Then, once the promo is set up and everything, lol, I’m like…what now?

Nope, just love that new cover feeling.
Dee

But as others have said, I don’t really have control of that aspect of things and the things that jump out at me probably aren’t thing that will jump out at others.

As Terry said, getting a cover means that the book is “real”. What could be better than that?

I used to get depressed when this happened. (Especially when I got emails from readers telling me things like, “The hero in your cover has dimples, but you never mention his dimples in your story” or “Why is your heroine a redhead when you describe her as a platinum blond in your story?”) But I quickly learn that the cover isn’t important. That I shouldn’t care if my models depicted in them don’t match with my characters. The important thing is there’s a cover. So now I let the graphic artist do whatever they want, take free artistic license, with the cover.

The only thing I know I have 100% control is the story, and that’s where my efforts go. I make sure it’s polish till it shines. I don’t care if it takes me months of editing, sending it to be critiqued, re-writing… In the end, I write the kind of story I can feel proud of, that I like. Not something to please a publisher and fill their pockets with $$$. That’s my “baby” there, and I won’t let anyone butcher it for the sake of sales.

I’ve given up expecting the models to even remotely match the image in my head of the characters (why does it always seem as though the plumper the heroine, the more anorexic she looks on the cover?? ), so I just hope for a nice cover that captures the tone of the book. When I was still writing for Intimate Moments, but marketing had decided SIMs were all dark and suspensy and stuff, the covers almost NEVER reflected the stories inside. Depressing, that.

But now it’s all good.

But yes, I stress over how they’ll represent my characters. When I got the cover for Hot Shot, I had trouble going back to revisions….I had pictured Gabe in my head one way and seeing him through someone else’s eyes was disconcerting.

Breach Of Trust was just about perfect. My heroine wears stockings (which fascinates the hero) and some of the “action” happens in the car.

I even love that there are singles under the 100 dollar bill. I joke that’s tip money (what better place to keep it?).

I get the email with the ‘cover art’ in the subject line and hold my breath.

I’ve had covers I had to let grow on me, but just like my kids, they’re all my darlings.