Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Cover Gratitude

Many authors know the feeling of helplessness when it comes to cover art. When you self publish you have control over what cover represents your work but even with small publishers, you may be at the mercy of the powers that be.  I've been lucky and liked all my covers but one.  My complaint about that one was the heat level.  The extremely risque cover wasn't equal to the sensuality level of the book and I thought it mislead readers.  Some probably purchased it expecting something erotic in nature and others probably didn't purchase for the same misconception.  I'm over it, though that book has been my worst seller of my romance line under the name, Susan Kelley.

Viola today, I received the cover for my newest romance novel, A Tiger's Courage.  The artist, Alex DeShanks, got it exactly right.  Hair color and length for the protagonists is correct and the overlapping pictures capture the desert setting of the story.  To top it off, the title and my name are both in this exceptionally cool font.  I love it!

Do you have a great cover story, good or bad?  How much say do you have in the final appearance of your book cover?

4 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Glad you're happy with this one! I've been thrilled with both of my covers. My publisher's illustrator asked me several questions before designing both, so I did have a little say in them.

Jemi Fraser said...

That's a great cover! So glad it worked out so well :)

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Bad enough when a book's cover art doesn't match the characters - even worse when it's your own.

Cate Masters said...

I had an issue once with a cover for the same reason - it looked downright sleazy, but luckily the publisher agreed and changed it, to a really beautiful one, in fact.
Congrats on your latest release! And the pretty cover. :)