Monday, July 14, 2008

MLAS cover

Moth said ...

Definitely off topic here but I was looking at my copy of MLAS and I was wondering why the cover model has brown hair. Was this one of those things where it was out of your hands? Or too late to fix by the time you were aware of the problem? It's just such a silly mistake I'm mad on your behalf that the publishers did it.

I don't have anything to say about the covers. Not before, not during, not after.
That is marketing. Market is an art to me unknown.

Maybe they think a brown-haired cover is more appealing?

It actually isn't the cover artist's fault either. She doesn't have the manuscript to work with, only directions from marketing.

6 comments:

  1. So, when they show you the covers you can't even say, "Um, Jess is a blonde"?

    That sucks. Especially because things like that are so easy to fix these days with Photoshop. Le bummer.

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  2. Covers.

    It's like one of those arranged marriages of long ago.

    There you are at the altar, getting your first look at the man you're going to spend your life with ...

    and by the time you see him, it's already too late.

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  3. Anonymous4:44 PM

    Its so strange, though, that they don't give better instructions. I mean, you'd think someone would read enough of the book to say "She's a blond". It seems so basic.
    And clearly they must have some instructions--I mean, ok, your characters are never on the open ocean but they are on a boat at some point. So they must have some sort of instrucitons for the cover artist that are based in some way on the book. Whywouldn't they get such a basic thing as hair color right?

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  4. Hi Anon --

    I've thought about this and pondered and puzzled. It seems as though getting a good description to the cover artist would be a piece of cake.

    I gave them the right information. I really did.

    I sent them pictures.

    Could it be they do it on purpose? I mean, maybe they SAID to do a brunette.

    Maybe research has shown that 23.5% of 20- to 35-year-olds in the Midwest do not identify with blondes, while, in the critical 40+ market, 69.7% prefer brown hair ...

    or something.

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  5. Anonymous10:28 AM

    I'm actually going back about 3 postings, but thought it would be easier to find here...
    RE getting the OOP book available (And clearly your audience is MUCH more interested in that than you are!)
    Are you aware of--is your agent aware of--www.regencyreads.com
    which seems to be providing downloads of lots of OOP regency books?
    Flawed or not I'd love to read it.

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  6. I don't know quite what the agent is thinking about for Ladyship's Companion.

    I do know that the technology these days mean a book doesn't ever HAVE to go out of print anymore. It's kind of a sobering thought, really.

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