I’ve always thought it was clever how one of the local chapters of Romance Writers of America hosts a contest entitled “Judge a Book By its Cover.” I’m not even sure whether the contest is still running, but it appears to be the only one of its kind and, in my humble opinion, an important one to run. Whether we, as authors, want to face the facts or not, the truth is readers judge books by their covers. And a “good” or a “bad” cover might make all the difference when it comes to whether our book gets picked up and read.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about making the transition from small press author to indie published author is having full control over my book covers. Prior to being published at all, it really didn’t occur to me how much weight publishers hold when it comes to making decisions about book covers. I simply believed I would have a vision (like the one I’d had for my story), I’d explain exactly how I wanted the cover to look and the publisher would design it to my exact specifications, just like that.
I wouldn’t say the first cover my publisher designed for me was perfect, but I will say it “wasn’t bad.” I learned, upon signing that first contract, that I would complete a “cover questionnaire,” answering questions that would provide my publisher with my input regarding how I wanted the cover to look. For the line I was writing for, I was told that the hero and heroine would both appear on the cover. I liked that – we were on the same page so far. But when I saw that first cover…God. I hated it–it was nothing at all like I had imagined. The funny thing was, the longer I looked at it, the more it grew on me. And so, the original cover for Dangerous Ally was born.
The second time around I was a little more open-minded. At least, I believed I was. But after staring at what I was told would be the cover for Dangerous Proposal I realized there were things about it I just couldn’t live with. It looked nothing like the cover of Dangerous Ally, meaning the books didn’t look as though they were part of the same series. I asked if the lettering could be changed and the picture made to look more like a drawing, like we’d done with cover # 1. My publisher agreed and I was pretty happy with the result, discounting the fact the hero was not particularly handsome in my humble opinion and didn’t look much like the way I had envisioned Alec Westwood, at all.
Creating the cover for Dangerous Proposition definitely took the prize. I thought I’d given a pretty good idea of what I was hoping for, but it wasn’t at all what I got back, at least not the first time around. Though I’d been presented with a cover that looked enough like those of the first two titles in The Pinnacles of Power Series there was a whole different problem this time around. The heroine was in her underwear, making the book look, to me, like an erotic romance novel. I also hated the hero, even more than I hated the hero on the cover of Dangerous Proposal. Fortunately, I lucked out this time around because when I requested that the heroine be fully clothed, a whole new cover was designed, one I liked infinitely better than the first.
I never wanted to push my publisher very hard where my covers were concerned. But I felt like I was compromising a little more with each one. A heroine clearly described as having wavy hair had ended up with straight. Another had bangs I’d never mentioned because I hadn’t envisioned them–yes, these are small details but we writers take the time to describe a lot of things about our characters, to give our readers a clear picture of what’s going on in our minds. When our covers don’t agree with that image, it looks as though we don’t care, or perhaps we have forgotten the details of our own story.
Creating the cover for Dangerous Secret, I became fully aware of what I’d slowly been realizing for some time, that as an author writing for a publisher I had very little control over my book covers. Once again, the hero did not look attractive to me and aren’t our readers reading our stories to fall in love with the hero? Though I hadn’t described him as such, the hero on the cover had a buzz cut and when pointing this out to my publisher I was told, “Jessica, we can’t paint hair onto a character.” Looking back, I’m not even entirely sure that I was aware prior to this conversation that stock images were being used as the foundation of my covers. But, in that moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I had no major complaints regarding the covers for Dangerous Magic, A Passionate Play or An Amorous Dance. But once I made the decision to go indie and began looking for images on my own, I quickly realized something. The power I hadn’t had before was now in my court. There would be no more cover questionnaires, no more disappointments. I’d choose the images, which meant I could spend hours looking for the perfect one, one that was as close of a compliment to my characters and my story as possible. My readers could see what was truly in my mind, and there would be no doubt that a story belonged to a particular series because all stories in that series have a similar look and feel. There would be no more regrets. My covers would make me as proud as my stories themselves.
In a workshop I recently attended regarding Amazon Ads, the instructor talked a bit about covers and how reader expectations can play a big role when it comes to whether a book will sell. He suggested we check out the covers of bestselling novels in our genre and model our own in a similar fashion. Though I imagine I’m not unique in this dilemma, I’ve always found it difficult to compare my books to others in the market. Most romantic suspense novels are darker and grittier than the ones I write, and contemporary romance novels have little in the way of suspense. Mine fit somewhere in between, “suspenseful romance novels” if you will.
A fan of the stories of yesteryear, I have a great appreciation for romance novels in which the hero and heroine are depicted together on the cover. The covers of the old “bodice rippers” initially attracted me to the genre–their bright colors, the passion between hero and heroine. Though these covers wouldn’t really fly in today’s market for a variety of reasons, the idea of a cover without people on it doesn’t really speak to me. And not being your typical “suspense” author, I’m not entirely sure they would speak to my books themselves either. Understanding what you write is important. But at the end of the day, I want my books to have covers that just make me want to stare at them and smile.
Since republishing my backlist, I’ve received numerous compliments on my new covers. Often, when I need a pick-me-up, I’ll go to the Books page on my website and admire them, thinking that I wouldn’t change a thing about them, and fantasizing about all the books I still want to write. My stories are all mine. I’m grateful that now, my covers can be too.
