Covers | S y l v i a D a y | The Official Website

October 13th, 2005

My editor and I have talked about covers for my Brava books. She would like less historical-looking covers. I’ve been trying to picture in my head what she means. Then tonight I saw Susan Johnson’s new Brava cover. She has three historical Bravas coming out. (Yay for me! LOL :dance: I can’t wait to read them.)

Oh man… Here it is.

Yep, that’s a historical book.

Isn’t it gorgeous? Is it just me? Renee and I were talking about the title of my August Brava release Ask For It. She said if she were looking for a historical, she probably wouldn’t pick up a book titled Ask For It. I wonder if a reader who didn’t know better would think the same about covers like this. But I really like it. I think it’s fabulous. I’d certainly pick it up and read the back and find out it was historical.

What do you think?

I can only pray that I’ll be as lucky. :love:

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14 comments to “Covers”

Sadly, I would never suspect this was a hisotrical cover, and if I was one of those people who goes into a bookstore looking for strictly historical novels, I probably wouldn’t pick this up. Luckily, I go into a bookstore looking for interesting books, and the cover is gorgeous, so I’d probably pick it up and read the back, and if it sounded good, I’d buy it.

Am I narrow minded? ::shrug::
by Diana October 13th, 2005 at 6:13 am
When I first saw the cover, I had to read the blurb to make sure it was historical. Susan writes contemporaries, to. So even though I knew she writes historicals for Brava, I still had to double check to be certain.
by Sylvia October 13th, 2005 at 7:46 am
I love Susan J’s new cover. Does it look historical? Not really, but it’s gorgeous anyhow. With a title like ASK FOR IT I wouldn’t think historical unless the cover gave a clue–or unless I knew the author only wrote them.

To match up a contemp cover and title, if I was looking for historical, I’d keep looking.

But not with Sylvia’s books! She’s awesome and I’ll for sure be buying! :cheer:
by Renee Luke October 13th, 2005 at 7:56 am
The cover is gorgeous, but screams contemporary I think, and definitely not historical.

So you might want to think about that, especially when there are readers out there that browse based on the cover art. I do…if I’m browsing, and the cover catches my eye, I’ll pick it up read the blurb and decide if I want to buy.

I work in a bookstore…so I see it all the time.

Is there something you could add to a beautiful cover like that that would indicate that it could be historical…if he’s a scottish lord, have his clan cloth draped over his chest??? I don’t know I’m tossing things out…I don’t write nor read historicals…so…
by Vivi Anna October 13th, 2005 at 7:57 am
It’s a gorgeous cover, and I love it much more than the clinch covers of a lot of historicals. It’s so sensual.
by Cheyenne McCray October 13th, 2005 at 8:33 am
How much say did you have in your cover design?
by cj October 13th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
How much say did you have in your cover design?

Authors usually don’t get much say in their cover art. The publisher does what they believe will sell the most books. This is why you’ll see Georgian-set historicals (powdered wigs, wide hoops, high heels on men) with Regency dressed models on the front.

My editor, however, says that I’m the one who has to sign the book with a smile, which is hard to do if I’m cringing. LOL So she’ll run cover art and back cover blurbs by me. I can’t change much. I asked for lush velvets on BBA, and you see how the cover is. *g*

But the cover for BBA isn’t the original. The original cover had my name in mint green and it did make me cringe. The entire color scheme of the cover was changed to what it is now to get rid of that green. So my input was taken into consideration… in a small way.
by Sylvia October 13th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
I have to say that a cover like that would make me think contemporary automatically. A few years back I never read straight contemps, only historicals and paranormals that had some contemporary settings, so I probably would have passed this book by.

The cover itself is gorgeous. Much more realistic that bodice rippers (even though I’m one of the few that always will *love* bodice ripper covers *sigh*). If they’d had the woman in period-looking undergarments (maybe not completely accurate, but something that looked more old-fashioned), then it might clue me in.
by Amanda Carrell October 13th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
I usually don’t look at a book for its’ cover—but by the authors name—-and no I would never think that cover is a historical read.
by Estella October 14th, 2005 at 12:13 pm
I think the cover is gorgeous…for a contemporary book. I’d pick it up and read the back for Susan J.’s name alone.
by Jordan October 14th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
It’s a beautiful cover, but it doesn’t say historical.
by jaq October 14th, 2005 at 12:47 pm
The cover is gogeous! It doesn’t say historical to me, but you know, Kasey Michaels, who writes fabulous historicals, has really cartooney covers, and I bought her anyway.
by Danica October 14th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
The cover definitely doesn’t say historical, I always have to check with Susan J’s though. Pure Sin is my favourite and it doesn’t shout historical. Neither does Brazen or Love Storm. It’s quite clever marketing but my ideal would be a peep of corsetry being undone by a man’s hand, I’d grab the book no questions asked I hope you get one you like, Sylvia! You’re Misled is FAB!
by saskia October 15th, 2005 at 1:57 am
It doesn’t scream “Historical”, but it’s very attractive and the name “Susan Johnson” will override any confusion concerning the setting of the book–but woe betide a brand new author!!
by Keller October 15th, 2005 at 3:08 am