Sunday, August 2, 2015

A Tale of Two Covers by Melinda Curtis

As a romance author, I've been fortunate to write for Harlequin (15 books this month!). It's a different experience from being an independent author, especially when it comes to cover design. Both require you to express your vision to a cover artist, but at Harlequin I'm not involved in primary photo selection, and don't see the cover until three months before a book comes out, which is the same time they post the cover online for readers to see. They do send a link to me on cover reveal day (auto-notification), which is a nice reminder to go see their work and what I've been blessed with by the cover gods.

Three months ago I received a link for my August Harlequin release - Time for Love, Book 5 in my Harmony Valley series. This book features a heroine first introduced in Summer Kisses, Book 2. In Summer Kisses, Kathy Harris was as fiery as her hair color. In Time for Love, Kathy Harris was still as fiery as her hair color. Imagine my surprise when I clicked the link that day and discovered Kathy was blond!

Through a flurry of emails where I apologized in advance if I'd forgotten to select redhead on the Art Fact Sheet (I hadn't), and where editors scrambled to determine if there was time for a cover edit (they weren't sure), I grew to like blond Kathy, although it was too late to change her hair color in the text of the book. Through some miracle (and probably the offer of a free lunch by editors), the cover artists at Harlequin changed Kathy's hair color in time for the printed cover. I was sent a new link and thought no more about it.

And then last week at a Harlequin book signing, the company sent a small poster of the book as a promotional piece. What color was Kathy's hair? You guessed it. Blond. I wasn't mad. I laughed. We don't always catch our mistakes, do we? And doesn't it make for a better story than me saying how much I love the cover? (I do love it. I love both versions.)

Now it's your turn to weigh in. Would you have feinted if a cover artist made this mistake? Which hair color do you prefer?

Melinda Curtis is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Her latest release - Time For Love - features a colt recovering from a mountain lion attack, a single mom, and a horse whisperer. No one thinks it's the right time for love.

17 comments:

  1. This reminds me of an old true story of two Harlequin authors who had books coming out the same month. One complained that there was a dog on her cover and no dog in her story. The other author via email loop exclaimed THAT'S MY DOG! Funny but NOT.

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  2. I remember Suzanne Brockmann's cover - Get Lucky. This was something like book 10 in her original Navy Seal series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. Lucky was supposed to be the most gorgeous man alive. On this cover, however, he looked like he'd gained 200 pounds. Suzanne sent out smiley stickers to cover his face on the book cover. Generated a lot of buzz and was her 2nd best selling book in the series.

    Every situation can be made into lemonade with the right attitude, I guess.

    Have a great Sunday!
    M

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    1. At least I'm assuming it was the 2nd best. Everyone always talks about her May-December romance seal book as being their favorite. I just love them all! (#fangirl, #SuzanneBrockmann)

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  3. Both covers look great! I do like the read, though, and since it fits with your character...Good for you to laugh off the mistake rather than get upset or angry. We waste so much time on the little details sometimes, you know?

    Congrats on the release. I love Heartwarming, so I'll have to check this one out after I cross a few more books off my TBR!

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    1. Thanks, Christy! With age comes patience, right?

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  4. Thank you for sharing! It's funny all of the stories you hear about cover mishaps, but it all works out in the end. Readers can be very forgiving. I'm a big fan of Suzanne Brockmann also :)

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    1. Hey, Lori! I did have a cover hero with steroid biceps once (The Family Man), but there was also a cute dog on the cover.

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  5. I've never been able to change a cover. I've been able to change the book to fit the cover.

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    1. Ah, yes, Merrillee. I was asked to give my hero a haircut in One Perfect Year!

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  6. I prefer the red-haired cover, but both are very nice. When I read books and notice discrepancies between the text and the cover it doesn't bother me at all. I figure it has to do with art-department mix-ups or something. No big deal to me at all. Congratulations on another Heartwarming title. ( :

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  7. Congrats, Melinda! So awesome you chose to see the humor in this. I agree - makes for a fun and funny story down the road. Best wishes to you!

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  8. Congratulations on #15 Melinda! I don't care what hair color is used on a cover model but I do want it to match the character's description in the book. When it doesn't it's e big OOPS in my opinion!

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  9. Congrats on your latest book Melinda. Love reading your books. Having read the book I definitely prefer the "Red" look. Although she does seem nice as a blond as well.

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  10. I prefer the red since it matches the story but I am not one who gets bent out of shape when the cover doesn't match; some authors have less control than others and mistakes happen. The cover is great with the blond too. Now that I read more ebooks than print, the covers matter less but they still matter.

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  11. I would have laughed. In my mind, sometimes the characters I'm reading about look nothing like their cover or how the author describes them. It is why books are better than movies :)

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  12. I like a cover to look like the story people but if it doesn't I just re-imagine the characters. Love your cover. I'm going to check out your book on my ereader today. :)

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