from StencilTo me, that simple statement is one of the big wisdoms of life, which some seem to know from the beginning, it takes others a lifetime, and some never learn.
I run into the learning and relearning with a lot of my life. The covers of my books tend to be one place I have reason to practice taking and releasing. This week, I did it with one of my books, one I had published in 2013. It has had a variety of covers since trying to get the right one.
The book that came ahead of it, From Here to There, had even worse problems. Readers hated its first covers so much that they even wrote reviews mentioning it. The challenge for From Here to There was the complexity of the plot that took the story from a wedding where the bride decided she'd made a mistake, asked for an annulment and headed for her uncle's family ranch. That ranch had been a refuge for her since she was a child with her uncle and now deceased aunt having been like parents. The ranch itself plays a major part in the romance with the mythology and reality of the western lifestyle at its heart. How do you get a cover to illustrate all of that? Well, I have one that has remained for a few years, and I hope never changes.
A Montana Christmas had some of the same problems in how to depict the story where it is about a family that needs healing, ranch life, and a marriage. Its new cover puts the emphasis on the ranch setting. While it has Christmas in the title, the heart of the story is still the ranch and how that kind of life close to nature and with family can heal hurts. I hope this one sticks as it feels very right to me-- but then they all do until readers tell me uh uh!
cover image from Stencil
5 comments:
You know that I have never liked the covers with the well-built dudes. Don't get me wrong, that eye candy is wonderful, but I just would never grab a book with that. But that is me and fortunately you have readers who feel otherwise. It never occurred to me about judging a book by its cover, but we all do.
That's funny but some romance readers read them but are ashamed of it and hide covers (kindle took care of that problem). There are romance readers who prefer nature scenes. I have found mostly my books have sold better with the hero/heroine or both on the covers-- I have a mix of just him, her or both.
When I buy books, I don't mind if it's scenery but the scenery better match the location and I've seen it where it does not. I don't think I'd buy a book where the author set the story there with no clue what it should look like.
This book is not so much romance since the couple are already married and it's kind of the second chapter to their story and about their family relationships and the ranch life; so it made sense to not have the couple. The cover before this one was more busy and I like the simpler look of this one.
Love the Bradbury quote, one of my favourite authors.
He sure nailed it with that quote
It is interesting how authors & readers decide about cover likes & dislikes. Personally I have always preferred the scenery covers to the steamy couple ones. Not because I don't like hot, but because I do better if I picture in my own mind what they look like from the descriptions within the book. So a scenery cover that appeals to me will have me reading the blurb.
I read a wide variety of genres. I know a lot of women my age that read romance, but unlike me, seem uncomfortable in admitting it. It is a good thing that we have kindles now, I am thinking.
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