The hardcover dustjacket. I just got this .jpg today. It’s not what I was hoping for, but the editor and publisher like it.
Click on the thumbnail for a great big version.
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My name is Rosina Lippi. I'm a former academic and tenured university professor, writing full time since 2000. Under the pen name Sara Donati I am the author of the Wilderness series, six historical novels that follow the fortunes of a group of families living in upstate New York from about 1792-1825. A new series based on later generations of the same families was launched September 1, 2015 with The Gilded Hour. The next volume in the new series, Where the Light Enters, was released in 2019.
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Well, I don’t know if its because I already saw your version of it; the girl in pajama’s leaning over (see far right of blog) but this one isn’t calling out to me. Maybe once I read the story, I’ll see the link more clearly it might be the colors. It just doesn’t seem you Rosina Sorry :-/
Hi Rosina – I’m with Robyn. Somehow those colours just don’t do it for me. I even don’t like that centre round cushion. And I love green. And round.
From a distance it looks like a small pile of those boiled sweets old ladies used to keep in their handbags when I was very young…..
Also, like Robyn, I really like the cover you have on the right. It’s quirky and the wording instantly makes me want to have a read.
Having said all that, it’s quite exciting that if you are at the stage of getting dustcovers, the book is getting closer. I am so looking forward to reading this story.
I like the richness of the colour i think it would be very eye catching on a shelf but it has a “yaya sisterhood” feel to it. that’s the type of book i would think it was. Maybe that is the type of book it is. I’m not sure. I like on the extra lines on your cover on the far right. the “She’s agoraphobic.He’s Claustrophobic ” draws me right in. I’d like to see your pj clad girl but with a pair of mens bare feet coming from the other direction propped on a stool with that round green cushion on it and that line of text across the bottom.
Hmm got a little carried away with myself. I’ll read it no matter what the cover looks like just because I’ve loved everything else you’ve written so far.
I haven’t been following the book development or the excerpts yet (I will, don’t worry), but I get two distinctly different impressions from the two covers.
The title implies more than one girl to me, while the blurb on the right implies a male-female relationship — which doesn’t rule out other girls/women.
The cover above, based upon the type of pillows used, implies a more sophisticated character base than the picture on the right. I get two different expectations for the book based upon the two covers. That’s not to say the book couldn’t or wouldn’t meet those different expectations. In fact, I’d be tickled if it did.
i agree completely with Jean. that what I was thinking but she said it much better.
Oh dear, oh dear. But you prefer the truth. Well, except for the color of the round cushion, it’s a very elegant cover. Quite beautiful.
So I’m thinking the story must be about a very elegant lady who drinks tea, wears hats, who does charity work because her husband earns megabucks (or inherited them), and calls her elders Mr. and Mrs.
I don’t get any other clues from the cover that my assumptions are incorrect. I’ve harped on marketing before. I’m harping again. A 5-second glance at the cover needs to convey something about the story.
If your words are overlaid, that would help. But I would guess that she made/sold/ stuffed pillows for a living.
Harsh words, but, confound it, your publishers need to do their stuff to sell your novel; you’ve done your stuff by writing it.
asdfg and everybody: as I said, it is not what I hoped for. That’s putting it as diplomatically as I possibly can. Believe me, I fought for my vision of the cover and so did my agent.
Those are some fancy looking pillows! At first glance I thought they were candy, too (and they made me hungry). The cover is visually very appealing to me(whether or not it says anything about the actual content of the book). I like the colors and the fonts. I would be pleased to have a book like that in my hands.
I guess the point is that you DO want it to say something about the story. But at least it’s attractive and a bit different from every other cover you see these days (cough, headless women, cough). I’m trying to see the silver lining, see? :)
Rosina, what I was hoping for was that you could take our (edited, please ma’am) comments to your publisher to show what your biased readers (their biased purchasers) think of the cover.
A single commenter might not have much clout, but a number of commenters might swing the publisher’s opinion.
I’m of the same opinion as Beth I think, very elegant and eye-catching, which I s’pose is good to catch the eye of a prospective new reader. The readers that know ya will, I imagine, scoop it regardless of what’s on the cover.
If I thought it would make any difference, I would have run the various covers they came up with by you. But for some reason, publishers are fiercely protective of their contractual right to have final say on the cover art. Two things I can say: this really was the best of the unhappy choices which were available to me; I pretty much ruined my relationship with my editor in the course of the discussion.
So I pushed it as far as I could, and then a little more.
I’m of the same opinion as Wolfwhispers and Beth. When I first saw it I thought is was very elegant looking. I’m looking forward to the release of the book.
I thought the cover they sent is very pleasing to the eye. Although I can’t see the cover you have at the top right (I am one of the ones who is still having trouble with your website). No matter what, once people see your name on the cover they will know it’s worth picking up.
An ignorant question but do authors ever have any input on what the cover looks like?
I think what Rosina may be saying is she’s had those conversations with her publisher already, and this is their cover. It’s a lovely cover. I’d missed that the pillows look an awful lot like hard candy…subliminally, I think people will be drawn to the book, buy it, and never understand why. But they’ll be glad they did.