The book came out, and very oddly, went into a second printing not soon after. To have had the actual cover flat in my hand, and then have it snatched away.
I believe it was less than a month later when my editor called to inform me that there had been some rethinking in cover looks, and my step-back was not going to be on my book. The outside cover had my name and the book title in pink, and in the center of them, a simple bouquet of daisies with a pink ribbon around them (my heroine’s bridal bouquet.) Everything was just exactly how I’d pictured. The daisies were there, the character’s expressions were perfect. The painting had been done by Gregg and was of a scene in the book where the characters were on a picnic. Words cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I was when I viewed the artwork in the final cover flat. In 1995, I was to get my first step-back on a June book called Weeping Angel. Nearly all had a very accurate representation of the hero and heroine as I’d described to the art department. This brings home a troubling pointand something that is usually entirely out of the author’s hands: Does good cover art sell a book? I think it makes a huge impression on buyers – both the bookstores and public. I’ve bought many books on the artwork alone, not knowing a thing about the author. Since Berkley’s early success with step-back art, other publishers followed suit and created their own. I believe LaVyrle Spencer was the first to have a step-back cover on Vows in April 1988.
I was first published in 1987, and the thought of a non-clench cover just wasn’t an option.
The issue of what makes a good romance cover has probably been debated for twenty years. In an effort to get on the synergy bandwagon, we decided to allow Stef Ann Holm’s Write Byte on covers to cut in line here at The Romance Reader because a goodly portion of this issue’s column, #29, is about the cover controversy as well.Īfter reading a post by Stef to one of the romance listservs about romance covers, we asked her to expand her ideas and discuss her personal experience as an established author who has had a variety of covers.
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