Running with...flowers?

Or
Why are these happy people running from the chapel?

Well, because they’re Married in Haste.

Posted by Christine








The cover controversy continues. For some truly terrible covers and hysterically funny cover gaffes, check out Christina Dodd’s recent Squawk Radio entry. Yes, our own Susan was “honored” to be twice among the examples of when bad covers happen to good—or even great!—authors.

And I really like Jenny Crusie’s theory of cover design. Jenny proposes that a good-to-great cover must catch the eye, be pick-up-able, and represent the story.

And this leads us to why I’m posting my own cover above? Well, I mean, beyond the main point that the book is out this month and I’m shamelessly flogging…

Because sometimes a cover is not aggressively bad or embarrassing. Sometimes a cover is just…okay. And is just…okay enough to help sell a book? I think not.

Luckily for moi, this cover has a flash that says Bravo Family Ties. I’ve been writing about the Bravo family for a long, long time and I’m honored to have a lot of loyal, wonderful readers who follow the Bravo family saga, so this book is likely to do just fine no matter the cover.

But does this cover have all three of the Crusie cover design essentials? Well, not really. What it does do, in a very literal-to-the-title sense, is represent the story. There’s a chapel, she has a wedding bouquet and they’re definitely “in haste.” And it is pick-up-able, because of the flash, at least to all my fabulous readers. And because there’s nothing ugly or “wrong” about it. The guy’s sort of hunky and the girl looks like a person you’d want as a friend.

But is it eye-catching…?

Well, not especially.

And why not?

One word. Simply: no tension. These people are too happy and they are running forward, not even looking at each other--well, she's not looking at him anyway. He's looking, but he's getting nothing from her. And what does that imply? That he's totally beta and hangs on her every word and wish, is not the least conflicted about being her love slave and doesn't care if she knows it? Or maybe, simply, that she's not as interested in him as he is in her? Either of the above is...not what we're goin' for in a contemporary romance cover.

I think all great covers have tension. Tension in the sense of a hint of the conflict. Tension in the sense of something “happening,” something in the image that intrigues us, makes us want to know more.

And don’t be misled by the word tension. Tension can definitely have humor and warmth in it. It can be dark—but it certainly doesn’t have to be.

Here, I was planning to post some examples of covers with good-to-great tension in them. Unfortunately, Blogger is not cooperating. So I'm cuttin' it short at this.

So that’s the, er, Rimmer theory of cover design. What about you? What do you love to see in a cover, what makes a cover irresistible to you?