I got a question about my image of my heroes, particularly the Ursine men, and how they meet the cover image. I have to tell you I've been very lucky. I've gotten terrific covers from Cerridwen Press and Ellora's Cave. Probably because they allow the authors some input into some of our covers.
Some publishers allow authors little to no input. I've even heard horror stories about authors being asked to alter their stories because the cover was wrong and it would be too expensive to redo the cover, but cost nothing to get the author to rework a piece of the story. At a convention (DragonCon in Atlanta, GA) one author told how the cover artist had put a blonde busty female on the cover inthe midst of a battle scene. Unfortunately the main character was a male. The author had to find someway to justify her male character being in "drag" during the battle scene because the publisher refused to pay to fix the cover.
As much as I loved the cover for Access Denied, the cover for Soul Stone is my favorite. When I sent the request in for my cover I'd seen the model on another cover and was stunned at just how like Tarris Ursine he was. Friends even emailed me and asked if I'd seen the cover. They'd read Mating Stone and Lovers' Stone and knew that Tarris was getting his own book. The comment was the same. "That guy IS Tarris!" So I begged and the cover gods at EC granted my wish.
But if you'd like to see a profile of each of the Ursine men and a close approximation of what they look like in my head check out the links below to profiles I ran previously on my blog.
Mark Ursine
Luke Ursine
Tarris Ursine
4 comments:
Luke is still my favorite, but Tarris's cover is my favorite to look at!! :D It must be the Narcissa Malfoy in me, or the Perpetua McEllis.
I love the back stories from February. Are these posted on the web site? I like going from the book to the author and finding out more about the characters and world they live. It is always disappointing to go to n author site and the only information on a book is the link back to the publisher. While I want the cover to match the story since knowing most authors do not have control I am more willing to overlook a disconnect. Still you got great covers and they mesh well with the story. Thanks for the update.
Mark is a cutie. Too bad he wasn't on the cover huh?
I do like how ebook pubs are more interested in listening to what the authors have in mind for their covers. I don't think NY has the same open discussion about it unless you sell huge numbers. Does anyone know?
Wishing you both many sales. And you're right. The cover is great!
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