The HEA Cafe

Archive for the ‘Publishing’ Category

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

www.linneasinclair.com

//interstellar adventure infused with romance//

I have to admit, when it comes to books I can be a complete snob. When I find people who don’t read, and I mean quite literate adults who choose not to read, I have to wonder what I have in common with them, if anything.

But today I want to praise an area of literature that I believe too many adults overlook as not worth their time, or too unsophisticated, and that is YA novels. “YA” is shorthand in bookstores and libraries for “Young Adult” and covers the novels written to appeal to a teen audience. So many of them are outstanding, and adults who don’t seek them out are doing themselves a disservice.  Some publishers are aware of the appeal of YA for all ages, and you only have to look at how many adults were caught up in the Harry Potter phenomenon to realize what an untapped market this is.
When people ask me to name my favorite romance novels, I have my list that includes the usual suspects, but I also add into that Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw.  I first read it when I was in the 6th Grade, and for the first time I fell in love with a novel.  Mara had it all–a plucky heroine, a mysterious and hunky hero, exotic settings in ancient Egypt, character development and more.  I still own a copy, and re-read it last year.  After all these years, it still entertained me, and I can’t say that about many of the novels I’ve read that are written for adults.

Good writing is good writing, no matter who the target audience is.  Of course, I can only re-read Harold and the Purple Crayon so many times and eventually I’ll stop uncovering hidden meanings and puns, but YA novels have more substance.
This week I read A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson, and I adored it. I laughed, I cried, I was totally enraptured by the characters and their tale. Russian emigre Anna, with her commitment to being an excellent housemaid at an English estate, was a heroine in the mold of Cluny Brown, another favorite of mine. Despite the loss of almost everything in her short life, Anna never loses her core of sweetness and strength. But she’s not a dishrag of a heroine, far from it! When she sees wrongs perpetrated against those who are even weaker, she’s quick to rise to their defense and take a stand. It’s also a great love story, with an aristocratic war hero who has to choose between love and duty.

A Countess Below Stairs also deals with issues of class, equality and the upheaval of the Post WWI era.  It’s not Brideshead Revisited, but it’s still a darn good read and can be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good romance.

Another YA novel I love is Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. This is one of those YA books that you want to wave under the nose of adult readers saying, “Hey! Don’t overlook it because it’s shelved in the kids’ area!” It was a wonderfully poignant story of love, and Death, and making our dreams come true.  But be prepared!  Have you hankies ready for this one, it’s a real weeper.

Other romance-oriented YA authors I enjoy are Sharon Shinn, Robin McKinley and Patricia McKillip.  If you haven’t yet discovered the joys of YA, I encourage you to look for their books as well.

Next time you’re at the library, look to the YA shelves.  There are reading treasures hidden there.

Historicals are my passion. If there’s any one thing that I love the best about romance, it’s a great historical. Some of my favorites include A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught, Lord Scandalous by Loretta Chase, Whitney My Love by McNaught and the list goes on. One of the things I love the most about historicals is their magical quality. As I’m flying across the country this week, I’ll be revising my latest historical romance in preparation for submission to houses. The resurgence in publisher interest in historical romance is really wonderful for me as I love bringing stories like Mirage and Dangerous to readers.

For me, historicals are magical, I mean I know they’re fantasies, but that’s what I love about them. They transport me to another place and time where chivalry and honor are romantic, despite the realities of the time period. And I’m sorry, but tight buckskins covering hard thighs, a white shirt opened to reveal just a hint of a well-muscled chest—well, for me there’s nothing more seductive!

With the RWA convention in San Francisco this week, there will be a number of big name historical authors who will be present. If you’re familiar with Michelle Buonfiglio’s Romance by the Book blog, you know that she’s a huge romance fiction advocate. This Friday at the convention, she’s doing a radio show with several of Avon Books top name historical authors like Sophie Jordan, Lorraine Heath and Elizabeth Boyle and others.

Michelle’s Radio Show is set for Friday, August 1, 3:30 pm PDT If you’re on the East Cost, you can catch the show after work because we’re three hours AHEAD of folks in San Francisco (6:30 pm EDT). Click here link directly to the radio show where they’ve got this COOL reminder feature that you can set so you get an email prompt! Means you won’t forget. How sweet is that?

So dial in and ask some questions about historicals!! Besides, think about how cool it will be to be on Internet radio!

I don’t know if any of you are guilty of this or not, but when I start tinkering with something, it’s hard to stop. Even when I dress my four-year-old daughter, I’m always adding a little headband or maybe a ribbon or adding a sweater. And yesterday, before sending galleys back to my publisher, I had to call Chessie, my critique partner, and quiz her about a single word. Do I scratch it out? Do I leave it in?

The kicker is, I don’t think our books will ever be as perfect as we want them to be. There will always be something to adjust, tweak, change or think about way too hard. To the point where I almost drove right past the UPS store last night and kept my galleys for one more day. After all, they’re not due until tomorrow. I could have overnighted them today. Taken one more look, thought more about that one word.

So how do you tame your “perfectionist” streak when it comes to your writing? Or do you? Does the same drive that makes us crazy also improve our work? Or do we just need to stop overthinking, stop the car and let our books go?

Publishing is a relatively small world, especially in the confines of RWA. Even though there are upwards to 9000 members in our community, chances are you “know” many of the membership, whether it be through the online world of the RWA yahoo groups, online chapters, or live chapters. Most of the active members have “met” one way or another.
The sense of community we have is very strong, but like with any close-knit family, our closeness can also be our weakness.

We’re only human, after-all.

We’re not only human, most of us in RWA are also women.

Women are funny creatures. I’ve had (almost) 39 years to study them, me being a woman and all. On the whole, we are fiercely loyal, hardworking, supportive, and creative. I wish I could stop with our positive traits. I do. Because our positive traits are what make us such good mothers, wives, friends and employees.

Unfortunately, being human and all, we women also have a set of negative traits we carry around. Most times, we keep them buried because they directly interfere with the very things that make us so awesome.

Sometimes we have no choice but to be ugly. It’s a part of who we are. Something important in our life is threatened and Katie bar the door, we come out bearing our claws and fangs. We do what we have to do to make things right for those we love.

But in our little family of writers, I’ve noticed another kind of ugliness. Not the kind that comes out when someone you love is threatened, but the kind that rears its head for no reason other than pettiness. Ugliness. Bitterness.

Some people (mostly women, though I have heard a few things from some men in the industry as well) will badmouth anyone, whether they know them or not. It makes them feel better about their own mediocrity to bag on the successes of others—who happen to be mostly women. Funny that.

In a community built for women, by women, I am constantly surprised at the sniping and backbiting that goes on here. Are we adults? Because after some of the things I’ve heard, I have to wonder.

Publishing is constantly changing and you either change with it, or fade away. Nobody is successful because of pure luck. Sure, luck has something to do with it, but their success was built on the back hard work. They write, sweat, toil, and bleed over their manuscripts. Oftentimes they sign with their perfect agent who works, sweats, toils and bleeds over the negotiations. As a new writer, we want to take the first offer given. We have to leave it in the hands of our agent who work hard at getting us the best deal possible.

I’m almost amused by the whisperings I hear. Instead of genuine happiness, you hear things like “I bet that was a small deal. Probably just the basic. No negotiation there. She’s wasting commission with that agent.” Or “She’ll never sell through that advance.” So, damned if we do, damned if we don’t?
It’s hard work. All around. And in this world, the only way to succeed is to continue working hard. Badmouthing others might serve as temporary lidocaine to the bitterness in your gut, but it certainly won’t get that book written. Or more money in your pocket. Or make you happy with your career or lack thereof. And it won’t make those who are happy and successful any less so.

I guess all in all, this post boils down to choice. We’ve all had these feelings; it’s how we choose to act on those feelings that matters.

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” Willie Nelson