Journey of the Covers

Today I wanted to talk about covers.
Yeah, yeah, I know most of you will say that you don't judge books by the covers. But a lot of readers do, or publishers wouldn't have huge art departments.
They wouldn't have meetings to discuss the artwork for the covers.
They wouldn't "go back to the board" on covers that they feel aren't quite right.

And writers everywhere live for the day that they get cover approval.

Ahhh... cover approval. My most coveted perk.

Yeah, it was a dream thing for me.
I felt I'd finally "made it" when I got cover approval.
I'd reached one of my biggest goals, scaled the toughest peak.
Sound dramatic? Hah!
You haven't seen some of my really stinko covers.

So that's what I'm going to talk about today. My little perspective on the journey of the covers I've had. Through reissues, some have morphed from the ugly duckling into the beautiful (and appropriate) swan.

These days, most of my covers are awesome. The ones that don't blow me away are still good enough that I trust the art department's opinion. After all, that's the biz they're in and I can't always be objective.
Books aren't my babies, but they do represent several months of hard work and a lot of creative energy and I really, really get visuals, especially of my heroes.

What is that?

C'mon, you know you're asking that right now.
Well folks, that's the first cover for Sawyer, a category book I wrote for Harlequin way back when.
The first of a 4 book series.

Scary, huh?

Yeah, I wasn't too happy. Believe it or not, this is a revised version. In the original, he had no neck at all. And his chin was really pointy.
I know, I know. His eyes are still crossed and he looks really confused, but at least he doesn't have a pointy chin anymore. (I always try to look on the bright side!)

Here's the example I sent Harlequin, to show what Sawyer should look like.

What? You say he looks nothing like the guy in the cover? Really? Huh. (Picture me laughing, cuz I am. I wasn't at the time of that cover, but I laugh now.)

The hunk on the right would be mightily insulted if he saw that warped impression of himself.

I was mightily insulted for him!

In case you're curious, (and I'm just positive that you are!) I'm going to show you the other 4 covers and my original "ideas" of what they should look like.




The guy on this cover reminds me of William H. Macy. Great actor... but not the hero image I'd written.








This cover came the closest to matching the image I had.
It wasn't quite right, but at the least the guy isn't a mutant.










Little white dog?
There's no little white dog!






Okay, so what's the upside of all this?
Harlequin reissued the books once already, and the result was much, much better!


Isn't that a nicer cover treatment for my books!? I think so.
Once and Again featured the Sawyer/Morgan books.
Forever and Always featured the Gabe/Jordan books.







Next March, Harlequin is reissuing all 4 books again as single titles.
Same titles, all new look.
I love these new covers for a variety of reasons that I'll share...
right after I show them to you.













Nice, huh!?
When Harlequin does a cover right, they really do it right.

The important elements on these covers, in my never-very-humble opinion, are:

A. They're attractive. The men are good looking and rugged.
B. They bright. Smoky dark covers have their purposes, but these aren't smoky dark books.
C. They've kept the original titles, so readers won't be confused thinking these are new releases.
(I try to make it clear to readers what is new and what isn't. I have a couple of pages on my website - the reissue page and the connected book and series page - dedicated to that.)
D. They still have a "category" look, which I think is important because they are category books.

It doesn't matter if I've grown as an author, or that I no longer write in category.
(No slight to category authors at all. It is one tough job to write a category length book that covers all the bases of compelling plot, great characterization, and fast pacing. Categories were some of the hardest books I ever tackled.)
Because the books have such a fresh new look, it could mislead readers to think these are single titles. They don't read like single titles, though, and that's an important distinction.

So look at how those covers have changed! From hideous to really pretty nice.
Interesting, huh? I think so.

Another interesting facet of book covers is how the images can show up in multiple places.
You know I have examples for you, right?

This is my Too Much Temptation cover:


And this is from a magazine:










Very cool similarities, don't you think! I always wondered if one inspired the other.

And check this out! Same image, two different books. Both look great!















And...





You know that's the same pair of shoes!
But I love how they made the image look so different on the two covers.






And lastly, for a little thrill...
(hope I don't get tossed out of Quills for this)
...a nekkid photo of my Say No To Joe cover (foreign) and the same tush for a foreign Robin Schone!

Titillating, doncha think?

By now you're probably either bored, or as fascinated by all the incarnations of covers as I am!
My favorites?
Obviously something that represents the book. But not a "sex in your face" type of cover. I don't care for those. I think our work should be the draw, not the suggestion of "hot sex."

At the same time, I want readers to know what they're getting. So I love the nice, bold covers with a sexy stepback. I also loved the covers on Catherine Coulter's Sherbrook series. And Brenda Joyce's early "Fire" series.

You know that thing about cover approval?
Well, for an upcoming book, the stepback had a fighter - a very sexy dude leaning on a wall in work-out gear, all sweaty and macho.
But he had on the wrong gloves for the type of fighter I write. He wore regular boxing gloves when my fighters wear either 4 or 6 oz fingerless gloves.

Bless my publisher, they listened and changed it for me. To make it easy, they just took off the gloves. He still looks like a fighter, but now he's not the wrong fighter.
Yeah, I LOVE cover approval!

So what's your favorite type cover?
Images, like flowers or shoes (see Bryan's cover!)
Scenery? Characters (but only when they get them right!)?
Note: I've had the wrong characters on my books a couple of times. The one that comes most to mind was with a volumptuous redhead as heroine, and on the cover, the hero is atop (in a sexy pose) a scrawny blonde babe. The cheating swine!)

I've seen some stinko covers, and suffered for the writer.
I've seen some fab covers, and turned green with envy.

I've seen some that boggled my mind.

What about you?
Can you name a cover you loved?
What about "bad" covers bugs you the most?

I could go on and on - but this puppy has gotten long enough!

Happy Friday everyone!