Seeing a cover design for the first time is an exciting moment for an author. It’s a little nerve-wracking as you hold your breath, praying that the designers captured the essence of your story in visual form. Their vision doesn’t always match the author’s vision, but when done well, a cover can prove to be the most effective marketing tool in a publisher’s arsenal. The cover is what gets a reader to pick up a book. It communicates the mood of the story, draws the reader in with beauty or by posing pictoral questions, and it serves as identification for readers who are drawn to particular authors.
Covers for a novella collection can be a special challenge. First, they aren’t just conveying tone and plot for one story, but four. This means they have to be more general in nature while still being compelling to readers – no easy task. When I first saw the cover the Bethany House designers came up with for my Harvey House Brides collection, I breathed a happy sigh. It was lovely.
There are several things I love about this cover. First – the model has an updo hairstyle!!! Whenever I get an updo on one of my covers, I get really excited. Most of my covers have featured hairstyles that flow around the shoulders, and while pretty, they aren’t historically accurate. I think my heavy hints might finally be paying off. Ha!
Second – I love the iconic Harvey House black dress and white apron. Judy Garland made this uniform famous in her hilarious western musical The Harvey Girls. The challenge came in how much of the uniform to show. All four of the stories in the collection are from different time periods, which means different skirt lengths and different apron styles. The designer included just enough to create the iconic imagery without violating any time period strictures.
For those of you who have read More Than Meets the Eye, this will be the third story in the Patchwork Family Series. Evangeline and Seth Hamilton find love in More Than Meets the Eye. Big brother, Zach Hamilton, is about to meet his match in feisty baker Abigail Kemp in More Than Words Can Say, coming in June. Rosalind Kemp is Abigail’s younger sister, and this novella, More Than A Pretty Face, is where she finds her happy ending. The collection Serving Up Love will release in November.
What do you think about my new cover? Would you pick it up if you spotted it while browsing? What elements make a book cover compelling to you?
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This cover conveys warmth and welcome. I love it!
Thanks, Suzanne. I think their addition of the gold lettering and background helped warm up the start black and white color palette. It amazes me how much color conveys mood.
Love the Harvey House cover! Simply but inviting! 🙂
Thanks, D’Ann! The one change we asked them to make was in the descriptive text. Initially, it just said something like “A Collection of Historical Romance Novellas” or something generic like that. I was concerned that people wouldn’t recognize it as being a Harvey House uniform and just think the model was a servant in a wealthy household. Changing the text to read “A Harvey House Brides Collection” hopefully makes our theme and setting more clear to readers on first glance. Other than that minor tweak, though, we were really pleased with how it came out.
I LOVE this cover! It has a certain air of mystery about it, being that you can’t see her face or what her hands are doing. The colors are wonderful – i love everything about it! Can’t wait for this one to be out!!
Thanks, Kathy! With her turned-away face, I like to think that she is looking out into the Harvey House dining room and meeting the eyes of the hero. 🙂
That is a beautiful cover! I am so excited to read this book! Thanks for showing us 🙂
Thanks, Kimberly. I’m excited for it to be out in the wide world. 🙂
That’s a great cover! I really loved the covers you used to have, where everything but the faces could be seen. I like when a cover doesn’t “disagree” with my image of the hero and heroine, so not seeing their faces helps, LOL. A lot of books lately have to be selected on the strength of what we know of the author’s type of writing. (Witness all the bare-chested men on book covers — so stupid!) So thanks for having wonderful covers and making sure they are truly reflective of the treasure between the covers!
Thanks, Hilda. Cover art is really driven by marketing and sales – what they think will sell the book. (Hence all those bare-chested heroes in the general market.) I’ve been so fortunate to have a publisher who takes my ideas into account. I have very little actual say in the artwork, but they do ask me for ideas at the outset of the design process, which I really appreciate.
I love the cover, Karen! I know how it feels as a historical writer and researcher to see a cover which is wrong for the era or the setting. I’ve often cringed at the long flowing tresses on some of the historical covers knowing how much they pinned their hair up and covered it with a hat when they were outside. This new cover of yours is perfect, as I’m sure your story is too.
Thanks, Marilyn. 🙂
I’ve read some authors have input on cover design while others don’t. Looks like the cover for your novellas collection turned out great!
Thanks, Elisa. Most traditionally published authors get very little input on their covers. Indie authors, on the other hand, get full control. It’s one of the reasons many authors choose the indie path – for the control. I’m thankful to have an extremely talented art department doing the designs for me. I know what I like and don’t like, but when it comes to actual design – I know nothing!
Karen, I love this cover! It is drawing me to read more!
Yay! That’s the reaction I want!
I would definitely pick it up, even before I saw your name on it. I love it.
Thanks, Jacqueline! 🙂
I love the cover. I have read many of your books and looking forward to another. I have read More Than Meets the Eye. You state in your message the next one Serving Up Love is third in this series. I don’t know what is title of #1. Thanks. May God bless you as you continue with your writing.
Hi, Emogene. Thanks for being such a loyal reader!
Book #1 is More Than Meets the Eye.
#2 will be More Than Words Can Say, which will release in June.
#3 will be More Than a Pretty Face in the Serving Up Love collection, which will release in November.
Thanks for the clarification for me. Looking forward to the other books.
As someone who reads a lot of historical fiction, I definitely look for an historically accurate cover because it shows someone CARED to get it right. Yes, indie authors might have “more control” over their covers, but if said authors don’t choose a cover that reflects the story inside (and I’ve seen some doozys), I have to wonder about that author’s level of research or if they cared enough to get the details right. For example, a WW2 novel about Red Cross clubmobiles should not have a cover showing three women with 1920s marcelled hairstyles! Sarah Sundin’s covers are remarkably accurate, and indicate the depth of her research.