The Making of a Cover

Have you ever wondered what goes into the making a romance book cover?

Here are the important factors that must be considered:

1)The title has to be one of the most important things on the cover. How long is the title? does it tell you something about the story? does it grab your attention?
Much like coming up with the series title for this series (Dangerous Rogues), the title was equally hard. Keywords are pooled: Wicked, Dangerous, Tempting, Seducing, Desires, etc. Then character descriptions are listed: Lady, Proper, Governess, Wife, Lord, etc. Then phrases are played with until you have the perfect story description in hopefully six words or less. I think it took a couple of weeks of brainstorming with critique partners, my agent and my editor before we had a title for this book.

Then there is the series title, which I've already blogged about.

2) Character Descriptions are provided at the request of the art department and editor/editor's assistant. At this point the author would give a physical description of the hero and heroine and then clothing styles of the era (if the book is historical). For paranormal's, contemporaries and other subgenres in romance, considerations might be tattoos, brands, does he ride a motorcycle (for the background maybe), etc.




3) This time when I provided the above information, I took it one step further and provided a movie poster that I thought would be the perfect image of my heroine and hero embracing in a passionate kiss. I really like the movie Angel, and the costumes are phenomenal, though not quite the same time period as my stories. Still--beautiful is beautiful. And the picture says a thousand words :)


4) The art department then does their magic. They usually arrange a photoshoot. I can't say for sure, but I do know I've had one cover that was an actual photo, and the other three are painted. I don't know if the painter is on site painting the models or if they paint after they take pictures.


And there you have a summarized version of a romance book cover being created.

Also, I love red (what Aries doesn't?) it's just so vibrant and fiery like my nature that I thought I should have a red cover. So I asked for one, and . . .






How stunning is that? Does the process of cover creation fascinate you as much as it fascinates me? Can you tear your eyes away from that beautiful cover?

If you click on the picture it will take you to Amazon.com. Please consider hitting the 'like' on the Amazon page!