Re-Covering
Posted by Linnea on 11 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Publishing, Writing Life, Books, Promotion
Nope, nothing about being sick. Nothing about upholstery. This month my topic is book covers and, in my case, the re-issuance of my backlist with new cover art. Cover art specifically designed for romance readers.
I write science fiction romance and initially Bantam shelved me in science fiction. That meant–to their art department–that my covers required someone with a weapon and some kind of spaceship or space station in the background on my covers. When Bantam decided to move me over to the romance aisles, they felt new cover art–”rebranding” is what they called it–was required.
They felt they needed to acheive and/or address three things:
1) The covers had to have a clear image of romance
2) The covers had to have a clear image of science fiction
3) The covers had to be uniform in appearance so as to create a “Linnea Sinclair” brand.
This turned out to be far more difficult than we thought. For one thing, the art department’s idea of romance trended toward erotica (headless women in plunging leather bustiers, fishnet stockings and spike heels being caressed by headless men with naked torsos and very tight pants). I don’t write erotica and my agent and I both held firm in our stand that to put something of that level of enticement on my covers when it’s not also between the pages would inevitably create reader-disconnect. Not to mention reader-annoyance.
No one in any of my books wears spike heels or leather bustiers (I write mostly military settings–those kinds of outfits would be beyond ludicrous on a starship.)
We settled on disembodied heads (all those headless covers create a plethora of leftover heads, I’m guessing) usually against some kind of starfield or planet with a possible spaceship or three thrown in.
For the most part, I think they came out pretty dang good.
As for the branding part, they did two things: they put my name in large font and they used a monochromatic color scheme. (I’m a little concerned we will eventually run out of colors, especially when they tried to hit me up with hot pink for my February 2009 release, Hope’s Folly. I do not write hot pink. Do. Not.)
While I think the colors and font certainly create a brand, I’m also concerned it may create the feel of “series” where not all the books are. Gabriel’s Ghost and Shades of Dark are books #1 and #2 in the Dock Five universe. Hope’s Folly is book #3 but can stand alone. The rest are all stand alones but I fear that is something that may cause confusion.
Not that there’s much I can do about it. And they are eye-catching, which is a huge plus.
You can check them out here in a short promo video or browse them below. (It appears this version of WordPress doesn’t permit video embedding… or I’d have done so.)
The re-branded books were supposed to hit the shelves in August but in reality are just now being unpacked at most bookstores and making it to the shelves. So in your wanderings, should you see them, do drop me a note and let me know your opinions. You should be able to find them not only in romance but in end-caps in Borders and B&N.
~Linnea
//interstellar adventure infused with romance//
Hi Linnea!
I loved you earlier covers, especially GAMES OF COMMAND. However, even though the new covers don’t have Daq (major error) on the cover, I think that they serve their purpose of branding very well. With all the trials and tribulations, ya lucked out kiddo! They are beautiful.
November 12th, 2008 at 9:59 amI think they’ve really given you a ‘brand’ feel which is fabulous. They remind me a bit of the J R Ward ones and they seem to have done quite well
November 12th, 2008 at 7:02 pmI love them, Linnea. I could only hope to be so lucky. They’re romantic without being overdone, and the SF element comes across clearly. I think they’re beautiful.
Jess
November 14th, 2008 at 10:30 amI like them. The covers do a good job of branding your work, and I anxiously await the next release.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:29 pm