tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post115487459490233347..comments2024-03-28T12:46:20.637-04:00Comments on alien romances: A step too farRowena Cherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154973461665535112006-08-07T13:57:00.000-04:002006-08-07T13:57:00.000-04:00Aargh. WOULD match her image, I mean, of course.Aargh. WOULD match her image, I mean, of course.Margaret Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08293021955480708191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154973379388217232006-08-07T13:56:00.000-04:002006-08-07T13:56:00.000-04:00I understand Diana Gabaldon doesn't like the idea ...I understand Diana Gabaldon doesn't like the idea of having pictures of the characters on the covers, because no illustration which match her image (or most readers') of Claire and Jamie. So far, the cover artists have usually cooperated, portraying objects rather than people.<BR/><BR/>Ellora's Cave asks authors for very specific details on characters' appearance but still warns us that the picture probably won't look like our private image of the character -- naturally not, since everyone's imagination works differently.<BR/><BR/>RE suitable illustrations for the genre, I really dislike the current trend with sexy vampire novels of designing covers that look more like erotica than vampire fiction, sometimes so much so that from the cover alone (without the title), one would never guess the story involved vampires. The covers of the new editions of Hamilton's earlier Anita Blake novels fall into that category. I liked the original illustrations much better.Margaret Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08293021955480708191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154946314243438842006-08-07T06:25:00.000-04:002006-08-07T06:25:00.000-04:00Linnea,Thank you for your thoughts. If I'd seen y...Linnea,<BR/><BR/>Thank you for your thoughts. If I'd seen your red spandexed heroine story before I posted my blog, I'd have mentioned that, because it is a perfect example!<BR/><BR/>I suppose my best course is one we've discussed: promote in good, established SF company in ROF and other sci-fi publications, appear at conventions and on blogs in SFR contexts....<BR/><BR/>The reviews should help. They usually mention genre. However, I'm pretty certain that Dorchester Love Spells are shelved in chain stores' romance aisles. I'm sure that is a consideration.<BR/><BR/>Congratulations again on your lovely new Bantam cover!<BR/><BR/>Best wishes,<BR/>RowenaRowena Cherryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154923983096655142006-08-07T00:13:00.000-04:002006-08-07T00:13:00.000-04:00I would never peg it for SFR, no. It's a very roma...I would never peg it for SFR, no. It's a very romantic cover but there's nothing that bespeaks alien or sci-fi/SF to me. I'd hate to have someone buy it--not reading the back blurb if that is clearly SFR--and then wonder what in blazes they were reading!<BR/><BR/>But we have no say. I covered this (pardon the pun) with my own rant on covers. I think the readers really have to understand that. Sometimes the cover is just the thing to hold the pages together.<BR/><BR/>Like you, Rowena, I do refer to the cover when reading if there's something to refer to (JD Robb's, for example, don't have that as they're 'misty scenery'). But the bearded/clean shaven wizard is about on par with my red spandex clad space bimbo from hell. <BR/><BR/>Only marketing knows how marketing thinks. ;-) ~LinnneaLinnea Sinclairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03633057411107208569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154903594618477522006-08-06T18:33:00.000-04:002006-08-06T18:33:00.000-04:00How interesting.I turn back and gaze at the cover ...How interesting.<BR/><BR/>I turn back and gaze at the cover many times in the course of reading a book, especially if the hero or heroine are depicted.<BR/><BR/>Best wishes,<BR/>RowenaRowena Cherryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154901454592952492006-08-06T17:57:00.000-04:002006-08-06T17:57:00.000-04:00Margaret,Thank you for your kind thoughts. I had ...Margaret,<BR/><BR/>Thank you for your kind thoughts. I had to snort over Get Off The Unicorn. What a complete change of mood!<BR/>I think I'd have had a purple fit over that.<BR/>Dorchester does Futuristics, so I am sure that the romance is more important than anything else.<BR/>The hair color is wrong on the heroine, but that was an easy fix for me. <BR/>There is a point newly written into the story where the hero gives her a noogie with a handful of dirt.<BR/>Do you think the reader would buy the idea that he is lovingly about to wash her hair clean again for her ?<BR/><BR/>:-)<BR/>RowenaRowena Cherryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-1154899342608506162006-08-06T17:22:00.000-04:002006-08-06T17:22:00.000-04:00It's a beautiful cover, but I admit I wouldn't hav...It's a beautiful cover, but I admit I wouldn't have taken it, at first look, for SF romance. My own feeling about cover illustrations is that a scene giving a general idea of the book's content is OK. It doesn't have to be a literal rendering of a scene that's actually in the book. WILD SORCERESS and BESIEGED ADEPT, two fantasy novels co-written by my husband and me, don't have a scene as such on the cover. Each one has a close-up of a character or (for the second book) 2 characters, with a rainbow-toned landscape in the background. <BR/><BR/>It does bother me if the scene on the cover directly contradicts the story. Or if the portrayal of the character conflicts blatantly with the author's description of him/her. For instance, the paperbacks of John Morrisey's Kedrigern stories have delightful covers of a conventional bearded wizard in magical-looking robes. The trouble is, the narratives state explicitly, several times, that Kedrigern is clean-shaven, eschews the traditional long-white-beard image, and likes to wear simple clothes rather than elaborate robes.<BR/><BR/>Having a blurb that contradicts the story, however, is far worse than having a cover that does. Or a blurb that gives away a surprise. The cover of Mary Brown's PIGS DON'T FLY had a line below the title that read, "...but dragons do." Thus giving away the main crucial secret of the whole novel. <BR/><BR/>Funny story about tweaking a book to correspond to the cover -- one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels was to be called WINGS OF DARKOVER, but a typo in the advance publicity materials rendered the title as WINDS OF DARKOVER. So at the last minute she wrote in a ghost wind scene to make the title accurate.<BR/><BR/>There's an Ann McCaffrey book that was supposed to be called GET OF THE UNICORN (i.e., in the sense of offspring). It was typeset as GET OFF THE UNICORN, which was what it remained. <BR/><BR/>Ouch, that experience with the fish spine sounds awful.Margaret Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08293021955480708191noreply@blogger.com