Linda Acaster: Covers R... not me?

After yesterday’s offering this is a light-hearted, but serious, tale of one novel, two continents and three book covers – and a need for advice.

When the Welsh mediaeval Hostage of the Heart first hit the British bookshops it was graced with the cover opposite. I was, to be honest, stunned.

What is that disused Victorian windmill doing in the background? And what sort of sack is that woman wearing for it to have a gold lining?


When the North American edition was launched, it came with a different cover. For having been trailed through wet Welsh mountains as a battle hostage, this heroine looks as if she’s just stepped out of a make-up trailer on a Hollywood set. But the point is, does it – or did it – entice North American readers to buy?

This is the dilemma now facing me as I indie author the same novel as an ebook and so have to produce my own cover. It’s not something I have done before, in fact I have never even titivated family photographs to get rid of red-eye, so getting to grips with the magical properties of Photoshop is a whole new time-consuming experience. For a first attempt I am reasonably happy with it, but is it liable to sell any copies to my main market - ebook readers in North America? I fear not.

Leaving aside the castle curtain wall, which just about fits the script, trying to find an image of mediaeval lovers has been problematic to say the least. I ended up on istockphotos, but it hardly proved ideal.

I’d prefer a man in chainmail who looks as if he has the muscle to at least open a vacuum sealed jar of preserve, though not someone who could body double for Conan the Barbarian. I don’t want to give readers the wrong impression; there’s nothing worse than getting a 2* Amazon review from a reader who was expecting an Erotic and got a Sweet. I’ve already been told by a reader that the cover needs some flesh, or at least some dark tumbling hair. If I could find some, I’d give it a whirl, honest.

Creating a cover for my up-and-coming Beneath The Shining Mountains is proving even worse. Set in the 1830s among the Apsaroke Crow people of what is now Montana and Wyoming, can I find suitable images?

Am I looking in the wrong place? Working to an ineffectual design? Am I simply being ineffectual? Advice needed; apply here.

My current contemporary paperback Torc of Moonlight is cross genre – dark romantic suspense, timeslip thriller, horror – depending on the reader’s interpretation. It being the first of a trilogy I didn’t want to confuse readers with the cover, hence using an iconic image to give this book, and its forthcoming siblings, a look distinctive from the historicals.

So that’s where I’m up to and where, hopefully, you step in with advice. For those already indie authoring, how do you decide on your cover elements? Where do you look for them? What software do you use to build them into a cover? Or is it something more sublime: like Rebecca, you’ve found an angel of a digital artist. Do tell!

Linda Acaster
Confused of Yorkshire

http://www.lindaacaster.com/
http://lindaacaster.blogspot.com/

Got it covered...

Are we so superficial that we judge the books we’ll read by the way the cover looks? It’s part of the come on I guess.

Truth be told, if your book cover doesn’t grab a potential reader’s eye, your words will remain hidden within the pages. Think about your own shopping experiences – your curiosity gets piqued by how something looks; the outfit that looks dynamite even hanging on the hanger, the food that looks tasty even on the package label, and the cars that seem to stand out from the rest on the highway. A book cover shouldn’t be misleading the same way food packaging should at least hint at what is inside the package. Alas, the cover should appeal to your target audience.

Three of my novels have undergone face-lifts since the stories were first introduced:

Courage of the Heart was first published in 2001 by another publisher which transformed itself into a self publishing vanity press between acceptance of my manuscript and actual production. Without paying big bucks, there was no help in the marketing and promotion area; using the “If I knew then what I know now” lament, maybe I could have still gotten somewhere anyway. However, the original cover seems more suited to a textbook than an intriguing novel. Courage of the Heart was re-released by Vanilla Heart Publishing in 2008 with a tantalizing new cover and a combined promo effort between VHP and myself. I think you might agree, which one would catch your eye?

Next up we have Bartlett’s Rule. Kimberlee (my publisher) and I loved the original cover for Bartlett’s Rule – unfortunately we soon found out that the characters on the cover looked young and folks assumed the content was YA. My books are definitely NOT YA, thank you very much. Bartlett’s Rule is the story of a rape survivor who falls in love, the man who loves her and their combined efforts to learn how to trust, deal with the sorrow and anger, and not let the ugliness of the event take anything more away. While many parents have told me that they passed this book along to their teen agers, it really is intended for “mature audiences”.

The third novel not only had a face-lift, but a total transformation including name change. Forgotten seemed to live up to its name, not so much for the story, but because looking up the story by title alone was too arduous and often unsuccessful. Try it, go to Amazon and type Forgotten into the search bar; my book comes up (finally) somewhere on page 5 – fans had difficulty finding it at online retailers and since there are only some walk-in stores carrying the book, we had to make it easier. The story of Brandon and Caitlyn and amnesia, espionage and love was just reborn as His Lucky Charm – and we are hoping that this book also lives up to its name. The brand new cover certainly seems to be a “grabber”.

“What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas... this time it follows Brandon and Caitlyn across the country and into a world of espionage and danger. The one thing that Brandon knows for sure is that he can't afford to lose his lucky charm, Caitlyn. Previously released as Forgotten, by Chelle Cordero”

Excerpt from His Lucky Charm:

He felt his muscles clench as he stared into the woman’s face that lay beneath him. If he hadn’t already felt her trembling, he would have known she reached her own climax just by the expression of her face. With one more powerful thrust he felt everything he had spilling into her, he felt a completeness he would have never thought possible. Everything stopped and then he swore he felt their hearts start beating again as one. Pausing a moment to look into her eyes, and they were beautiful eyes he thought, he brushed a long strand of chestnut hair away from her face and kissed her. Then he rolled off of her.

“I love you.” Her voice was soft, like the touch of her lips. He couldn’t believe the tingling he felt in his loins at hearing her words.

“You’re not even human...”

“What?” She almost laughed at his choice of words.

He hadn’t even meant to say that thought out loud. “I mean... I just never felt so... consumed before. I feel like I am under some kind of spell.” As he sat up to face her, he was surprised by the life he felt in his groin. Feeling a touch embarrassed, which was a new feeling for him, he admitted, “I almost feel like I can go another round, and considering how powerful that was...”

She faced him and gave him a sultry smile; her bare breasts were firm and small. But not too small, he thought, just enough to fill his hands. He felt his groin tighten again and just stared.

“Hey, are you okay?” She suddenly sounded self-conscious.

“Uh, yeah.” He forced himself to look at her face.

She touched his arm, her fingers felt light like feathers. “Can I do anything for you?”

“Yes.” He glanced at her breasts again and then back at her face. “Tell me... who are you?”

She laughed, it was a full-bodied sound. “Just one day married and...” She saw the surprise in his eyes as he looked at his left hand and saw the ring. Pulling the bed sheet up to cover her nakedness, she looked at him puzzled. “You’re serious?”

He frowned. “‘Fraid so.”