Faking Cover Art

Heading to Hawaii this afternoon but the cold/flu that’s going around has hit me with a whallop, straight to the chest.  I’m a congested, achy mess but I’m not the only one.  It’s everywhere.  Kids have it.  Friends have it.  Schools have it.  Tis the season, apparently.

Fortunately, I (mostly) finished packing for Hawaii yesterday and am nearing the end of addressing Christmas cards so those can go out by end of the week.  Hopefully.  Fingers crossed Ty will manage Mac on the flight this afternoon and I can sleep, or read.  Or sleep.  That’s actually all my little eyeballs feel like doing right now.

I haven’t been to Hawaii since mid-late August and it’ll be great to get back to the beach house and see Ty’s elderly bulldogs–Rupert and Mabel–and get the white flocked tree up in the living room and put all the sea ornaments on it.  We haven’t had a Christmas tree yet this year and I miss it.  I miss playing carols, too.  Need the holiday spirit!  Happily, in just a half hour I’ll be heading to Mac’s preschool to hear him sing in the Christmas program.  I can’t wait to hear 2 1/2 year olds sing Jingle Bells and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Mac’s been singing in his carseat all week and he definitely knows the songs…at least his version of them.

This week over at Facebook I asked readers on my author page if covers mattered when buying a book, and it did to most of them.  I’d say 90% of those that responded (and 57 people responded) said covers did matter, especially if the author was new to them.  I’m the same.  Covers are what catch my eye.  Covers are meant to.  I haven’t seen cover art for my new book, The Good Woman, yet but thought I’d share with you covers from my backlist.

Check out the two covers (and titles) below.  They’re the same book.  Two different titles, and two different versions of cover art for Tiana Tomlinson’s book.  There were more, but these two were part of the evolution of Tiana’s book.  Her book went through more covers and titles than any of my others.  I loved the title of Faking Beauty, but sales people didn’t, so the title didn’t stick, nor did the cover art.  They said the Faking Beauty cover art made the book look too much like “women’s fiction”, or literary fiction, which apparently I’d never be.

So.  I got the cover and title to the right.  And Easy On The Eyes is my worst selling book by far.  Hands down.  Terrible sales.  But it’s a book I really loved, and a book I still believe in.  I think I could have made different choices in places in writing the story, but they are small changes, not big.  So just out of curiosity, check out the two covers, and tell me which version (if any) of the book would you pick up?  Which version do you think you’d buy?

Tell me what you think, talk to me about cover decisions you make and if they do influence you in any way, and you’re entered to win a prize.  I have 3 mystery prizes here, and they are all good and fun and perfect for opening in December.   Contest runs through Saturday and winners names will be announced on Sunday.  Talk to me and the happiest of holidays!