Covers

Do you judge a book by it's cover? As most of you now know, the cover for my newest book Windfall was changed at the last minute. The orginal cover is posted on my main page and hopefully both covers will be posted here for you to compare. Let me know which one you like better. I know I have my favorite.The process of creating a book cover involves a lot of work. First of all the author fills out a questionaire that tells what the hero looks like, the heroine, the type of clothing they wear, the period, the weather and the location. And what do we think the cover should look like? Usually on your first book you will get a recycled cover, one they have used before with some minor changes. Sometimes they get them right, sometimes they don't. If they don't you're stuck. The original cover for Chase The Wind featured a brown haired heroine. They changed it when I pointed out to my editor that there wasn't a single person in the book who looked like that.After the questionaire is filled out, models are scheduled to go to a photographers studio and pictures are taken in period clothing. The photos are then sent back to the art director and she arranges them over background shots and adds the print. The cover for Wind Of The Wolf turned out exactly as I envisioned it, even down to the wolf in the sky on the back.Crosswinds was also true to my vision, although there was more skin than I like on my covers. Don't get me wrong, its very nice skin and the man on the cover, Stefan, is a real nice guy. Please drop by his website at www.stefanas.com and see some of his other work. I've had several readers comment that because of the look of the cover they would not normally pick up Crosswinds, except that they knew it was a continuation of the series. The problem we have is that we're marketing a family saga in a market geared towards romance, hence the sight of skin.So the look was established for my books. The orginal Windfall cover fell into the same mode. The model is Teddy Sears who played Chad Bennet on All My Children. At the last minute the publisher decided to try something different and give my covers the Big Book look. Something that indicates saga instead of romance. I think they caught the mood of the story really well.Jake looks exactly as he did in my mind. I see Shannon has having straight heavy hair and she looks like she might be a bit cold in that dress but the overall feel is good. I hope it encourages you to pick it up and read it.