Hi all



Just got two different covers to choose from for my 2nd book The Girls' Car Handbook to be published in 2008 - one has a girl in a convertible, another has a girl looking under the bonnet. I'm keen on them both, thank goodness - but am veering towards the soft-top one at the mo. Will let Simon and Schuster have my decision tomorrow morning. Am v aware of how lucky I am to have two covers to choose from - most authors are given one and have to like or lump it! Thankfully though I knew I'd be on safe ground as they're using the same artist as they did for the first cover, which I really like!



Wondering what sort of experiences other authors here have had with covers? I've got some friends who write romantic fiction who've had some very unfortunate experiences ( a 'brooding hero' who looked more like Fred West than Heathcliffe-type, a drawing of a brunette girl when the heroine was blonde, etc, etc).


How have covers been for you?



all best



Maria

I've been quite lucky so far, Maria - in that I've been able to choose most of my covers (for self-published or Goldenford work - in fact my husband did the Goldenford one!) - and Flame took Nell's (from WW!) glorious cover for A Dangerous Man.

Must say I didn't really like the cover the publisher gave me for my latest poetry collection (A Stranger's Table) and indeed people have commented that it wasn't as good as the first collection cover - but I didn't get any choice. Groan!

For next year's book (Maloney's Law), the US publisher have asked me for ideas but have given me guidelines which might well limit it - but I'll see what they come up with.

)

A
xxx

There's more blood spilt over covers than anything else, I think. Good news that you like yours, Maria.

Yes, I've been lucky so far - I've loved all my covers. Headline just sent the jpeg and I (and my agent) went Wow! Interestingly, Morrow said they liked Headline's, but wanted to do their own thing, and asked for any ideas or images I had. They used one of the images in the book to come up with something really rather similar to Headline's hb, only much more nude, suprisingly in a much more prudish country. Headline's pb is a subtle commercialising of the hb, Morrow's pb is very, very different. And it's interesting to see what the translations are doing - France used Headline's, Portugal used Morrow's, both straight into trade paperback, and Spain have done their own (particularly classy/literary looking) hb...

Emma

I swooned when I first saw mine! LOL. I was amazed at its perfection.

Maria, I like the sound of both your covers. I suppose the bonnet one might be more relevant, but the convertible one sounds glamorous and go-getting!

The cover I've been most annoyed with lately was one for a YA book where the heroine knows she's overweight, and the title of the book reflects that, and the book's cover shows a skinny model who's clearly supposed to be the main character. Grrr.

The soft-topped one does sound rather glam...

Emma

Aaaaah book covers. I love the smell of napalm in the morning...

JB

I cried for a week when I first saw mine for book 1 (that and the title in combination). The thing is that it so wasn't me. It was all hearts and butterflies in baby blue and pink, and I am so not like that - being a dour crypto-feminist who never wears anything but big boots muddy jeans.

But I got off lightly, because I have a friend who, despite her protests did indeed have to put up with a blonde on the cover of her romance when the heroine is a brunette, and another writer of atmospheric crime ficiton set in the flat and windswept Cambridgeshire fens who had to put up with a cover photograph taken in the Cmubrian fells.

I quite like my cover for book 2 - partly because it's not quite so cute and girly, but also partly because I've got used to the way my publishers are marketing my work.

As Emma says, covers are the source of huge amounts of angst.

Rosy

It's a long time since I've posted this link, and this is a reasonably relevant place, so here goes. Just put your coffee down before you click (or is that just me?)

http://www.worldoflongmire.com/features/romance_novels/

Emma

This one's really funny, too, even if you don't know the author.

http://www.megcabot.com/diary/?p=529

<Added>

That was a ridiculous thing to say: 'even if you don't know the author'. I'm sorry - I have no idea why I said that! Sigh. I'm having a bad message-writing day!

THat site was soooo funny, Luisa. Thank you.

Goodness, I'd not seen that one in an age, Emma! Thanks for the reminder.

Meg's was hilarious too!

And to answer Maria's question - my cover was/is great. Pubs asked me what I wanted. I told them. They told the illustrator who sent me a few b & ws which were great. And away he went. Couldn't have been smoother.

Nik