Thursday, July 30, 2009

Covers and Proposals

I'm baffled. I submitted my cover request for Mind F*cked and received word from my editor that she'd like the cover requests for the other four books in the Faerily Imperfect series. The general thought being that all covers should look similar in appearance for the series. It's a grand idea.

The problem? The other four books are still simply a paragraph of proposal. I've no idea what the characters look like or the major plot point in any of the books. I know the faery curse each has and how it will be involved in their romantic plots, but the driving factors are still unknown. I usually don't know until the book is being written.

So short of writing four books in the next week (not possible, in case you doubted), I'll be filling out a two page cover request form purely on guesswork. Hm. Descriptions, tension points, examples, blurbs, items of importance... will all be randomly pulled from the air. I did not foresee this complication with submitting a proposal.

And what of the two books which fall in the male/female realm or the one which will be a menage? Should the covers have a slight variation on the over-riding theme so the reader can distinguish? I think I shall discuss this with the Powers That Be.

Note to self: "Mia, you have outdone yourself this time. Stock up on coffee."

5 comments:

Kenzie Michaels said...

(shaking my head)

Don't take this the wrong way...but I had a feeling your writing schedule would come back to haunt you one day!

(ducking and running...I'm still getting to know you!)

Unknown said...

Well that bites! Hmmm, I'm not sure how I'd handle that one.

I'm sure that creative mind will figure out something terrific!

Valerie Oakley said...

Why don't you pick one feature, say a pentacle, tree or bonfire and make it the back drop for all of the others? You can have the couples arranged around the fire or in front of the tree; or the pentacle in a 35% fade over the photo. This way you have the commonality element while still having leeway to make each cover unique.

Paris said...

I like Valerie's idea with the common theme. If you have a paragraph on each you could try expanding it to a one page synopsis with your hero/heroine, goal, motivation and conflict, inciting incident, and black moment. Sounds like a lot but if you had the bare bones you might get a clearer picture;-)Should I be running now?

Mia Watts said...

Uh, yeah. This is where I nod my head with my eyes crossed. More work? Hell no.

The common theme is an excellent idea though. I'll propose it with the cover art drafts. Thanx.