Cover for The Queen of Last Hopes

[boswellbaxter]

It's official! Here's the cover for my upcoming novel about Margaret of Anjou, The Queen of Last Hopes:

[LoveHistory]

Arresting and ethereal! Should really stand out on the shelves.

[Jemidar]

That's absolutely beautiful Susan! Not sure it fits the image I have in my head of Margaret though...lol...but I'd definitely pick it up if I saw it on the shelf :p.

Do you have a release date yet? I'm so looking forward to reading it :)

[boswellbaxter]

Thanks, ladies! I think Sourcebooks has it for early 2011.

[Miss Moppet]

I have to be the dissenting voice here and say the empire line white gown immediately made me think 'Regency'. Obviously the title indicates otherwise though!

What I like best about the cover is the tagline.

[EC2]

Weren't they supposed to be branding you Boswell? The earlier cover that's on Amazon UK follows that line (I think it's very striking) but they have obviously now changed direction again. Have they given you a reason, or just presented it as a fait accompli?

[boswellbaxter]

If this new style catches on, they'll probably go back and change the older ones.

[cw gortner]

Interesting. I missed this earlier. I like the first cover better; I thought it was lovely and relevant to the era, but I know publishers are experimenting right now. They fear - and perhaps rightly so - that the current historical cover - period gown, headless or semi-headless woman - has come at an end. This new cover has a more mysterious, contemporary feel to it, certainly.

I find cover art decisions fascinating. How they arrive at them, the marketing discussions behind them, etc. Susan, do you know if part of the change was generated by the accounts? Sometimes the buyer for Barnes and Noble, for example, will dislike a cover and it'll be changed. Just wondering if that was part of the motivation here.

I do like this one, and it could start a whole new trend: the semi-visible woman!;)