Book Covers I: What Were They Thinking?
As promised, here’s the original cover for KEEPER OF THE LIGHT. Fortunately, my protests and th
ose of my agent were loud enough to change the publisher’s mind before publication. would you have picked this book up?? they got rid of the lady coming out of the dunes and i was very happy with the result.
The pink cover was the paperback reissue. you could open up the woman’s profile to see her features–a beautiful redhead, annie o’neill–and a slightly risque, romancy pose of alec and olivia in the water. i didn’t lik
e the romancy feel of the cover, but it sold a bunch of books. it didn’t hurt that that red band along the bottom offered a money back guarantee! and finally, below is the current cover most of you know for this book. it’s my favorite of all of them.
Diane…I still would have bought the hardcover but I have to admit that the lady
coming out of the dunes is a bit disturbing!!…what were the publisher’s thinking??
and, I would never have pictured Annie like that…I’m so glad my treasured copy
has the beautiful lighthouse, sea & sky and dunes MINUS THE LADY…
here’s what i think they were thinking: annie does stained glass, so we want a stained glass image on the cover. annie is thought of as “saint anne” so we’ll make her look saintly. all in all, though, it came out creepy.
diane
Yes, it is definitely a weird image…the lighthouse is the focus and ties the whole
picture together…when I read your blog this morning and saw the ‘almost’ original
cover I was shocked…I still think I would have bought the book because I was
looking for a new author and your name really stood out as well as the title, but
I probably would have thought long and hard before picking it up because of the
strange artwork on the front… the published copy was minus this strange
image and I immediately pulled it off the shelf and bought it because everything about it looked and felt powerful and as it turned out, it became my favorite novel
of all time!!
I would NEVER have bought this book! I discovered you with The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes and then read the first two of the trilogy. I’m taking a short break before reading more. I intend to read every book but if that original cover was my introduction to your books, I would never have read any. I’m glad you protested.
I’m glad I protested, too. And I’m glad you discovered me, Lorene. I think it’s good to take breaks from favorite authors so you don’t get sick of his or her “voice.”
diane
I will never take a break from your books and I will never get sick of your voice Diane…I go through definite ‘withdrawl’ if I don’t read you at least twice a year, sometimes 3 times…(-:
We need to do an intervention on you, Margo!
diane, with affection
A Venezuelan fan asked me to post this for her here:
Hi… I hope my message can be seen by everyone because I am looking for some help, if someone knows how to find Diane Books in Venezuela please let me know.. I am doing a hard work while looking for them and i haven’t get good results. I would like someone to let me know if they are in Venezuela, It’s sad for me not no find them becasue I read one of them (KEEPER OF THE LIGHT) and it was wonderful. Please let me know. Thank you. Karlita
If anyone knows how to find my books in Venezuela for Karlita, please contact me and i’ll pass your email along to her.
diane
Surely Amazon.com sends books all over the world.