Friday, November 07, 2008

Galleys, edits and covers

So, I finished the galleys for Still Waters, which should be in print at the end of March (yay! woo! etc!), but that made a hole in edits on Kett's book (I was sent the galleys a month ago and, er, forgot until about three days before they were due in).

But I'm steaming ahead. Well, puttering anyway. I'd like to get it finished before I go away on Monday (here, for five days), and hopefully get some distance from it so I can read through again with fresh eyes.

I have a small stack of books to take with me (I save up books for holidays), including the first of Colleen Gleason's Gardella Chronicles. But I'm mad with the publishers, Allison and Busby, for giving the UK release such a bland cover:
See? What does that tell you? It's a romance, sure. But so is everything else on the shelf. There's nothing on this cover to make me want to know more; and, crucially, nothing that tells me what the book is actually about. The USP of this series is that it's both paranormal and historical. But the cover tells you absolutely none of that. Compare it with the original Signet release:
Corset? Stake? Maybe it's a historical, maybe it's got vampires in it! Ooh, maybe I'll pick up this book and find out more! It's a much nicer piece of artwork, and it actually tells you something about the book too. Added to which, with the 'headless lady' type of cover you don't get the, "But she looks nothing like the chick on the cover," irritation. Actually, this is worse with heroes, I think, because they're never quite right for the hunk between the pages.

Anyway, rant over. I'm looking forward to reading this, and my other books too, which include Jasper Fforde and Daily Life in Ancient Rome. Can't say I'm not diverse.

1 comment:

  1. Agree totally about the covers!

    Enjoy your holiday

    ReplyDelete