Cover art is an ongoing drama for writers. Sometimes we love it. Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we have input and sometimes we’re only allowed to give a vague general idea. I can’t really blame the artists who work on my books for anything. I’m notorious for being extremely poor at filling out cover art request forms. If I’m not quite as happy as I could be, it’s entirely up to me to make appropriate suggestions, but as an artist, I’d make a really great doorstop. I have no artistic talent, in terms of images, whatsoever.
This is probably true of a lot of authors. I’m a word person. When I listen to music, words are what I remember. When I take a test, I need my question to be put into words, often I don’t make the appropriate associations if the question involves a picture. For example, if you were to ask me, “branch is to leaves as hand is to ?” I would answer “Fingers.” But if you were to show me a picture of a branch and some leaves, I would spend all my time figuring out what you are trying to ask. Is the question about colors? Brown and green? Or is it about size? Or photosynthesis? These things are difficult for me. Recently I took a personality test that consisted of a series of pictures, and I couldn’t answer ONE.
Which means, I guess, that without words, I don’t actually have a personality.
At any rate, I’m shit at filling out cover art sheets. But I think the folks at Samhain absolutely nailed it when they redid the cover of Crossing Borders.
Red hair, check
Freckles, check
Blue eyes, OMG check.
Insouciance. Innocence. Mischief. Check, check, check.
Bravo, Samhain! Available for pre-order at All Romance Ebooks!
OMG!!!! This is the very first m/m book I ever read, and I’ve wanted a hard copy for-freaking-EVER. Does Samhain do audiobooks too? Cause that would be awesome.
I’m looking into that right now! We’ll see.
Crossing Borders was one of my first m/m books and still is one of my all-time favorites. I always find it hard to picture characters with red hair (although I have spent a fortune trying to get red hair myself). Samhain did a great job with this cover. I guess I’ll have to do a reread with this Sparky in mind!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked it!
Love the new cover. I have to admit that I put off Crossing Borders initially because I did not like the cover, but it went straight to my 5 star favorites list afterwards.
Thanks Debra, I’m so glad you read it anyway. People either loved that first cover or hated it. I like this new one best.
This was one of my first MM books and I see a reread in my future 🙂
Will there only be a new cover or did you rewrite the story?
Just a new cover. I tried to keep the book the same because it’s dated, and if I changed anything, I’d have to change everything. So this is for people who A) hated the cover enough to give it a miss the first time around. B) Have never seen it or read it, and don’t know anything about it, or C) love it enough to want the print copy with the new cover.
Tell your friends. If they’ve never read it, there’s an extra freckly, blue eyed reason to read it now!
I’ll have a BUNCH of them with me at GRL and I’ll be signing them. If anyone wants one as a souvenir, you might want to let me know ahead so I can make sure I have one.