One more chance to enter… and that’s now.

So… ever wonder what goes into a cover? Covers are hit and miss with a lot of people…from the authors to the readers, and probably even many of the publishers.

I’ve spent hours going on stock photo sites trying to find the perfect image before…perfect meaning…it fits what I have in mind.

Perfect doesn’t exist.  We have to work with sometimes very bizarre images… like this one.  Really.  Go look at it.  I found that one when I was trying to find an edgy one for a romantic suspense type of thing.  All links are work-safe, btw.

Other weird ones that came up during a ‘dangerous passion’ search…this one was really weird.  There’s always gotta be a girl with food.  Always. For some reason.  But what’s dangerous about that?

The danger here? Um…scorching case of herpes???  I don’t get it. But yep, these are things that come up just with random keyword searches… Danger.  Passion. Couple.  I’ve gotten better with my searches and you can narrow things down and make sure you don’t get cartoons, like oh…say THIS one…  but you can still find things like these characters.  Unless there’s a way to filter out the weird stuff, you know a serious images only please… option.

But that leaves you with stuff like this…say you’re looking for

Embrace…

You get this… this…this…and also ones like this.  Now that last one is a good one, except… it gets used.  A lot.  I’ve seen that couple on no less than eight books.  Probably more.  And they’ve got more poses up, it looks like.

Passionate embrace has 1300+ results on dreamstime.  I can narrow down if I want to focus on a specific color (overall…say I wanted a darker image versus a lighter image), I can narrow it down by the model’s race, age, etc

Don’t even look for sensual woman, either.  You’ll get this…this…this…and there’s 5ooo+ more!  Just on dreamstime.  You’ve also got bigstockphoto, istockphoto, etc.  I think the cover artists tend to use other sites, because they’ve got better quality and more professional images, but that gives you an idea.

You can spend hours looking at images, but there’s no guarantee you’ll find the right image.

Sometimes, you have to find close enough.

We went through several different versions of the Beautiful Scars cover…and I do mean several.

The first one?

This…

It’s okay.  It’s pretty.  I liked the piano.  But it’s all wrong.  Chaili isn’t sweet or gentle and the book, while it’s definitely got it’s soulful moments, it’s hot and kinky.  The cover gives the impression of something sweet and soft…the book has BDSM elements, it has kinky sex and and a couple of people who are desperate for each other.

So I told the editor I needed something else.

I sent her a few images, and the images needed to be specific… for specific reasons that I’m not going into detail about.

In the end, we went with this one…(this is the first version, with the comp file, since we weren’t certain it would work.)

Still not right… I didn’t like the panties on the piano.  But…we were finally closer… you can still the original photo in the link above, by the way.

This, as you’ve seen, is the final cover.

 

So… there you have it.  Evolution of a cover.

EXCERPT!

“You wanted to kiss me stupid, baby girl. Have at it.”

Cupping his face in her hands, she eased up onto her toes, angling her head just a little as she pressed her mouth to his. Hmmm. The way he tasted. He was…yeah. Just amazing. Just like his voice. Whiskey-soaked addiction. Flicking her tongue against his lips, she groaned as he opened for her. Leaning in closer, she nibbled on his lower lip, nipped the upper one and then pushed inside.

He shuddered against her, but remained unmoving, impassive.

If it wasn’t for the way she could feel his chest rising and falling against her, so ragged and harsh, she might think he was unaffected. If it wasn’t for the way his body felt rigid, heavy with tension and need, she might think he wasn’t as aroused as she was.

One drugged kiss after another—now the need pulsed inside her, a vicious ache.

When she pulled away, she paused and rubbed her cheek against his, smiling at the way his unshaven skin rasped against the softness of her own. Shooting a quick look at his eyes, she shivered a little when she saw that he was watching her, his gaze so focused, so intense.

She pressed a kiss to his chin, down his neck. Along the sleek muscled lines of his chest. “You know, for a piano player, you sure are cut,” she teased. “What do you do, lift the pianos or something?”

“I chase after smart-mouthed web designers,” he muttered, swatting her on the ass.

“I don’t think that would make you look quite like this,” she said, sighing as she smoothed her hands over his chest. The silver hoop in his nipple was gone, replaced by a barbell. Tugging on it, she watched as a fine tremor racked his body. “I like this.”

 

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