As Woody Allen said sex between two people is a beautiful thing, as long as you pick the right two people. Writing is a tricky business. Sex sells, for sure, but surely as writers, we are looking at selling the dream too? In romance, it has to be that happy ever after. Right? So we have to make it a subtle blend of sex and the dream. This also harks back to judging a book by its cover.
I have had a dilemma. We have a great story, well I think it is a great story, that is set in a time that romance readers are not really interested in. We have tried three covers and all have failed to sell this great story. I should register an interest here, I spent a year of my life editing the story so maybe I am biased, but I still believe it is a really great story. There is sex inside, maybe more than the author originally intended. I would not normally mess with the amount of sexual content but this story I felt needed it, because of the strength of the other parts of the story. At BVS we try to engage the author in the cover process, we want them to be happy so they feel we have depicted their book accurately also we want them to feel comfortable promoting their book. so far my attempts at a cover have all missed. The story is complex it is a story of an estranged couple caught up at the start of World War One. Fleeing for their lives brings them back together again. There are spies, a seductress and there is a lot of action intrigue and incidentally, it has what I consider, really good sex scenes. The book has received outstanding reviews, my BVS team who proofread and formatted it really enjoyed the story and people I know who have read it loved it. I am amazed this book has not sold more widely. I have handed it over to our new cover art director Jessica to recover for the fourth time. I know she will have a very different concept to mine, but as mine didn’t work, I feel very comfortable leaving the work in Jessicas hands. There are times when you have to stand back.
I thought I’d let you see the current cover, Behind The Clouds. The new one will be out sometime in the New Year I will keep you posted
I would like to hear your views and thoughts you might like to share. Here, the blog, Facebook or Twitter.