pistol on the cover. A pretty foil pistol that’s pointed at a rather... ah... erect angle. Sitting on a bed of roses. Because, you know, that’s where pistols usually hang out. In roses. Oh, and they made the whole cover bright pink. A nauseating fuchsia pink, which seemed to be one of Avon’s favorite colors in the mid-1990s.
Since this was published as an Avon Romantic Treasure, there’s also a painting of the couple on the back cover. See any shackles there? No you do not. Perfect opportunity for some shackle action, but no. You see a couple in a forest, the heroine enthralled with her hairdo rather than her hero. They’re standing in grass that’s shin-deep, so their ankles—and more importantly, their shackles—are fully covered.
Why, Avon, why? If I had a dime for every time I asked that question in the seven years I wrote for them...
As usual, my publisher had taken the elements that made my work unique and done their very best to conceal, erase, and disguise them. They wanted my book to look like every other book in their line. As pink and pretty as possible.
For this new digital edition, I wanted the cover to show the couple on the run, shackled together. I was hoping for a close-up of sexy legs, running, you know, wild. Unfortunately, there’s one small drawback to being an indie author: we have to rely on stock photos for our covers—and apparently no one shoots stock photos of running legs. At least not sexy, bare running legs. The only photos I could find showed legs clad in modern-day athletic clothes and tennis shoes. My cover artist, Kim Killion, is an absolute magician, but Photoshop can only accomplish so much.
So Kim and I went with plan B: this romantic, sexy clinch cover that shows the heroine’s bare legs and the shackles front and center. I wanted the heroine dressed in the lemon-yellow silk gown that she wears in the book, but Kim hates yellow, so her first draft of this cover was... pink.
I said Noooooo! to that (maybe with a few more exclamation points). Bad. Avon. Memories. On the second draft, she gave me this stunning yellow, which I love.
And yes, I know, I hear you: the hero should have a beard, and chest hair, and a brand on his chest, and some scars. Again, when working with stock photos, it’s not always possible to make the picture match the characters exactly without wrecking it. Actually, most male cover models visit a salon for a thorough waxing to remove all their chest hair before photo shoots. It makes their muscles more visible—and muscles sell books. Body hair, apparently, does not.
Facial hair is also a turn-off for many readers. Some won’t even consider buying a book with a bearded hero on the cover—which is why you almost never see a bearded hero on the cover of a romance novel. A little scruff, maybe, but not a full beard. I personally love bearded heroes, and I was hoping this rampant anti-beard prejudice might have changed by now. I mean, did you see Ben Affleck in “Argo”? Hello, yum.
So while Kim & I were working on this cover, I took an informal poll on my Facebook page.
Sure enough, 50% of my fans said a loud and clear NO to facial hair. Sigh. So my poor Nicholas is beard-free on the cover of Run Wild. Sorry, Nicholas, the tribe has spoken.
Trivia
~ Why do I always have trouble naming my heroines? I have no idea, but Samantha was named after a road sign on a freeway. I was on my way to a speaking engagement in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (say that five times fast) when we passed a sign for the nearby town of... Delafield.
~ Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that Samantha’s birth surname, Hibbert, is the same as the author of that research book I quoted a few paragraphs ago. I’ve done that a few times: I’ll be writing along, need a name for a character, and just glance up and grab a surname from one of the research books on the shelf above my computer.
~ Is Cannock Chase a real place? Indeed it is. In the Georgian era, it was a haven for rogues and outlaws. Today, it’s a haven for hikers and mountain bikers. There’s even a Cannock Chase tourism and visitors’ bureau! I’ve got photos and links on my Run Wild Pinterest board.
~ Speaking of which, are you a fellow Pinterest addict? I’ve created inspiration