Cover art -- Kandy Shepherd

 Covers are so important, aren’t they? For books and magazines they are the first meeting between publisher and reader and do a lot to entice readers to buy the book—or at the least pick it up.

In my former life as a magazine editor-in-chief I was fanatical about covers, knowing what an influence they had on sales. We spent so much time on getting covers as right as we could get them. Our circulations people who would let the editorial team know in no uncertain terms why they thoughts sales had dipped or peaked.

When I edited a gardening magazine we had to plan our covers a year ahead. If, for example, we wanted to feature lilac on the cover we had to photograph a lilac cover in spring one year to feature on the next spring cover. The production cycle being what it was, we were getting those covers ready in the winter when lilac bushes were totally dormant! Same with rose covers (often best-sellers!), pansies or tulips.

Roses go well on the covers of gardening magazines (these are from my garden)

On food magazines, we had to do the same thing with seasonal fruit and vegetables. Cherries were a particular problem. Cherries are a favorite fruit at Christmas in Australia (Christmas is in summer Down Under) and we really liked to have fresh cherries in our Christmas recipes. So again, cherry covers had to be shot a year ahead. Christmas issues are usually worked on in September. There is not a fresh cherry to be found in either hemisphere of the world at that time. I know from experience!

You have to plan ahead for cherries on a food magazine cover (also from my garden) 

When I self-published novels I was determined to have good covers. I’m sure The Castaway Bride would not have been the best-seller it was without the lovely cover! (It was designed by the amazing Kim Killion at the The Killion Group.)

 I have truly been blessed by the cover gods for The Tycoon and The Wedding Planner my July 2014 release from Harlequin Romance. I just love this cover. To me it is deeply romantic and sensual in a subtle way. I love the way the cover models represent the story and I especially love the heroine’s gorgeous hair.

The Australian edition of the novel used the same image in a slightly different way. Again I love it!

The UK cover is also romantic and lovely and beautifully represents the story inside

How important are covers to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’m giving away a signed copy of The Tycoon and The Wedding Planner. To be in the draw, please include your e-mail address in your comment.

Kandy’s second Dolphin Bay story for Harlequin Romance, The Tycoon and The Wedding Planner is on sale now.

Kandy Shepherd is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

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My Reckless Surrender!

by Anna Campbell

It's always an exciting moment for me (and I suspect for all authors) when we see the final version of the cover for our next book. I know that's when everything becomes real for me - it's the moment when I think, yes, my story is going to be out there in the world very soon!

So it's with great pleasure that I share with you the cover for my June 2010 release MY RECKLESS SURRENDER.

Isn't it gorgeous? Really sensual and intriguing. Which is what I hope the book is as well! And that yellow really grabs the attention.

I love her pose, looking over her shoulder, as if daring the hero to come and get her, whatever the consequences. Hmm, that's like the story too! Needless to say, the hero can't resist her!

And I think you can see that very clearly when you open that cover and see this sexy stepback. They both look like they've surrendered very recklessly indeed!

Here's the blurb for MY RECKLESS SURRENDER:

Headlong into sin...

A well-practiced rake, weary of easy conquests and empty pleasures, Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft, knows women—and his every instinct warns him to beware of this one. Diana Carrick’s brazen overtures have thrown the haunted, sinfully handsome lord completely off his guard. Why, the exquisite temptress stated outright that she wishes to be his lover! But it is neither Diana’s boldness nor her beauty that intrigues him so—it is the innocence he senses behind her worldly mask.

Intent upon the seduction that will finally free her, Diana has set her sights on the notorious Ashcroft—never dreaming that there is much more to the enigmatic rogue than sin and deviltry. His kiss is bewitching, his caress intoxicating—and even the dangerous secret Diana must protect cannot shield her from Ashcroft’s dark allure.

Unwittingly yet most willingly, they are playing with fire. Now the fuse has been lit and there is no escape…except surrender.

You can find an excerpt on my website here. The book is already up for pre-order at Amazon.

So what books are you looking forward to reading in the next six months? I'm really looking forward to Madeline Hunter's new series and the new Christine Wells, SWEETEST LITTLE SIN, in May, among others. What about you?

When a Cover Works

We all know what a wrong cover looks like. The one where the man and the woman on it look nothing like the characters the author created. Or there is an extra arm there. The colors make the hero look orange. The hero looks like a bad version of Donald Trump.

But when a cover works, like this one for my new book, Tempted by the Night, all the right elements converge together like a perfect storm.

When I was asked (and yes, authors are asked what they would like on the cover--they don't always listen, but it is nice to be asked), I suggested a moonlit scene, because the bulk of the story happens at night. I had seen a Harry Potter movie poster that I thought was brilliant--just Harry in the moonlight with a sword in his hand. And I wanted the same dark, desperate, passionate mood on my cover.

Yet the art department and the artist took another view, and put the couple together here, on the dark streets of London, in this fabulous, desperate embrace, as if this is their first and only kiss. And boy, are they going to make it a good one. While murky darkness surrounds them, together they glow. She is his light.

It captures Hermione's and Rockhurst's relationship perfectly. Like I said, when it works . . . But you'll have to tell me if it fits the story. Tempted by the Night goes on sale Tuesday, August 26th. Get a copy and let me know if the cover and the story work for you.

In the meantime, what is your idea of a perfect cover?

BTW, I'm having a contest over on my blog to win a box of goodies from the RWA conference. Drop by, comment before Monday noon, and you could win!