t curl her hair and dressed differently, though), the vibe between them is perfect. And I love the outdoors London backdrop!
The back cover copy for this one has been up at the website for a while, but I can’t remember if I ever posted it here. Either way, I love it and here it is (again?).
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HER SAVIOR
It was him. Serena couldn’t breathe. She’d been looking for him for years—the man who’d lifted her out of the dregs of London’s underworld. She remembered that he’d looked like an angel. But either she’d embellished or he’d grown up. Because he didn’t look like an angel now. He looked like a man, solid and broad, and taller than she’d thought. And now he needed her help.
HIS SIREN
Solomon recognized her as soon as they were alone in the dark. He’d not forgotten that night five years ago either. But Serena had changed. She was stronger, fiercely independent and, though it hardly seemed possible, even more beautiful. She was also neck-deep in trouble. Yet he’d help cook a feast for the Prince Regent, take on a ring of spies, love her well into the night—anything to convince her that this time he was here to stay.
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How great is that?
Plus, I have a new contest up! I’m giving away a (Region 1) DVD copy of High Plains Invaders, the costume drama monster movie starring James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) I reviewed a few months ago. You can watch a preview for the movie and enter the contest here. (I’ll ship anywhere in the world!)
And finally, an adorable addendum to my recent post about Luddites and John Henry. I talked about Byron’s speech in the Lords opposing the Frame Bill. I just found this in Byron’s Romantic Celebrity by Tom Mole:
“Byron learned his speech by heart, and practised some parts of it in front of Robert Charles Dallas, who reported that ‘he altered the natural tone of his voice, which was sweet and round, into a formal drawl, and he prepared his features for a part–it was a youth declaiming a task.'”
I didn’t fully understand the use of “task” in this context, so I looked it up in the OED. Definition 2b reads “A portion of study imposed by a teacher; a lesson to be learned or prepared[…]Now arch.[archaic]”
Awwww. ♥
That is way too tasteful. What happened to the supersized belt buckle?
And what does your heroine have against that dress? I think it’s pretty.
The oversized belt buckle couple were very charming, but all wrong for my book! We shall see if they show up in future on someone else’s. And I think the dress is very pretty too, but Serena would think it was too girly. Plus, she doesn’t wear white, both because of the aforementioned dislike of girliness and to avoid “virgin” jokes. Serena works very hard to be taken seriously, and her image is very carefully constructed. And she doesn’t wear jewelry because, well…she has Issues. She used to be a courtesan and jewelry comes with baggage for her, especially necklaces.
Why do you suppose publishers ignore good sense when accepting cover art for romance books? This is one of my pet peeves, but I will not haul out the soapbox at 3:20 a.m.
Christina Dodd has an hysterical (not historical)listing of Worst Covers. http://www.squawkradio.com/index.php/sblog/christina_dodd_uncovers_the_very_best_of_the_worst/
And have you seen the reimagined ones by Longmire? http://www.worldoflongmire.com/features/romance_novels/
I hope you aren’t referring to my new cover! I have to admit, I am a huge fan of the cheesy clinch cover. I know, I know, everyone hates them–but I think they are really charming. And this one isn’t even that cheesy! Plus, presumably they sell or publishers would stop using them, as they have covers with blond heros. (::sigh:: My hero is blond.)
I don;t think I would mind so much if the covers actually related to the content. But so often it’s a situation like yours — blonde on cover, brunette in text.
It’s a sign of slovenliness or disrespect or dismissal of the genre by the very companies making money off the genre. Do you see what I mean?
You know, I used to feel the same way. But things look kind of different from the author side. The publisher’s job with a cover is to get the book into bookstores and, once it’s on the shelf, to get people who aren’t already looking for the book to pick it up. If a cover is eyecatching and appealing, it’s doing its job. People who already like the book or are already planning to buy it probably won’t be swayed one way or the other by a cover, so it’s people who don’t know anything about the book yet (and thus won’t have an opinion on the cover’s accuracy) that are being targeted.
The production/art person at Dorchester always asks for my ideas about covers, for descriptions of my hero and heroine, and all sorts of things that help make an accurate cover. I think that’s pretty standard. But sometimes, because of cost or production timeline, it just makes more sense to use (or modify) an already-existing piece of art. Or there might be other factors–for example, there’s pretty consistent data that books with blond guys on the cover don’t sell as well (sadly), so it makes sense that blond heros often turn into brunettes on covers, even though it’s a little startling for the reader.
What I do think is important is that a cover accurately reflect what kind of story the book is. I don’t just mean romance, but like, “humorous country house party romp” or (in my case) “London-set spy story with lots of banter and intrigue” or whatever. But that doesn’t have to mean getting every detail right–it just means that “people who are intrigued by this cover” and “people who are intrigued by the back cover copy” and “people who would enjoy the book” should roughly match up. But I think my cover gets the tone of the book more or less right, so I’m happy. (And when a cover I thought didn’t match was being considered, my editor listened to my feedback and went with something else, and even had the final image modified to a London background, all of which I really appreciate.)
Does that make any sense?