The Evolution of a Cover

 

  

If you spend any time on Amazon scrolling through the millions of available books, you know the value of a good cover. A great design can catch your attention and stop the scrolling for a minute so you can study the cover and read the blurb. The cover is what pumps the brakes and the blurb is what convinces you to buy. These are the two most important parts of any book. Because you need to make someone push the button to buy your book before they can delve into it. And if a reader passes you by, they'll never get to enjoy the story you've worked so hard on. 

There are so many things to take into account when creating a cover. I spend hours culling through stock images, looking for just the right person or couple. One of my good friends has a pet peeve with hair color on the covers. It has to match the description of the characters or she throws the book across the room. So, I'm very conscious of hair color when I'm picking out my models. After all, PhotoShop can work wonders, but if you have a heroine with wispy hair, it's almost impossible to change the hair. My publisher and I decided recently that the blonde model on the cover of A British Heiress in America (at right) could not be changed to a brunette, so I had to change the hair color in the book. 

As an example of a changing cover design, I offer up one of my favorite books of all time–Blame It On The Brontes. This was a challenging book to write, since it told an over-arcing story from the viewpoint of the three sisters involved. Three separate stories from three points of view telling one story. Up until I wrote this story, I'd only written historical, so this contemporary was a real change of pace. However, my first cover attempt looked more historical than contemporary, and confused my faithful readers. 

So, after hearing complaints that this didn't give the right image, I asked for the cover to be changed. Since my three ladies had totally distinct personalities, I thought three pairs of shoes that would mirror their striking differences would be perfect. It didn't exactly work out like I had anticipated and my publisher turned a deaf ear to my complaints about cover 2. Better but not quite what I envisioned. 

I wasn't able to get the cover I'd always thought this book needed until I got the rights back from the publisher and was able to buy the exact look I'd envisioned. Here's the final version of this cover. 

Which version is your favorite? Would any of these covers make you stop and read the blurb? And better yet, make you buy the book? 

Gambling On Forever Cover Breakdown

From time to time, I'm asked what kind of input I get to have with my publishers when it comes to cover design. The prevailing myth is that you as an author give up control of your cover if you elect to use a traditional publisher. Maybe that's the case in the "big" houses, but the small press publishers I'm with consider it a joint effort. My latest release, Gambling On Forever, is a prime example. Here's how it went:

I filled out the form about what I pictured the cover being. Here were the questions.
Were there any elements of the story I considered cover material?

Riverboats

gambler with a smirk

 Indian woman. 

What did the hero/heroine look like? Dark hair on both, she dresses in gauchos and carries a whip.










Did I have a short tag line? I struggled with this but finally came up with Riverboat gambler chases the woman who stole his money

What was the setting? The mighty Mississippi

Are there any links to images or covers I liked? I already had a list from my other publisher of the photo sites used by most small-press publishers, so I rushed over to one of them–Period Images–and scrolled through the selections. I gave the designer the number of the photo I had picked out. She had already been to Period Images when she read the blurb, and had picked out the exact same image! Talk about being on the same page!

My heroine, Elise, didn't fit the images of the Indian women on file, since she works on a ranch, wears gauchos and carries a whip wrapped around her waist. So I elected to use only the hero on the cover, assuming most of the audience would be more attracted to a man anyway. I felt it essential to have a riverboat in the background and it took a couple tries to find the right boat. Funny how the boat was harder to find than the guy.

What do you think of the Gambling On Forever cover?

It was truly a collaborative effort. Most of my other covers have been the same process. It's been a boon to have the list of stock image houses so I can take my time and go through them to find the exact right image. I'm not saying I could design the covers on my own. That takes a whole different skill set. But the end result is truly reflective of what I had in my head as I wrote the story.

Has your experience mirrored mine, or do you have a different story?

Selecting a Cover

One of the most rewarding–and most stressful–parts of having a book published is approving a cover design. Covers are one of the most important parts of any book, especially in this digital age. Your cover design is the size of a thumbnail, and it's all you have to make a reader stop, look, and read your most important element–the blurb. Then, and only then, will a person make the decision to buy your book. So while covers won't necessarily sell copies, it can make people stop and read about your book, and maybe buy it.

This time, my historic romance takes place not in New York, but in the wild country west of the Mississippi in 1860. So, I got to include something I haven't been able to before–a horse!

I was so excited about the opportunity, I've been gathering pictures of wild horses for months now. The story, Expressly Yours, Samantha, is about two people involved in the new Pony Express, which began in April, 1860.

But a horse is not enough to stop a reader in her tracks and read the book blurb. I needed something more. My publisher wanted it to evoke the idea of romance, since that's what I write, but I had a problem with all the lovely women who were nuzzling horses. They were too pretty.

What, you say? How can someone be too pretty? Isn't the idea of a cover to make a person stop and look? And wouldn't they be drawn to a pretty face, rather than a not-so-pretty one?

I get where the designers were coming from. But the heroine is passing herself off as a boy at the start  of the book, on the run from an abusive uncle. So a beautiful ingenue with a wide smile just didn't work. I wanted a haunted face, one that could realistically be mistaken for a boy, with the right haircut. And I wanted her standing against a horse.

I have to admit, the designers did it. I can't show the cover off yet, but it works. I'm glad they took the time to make it right. Will I miss a few readers because there's not a pretty face on the cover? Possibly. But if they take a moment to look into the haunted eyes of my heroine, they'll hopefully be intrigued enough to read the blurb. And maybe buy the book.

Expressly Yours, Samantha, will be released March 16. Stay tuned.