here’s my cover! It’s really, really pretty, but… they’re too young, too scrubbed-looking, and almost certainly too well-behaved. I asked for Harrison Ford with a bigger nose and Juliet Binoche. Personally I think it’s a mistake having people on covers, period, particularly on romances and particularly particularly on historicals where they get the costumes all wrong. (A red neckcloth???!)
If I could have the same art, but without the people, and with a stocking and a book lying on the sofa, that would have been fab. The worrisome thing about this cover is that it doesn’t deliver. It looks like a really sweet regency and it isn’t.
Janet
It does look sweet. I guess we can just hope that all the people who buy it for sweet, will love the spiciness inside! 🙂
I do love the colors of your cover — a symphony of purples. But I agree about the cravat! (I had a special note asking the artist to please give my fellow a white cravat!)
I can’t see your cover in great detail, but from what I can see, the hero looks quite handsome…. Which, even if he doesn’t look like your hero, has got to be a plus! (As far as selling books, that is.)
Just wondering, Janet: how many scene suggestions did you send in, and which one was chosen?
Cara
You know, I hope that anyone who buys one of our books understands that the scenes are not necessarily indicative of the action within…Traditional Regencies (of the Signet variety) always have two fully-clothed, fairly sweet-looking folks on the cover, regardless of the content. I mean, anyone who’s read Allison Lane knows her characters are not sweet, yet her covers are; same thing with Carla Kelly. Which, I guess, is why we have to keep marketing, since not all Regencies are alike!
This is my biggest problem with the Regency covers. Not that the characters aren’t always accurately depicted. It doesn’t reflect well on the publisher IMHO when the entire package isn’t consistent, but it doesn’t mess up the reading experience except for a little jolt when the characters are first described.
But the sameness of the Regency covers does bother me. The covers nearly always scream light, sweet comedy of manners, so it’s no wonder that some readers are shocked to find angst and sex inside.
OTOH it’s been ages since I took the Regency covers seriously, and I never make a buying decision because of them. I buy by author, or by recommendation. I wonder how many Regency fans do the same?
Hi Elena,
I have a straightforward strategy for choosing Regencies: I read what my wife tells me to. She Is Always Right.
Well, sometimes I randomly pick one up and read it. But cleavage is never involved in the decision-making process.
Todd-who-knows-when-he’s-licked
Um, okay, I’ll out myself here. 🙂 This strange Todd person who just posted here is my husband. But when he claims he only reads the Regencies I tell him to, he lies! He reads everything by Barbara Metzger and Carla Kelly, because he likes to. He read everything by Rita Boucher for the same reason. And early Joan Smiths. And he’s read some of Amanda and Elena’s books, and Nonnie St George, and he loves Sheila Simonson, and of course he’s a huge Heyer fan — so don’t believe his lies!
Though I will concede that he doesn’t pick books by the cover art (cleavage included.) He reads like a normal romance reader, and reads the back cover and then the beginning of the book to see if it grabs him.
Cara
Lies? Moi? Au contraire, ma petite cherie! (That French stuff always softens them up.) I do concede that I read them because I like them–but I usually start a new author because Cara suggested her. (Rita Boucher was an exception, ’cause I just picked her up randomly off the shelf–and, OK, I’ve done that with other people, too–but it doesn’t change the main point.)
And, all right, I only keep reading an author if I liked her stuff…but since Cara has great taste (more softening up there, did you notice?) I usually like the books she suggests. So there!
Umm…what was my point, again?
Todd-who-probably-won’t-have-to-sleep-on-the-couch-tonight