SBD

Since I got the new cover for my upcoming novel over the weekend (scroll down to check it out), I’ve been giving some thought to what makes a good cover and what a cover says about a book’s contents.

Personally, I’ve bought books based on the covers many times.  I’ve also not bought books for the same reason.  And I’m a writer – you’d think I’d know better.  I blogged once before about Joanna Bourne’s latest novel, The Spymaster’s Lady, and man oh man, is that a bad cover over a really good read.

A cover is supposed to do one thing: Convince the reader to buy the book.  But before you can get that close, you have to seduce the reader to pick it up.  Essentially, you have to make them want to touch it, to want to hold it, and hopefully, they’ll flip it over, read the back copy, and maybe open it and take a peek at the first few pages.

I have to say – I’m really happy with my back copy, and as for the cover itself, I like it.  I think it’s pretty and sensual, though seriously lacking in blurbs from well-known authors.  (Damn me, why don’t I network?!)

My only worry is that the cover is SO sexy.  It might make the potential buyer think the book is loaded with sex, which it isn’t.  This could scare off the reader who doesn’t want lots of nookie, and disappoint the reader who does.

We ran into the same problem with my first novel, VEILED PROMISES.  Behold:

Looks nice, right?  Pretty in pink.  Probably got a sweet romance, a pampered heroine (maybe even a hoyden!), and some indulgently doddering secondary characters.

Wrong.  This book is about manipulation, control, and power struggles gone wild.  In fact, when it was reviewed by TheRomanceReader.com, the reviwer noted in the first line, “Veiled Promises by debut author Tracy MacNish should come with a warning label. Certainly the soft pink cover gives no indication that the book’s content would include the most vile, under-handed, vicious, psychotic villain the reader is likely to ever encounter. ”

My opinion was that because the book was dark, the cover should be dark.  This way the reader who wants and prefers such will be drawn to it, and thus you’ll have a better shot at meeting a reader’s expectation.  My editor felt differently (and she certainly has more experience than I), and felt that a dark cover would sink us, because though the content of the book is at times very graphic and painful, ultimately the novel is about hope and the joy in finding ones true purpose and place in life.

My second book, VEILED DESIRES, has a brilliant cover:

 Lovely.  Sensual, dreamy, and evocative, but also bold in its own way.  I love this cover.  It captures the essence of the book, and I think it’s very touchable.  This book sold very well, and while yes, I do think it’s a solidly good story (ahem), the cover is ultimately the reader’s first contact with the book, and I think it did its job.

So we’ll see come October – if some angry chicks start bagging on my book on Amazon, bitching that the book doesn’t have much sex… well, it’ll mean that the reader expectation wasn’t met, that’s all.

Ultimately, I think VEILED PASSIONS is a good book.  I say that without fear, or even egotistic pride.  As its writer, I feel like I got really close to saying what I wanted to say, and when I reread it, I’m happy with it.  I know saying such things opens me up to more criticism, because people really like to find fault with things that an artist says is finished, or done, or dare they admit it: Good. 

And as the creator of the books, I have to come to peace with the fact that while the cover is out of my control; the content is not.  So with that in mind, I have pages to write.  Feel free to weigh in with your opinion about the new cover – scroll on down and take a gander at the full-size image.