Book Covers

Can you really tell a book by its cover? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I've made the mistake a time or two of buying a book because the cover drew me in, only to discover that the story didn't live up to the artwork! And sometimes books in a series have such similar covers that I'm not sure whether I've read them or not. But usually, a book cover that speaks to me will at least make me read the cover copy and perhaps the first page or two.

Get any group of writers together, and they'll be happy to exchange cover stories--usually about the ones that were so far from the story they wrote that they'll think the covers got on by mistake! I've had a few covers in the last 58 books that had what I thought were glaring errors, but also a number that were exactly right, and a few that took my breath away because they were so perfect.

In the misfits, there was the cover that gave my blond, blue-eyed hero black hair and dark eyes. And the one in which my husband pointed out that the windmill was in the wrong place on the farm scene. And one in which my mother of three looked about fourteen, and another where a clothesline seemed suspended in space!

But then there were the great ones, like the cover Berkley has given to my upcoming June book, THE RESCUED, Book two in the Keepers of the Promise series. The initial art, without the printing and folding, is so lovely that I want to hang it on the wall.

Isn't that lovely?

And here's how it looks once it was transformed into the actual book cover.

So what do you think? Does the cover lure you into buying the book? I hope so!