Cover Contest!
Ready, set… photoshop!
Over the past few days, there has been some debate over the cover of The Orchid Affair. Here’s my challenge to you: to produce your ideal Orchid Affair cover, whether you do it via photoshop, collage, or interpretive dance. (Okay, maybe not interpretive dance.)
This idea was brought to me by Pam, who sent me her versions of The Orchid Affair:
You can include whatever you like on your dream cover: your own drawings, public domain fine art, abstract squiggles.
Since we can’t follow the usual method of posting your entry to the comments section (it’s just not set up for that), you can email your entries to me at willig@post.harvard.edu with Cover Contest Entry as the Subject line.
All entries must be submitted by August 1. You can submit as many entries as your ingenuity will sustain– the more the better!
Once all the entries are in, I’ll post them here on the website and open it up to a vote.
The top three will receive advance copies of The Orchid Affair.
(Just for clarification, the cover posted the other day remains the actual cover. This is just for fun.)
Oooh! It’s too bad the publisher won’t reconsider the cover art. Because I’m liking both of these covers. I think they stay more in line with the previous covers. I especially like the one on the right. They’re both beautiful – whoever came up with them! Kudos!!
I’ve already been searching for images to do the same thing. Not that I’m talented enough to create a cover though. 🙂
Thanks Lauren for listening to us. You know we always have faith in you…just not the art department of late.
I saw the covers without reading anything at first and I thought the art department reconsidered! I love the old covers and I am so bummed my collection is no longer going to match. I really wish the art dept would reconsider on Orchid Affair AND Blood Lily. I guess as long as the stories are still yours, the covers don’t matter too much (my type A personality will recover).
Fun times!
Both these covers are lovely. This is going to be great fun. I wish I were so talented.
I’m not talented enough with photoshopping software to do this, but I’m excited to see all the entries. I like both of the first two, particularily the one on the right.
Is it absolutely certain that one of the winners couldn’t be a new cover? I think both of those suit the feel of the books far more than the actual (especially since the heroine of Orchid, from the chapter you’ve posted, sounds like one of the least like a bodice ripper cover heroine out of all of yours). I wish I had the talent to use photoshop and other such things, but alas I do not, so I’ll content myself with admiring all the entries (which I can’t wait for)!
Hi, Cho! I’m afraid not, but I am toying with the idea of making a limited number of replacement dust jackets out of the winning contest entry (as long as the winner agrees and the art used is public domain) for those who are unhappy with the real cover. I still have to find out whether that’s feasible, but if it is, it could be kind of fun to have a special, limited edition, extra cover….
Hey Lauren…I actually like the cover but would change the colors of the gown and flowers to black and white rather than blue and white..
I wish I was that talented to do that. I’ll try, but it won’t be as good as these. lol. I like both of them.
I think the picture on the right is the one i suggested. 🙂 I am going to claim that as creativity as i am not talented enough to create my own. Though i would change the script to be more like that of the Orchid cover we don’t like.
OH a separate dust jacket of the winning cover if there anything like theses… i want one.
Lauren, I do hope that you post some of your favorites from the contest. I know that we would all enjoy seeing them.
Hi, Christy! I’ll be posting them all on August 2nd, so people can vote on their favorites. In the meantime, I’ve begun posting them on Facebook… but I’ll also do a preview here at some point, pre-August.
I’m not a photoshop kind of girl but considering our newest Heroine is a governess, my vote for cover art would be Henri Fantin-Latour’s “La liseuse,” although I do wish her dress was a more “orchid” color, rather than black…
Eeek! Limited Edition? I hope there are enough since there are so many of us disappointed!
Maybe if we all send emails to the publisher they’ll reconsider.
I have 3-4 covers designed already one is what i would consider perfect for it.. its a great picture considering Miss Grey is one of those forgettable people and a governess. Fixed up the photo some.. 🙂
I would love a dust jacket of the contest cover maybe that be part of the winners prize. I just do not own any of those “horrid novels” And would much rather have one of these covers on my books 🙂
I think the tradition of the portrait should stay on the hardcover and the paperbacks can be more romance it would attract more people, i doubt a lot of romance readers ever really buy the hardbound anyways. Most romance novels i see at the second hand stores and normal book stores are all paperbacks.
just emailed you a cover that i designed this afternoon! this was really fun!
It’s definitely a shame that one of these covers won’t be used for the actual book. They are all INFINITELY better than the one the publishers chose. 🙁