The Evolution of a Book Cover

 JENN McKINLAY: I may or may not get into trouble for sharing the evolution of my most recent book cover. Maybe I should ask first but I long ago discovered it's easier to get forgiveness than permission.

So, my upcoming 2026 romcom THE SUMMER SHARE just had its big cover reveal. It came out great I'm thrilled, but how did we get there?

About a year out from publication, my publisher always asks what I want on the cover. Given that this is a story about two people who inherit a cottage in the Outer Banks only to discover when they get there that it's a shared inheritance, I knew right away I wanted a cottage on the cover, a beach, our heroine, our hero, and the heroine's Great Dane named Dude, or "El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing" -- bonus points if you can name the movie that quote comes from!

Being ever helpful, I sent my publisher a mock up (with notes) of what I thought the cover could look like.

There was some debate about changing the cover from my previous  romcom styles (see my website for examples). It's the old debate about whether or not "cartoon" covers were out of fashion, etc. Given that I write comedy, I feel like a cartoon cover is a good heads up about what you're going to get but what do I know?

A couple of months passed and I received three options for the new cover. Wow!

How great are these? I sent them to everyone I know (the Reds can testify this is true) and asked for help with choosing. I mean, they're all amazing. I felt like I was tasked with the impossible. The colors on book one dazzled, the blue water on book two was so inviting, and the cottage with the couple sitting on the title was ridiculously charming. After several weeks of debate, my editor and I picked our favorite elements from the covers and sent our thoughts back to the art department. And this is what they came back with: Perfection!

PRE ORDER NOW (May 2026)

You can see the final is vastly different than the mock up I sent in and yet it captures the vibe I was hoping for. This is why I'm a writer and not a cover artist. 

So, what do you think, Readers? Did the art department do right by me? There is no wrong answer here as art is purely subjective.

More about the book:

When two misfits discover they’ve inherited the same beach house, sparks fly in the most unexpected ways, in this hilarious and heartfelt rom-com from the New York Times bestselling author of Summer Reading.

Free-spirited travel influencer Hannah Spencer has spent five years touring the country in her vintage van. An unexpected inheritance from her Pops brings Hannah to Cape Split, North Carolina, where she learns she’s the new owner of a worse-for-wear seaside beach house. Or, rather, fifty percent of one. Turns out Simon O’Malley inherited the other half from his Gramps.

As Simon and Hannah spend the summer tag-teaming repairs on the crumbling cottage, they discover the house was once home to a timeless love story. Soon, they begin to wonder if the house’s romantic past may be a good omen for their future together. But there’s one problem—Simon is set on selling the property at the end of the summer.

Hannah thought one summer at the Split would be enough, except it isn’t like any place she’s ever been, and Simon isn’t like any man she’s ever known—and she’s thinking about putting down some roots. She just needs Simon to see their budding relationship and this newfound community the same way or their first summer share might also be their last.

Another Cover Story @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Since next summer’s Key West mystery is number 14 in the series, I knew exactly what to expect along the way. A year and several months before the publication date, I knew I would get an email from the publisher asking for a book summary, cover ideas, and title suggestions. I try to think ahead, even though the book isn’t written yet and there isn’t even a ghost of an outline. Here’s what I sent in:

Key West food critic Hayley Snow is working on this week’s articles for Key Zest magazine when an intriguing e-mail hits her inbox, titled Hemingway’s toxic love and an old story. Catherine Davitt tells Hayley that she has returned to the Keys to research a book, but she also wants to investigate the disappearance of an old friend back in the late 1970s. The two young women were part of a group of lost souls camping in the mangroves on Big Pine Key, until Catherine’s friend Veronica disappeared, and the Sheriff’s Office cleaned out the camp.

Ever-curious Hayley agrees to help her, and they travel up the islands to Big Pine Key to talk to some other Islanders who were around in the 70s. After chatting with one woman who has nothing much to add, they stop at an old motel to visit a man who was on the outer edges of this commune. Instead of answers, they find him murdered. It’s hard not to imagine a connection. Then Catherine disappears, leaving Hayley and Miss Gloria to unravel two possible murders, one old and one new, and track down a murderer who might very well have them in his or her sights.

As for the cover, I told them I’d love this one to look a little bit vintage, with perhaps a weathered picnic table with a Key deer nosing around in addition to the requisite cat. (There are two storylines woven together, one from the 70’s and the other today.) If we chose a vintage postcard look, I said, the title and artwork could be cached inside the words—see the Key West postcard. These are the photos I sent:

Way, way, way far down on the page, I added, 'if the vintage postcard idea isn’t chosen, another option could focus on this picnic table, with umbrella and deer and cat, but a more scruffy background as Big Pine isn’t manicured like Key West.' (I really had my fingers crossed for the vintage postcard look.)

John has a cameo:)

 

And here was the first draft I received:

Well, sigh. No deer, no vintage postcard. Though there is a turtle! (Though there is no turtle in the book...) I went to bat for a few changes, and I've come to realize that the vintage look would have distracted from the series look. It's gorgeous, don't you think?

Question for readers: How important are the details of a book's cover when choosing what to read? Do you notice changes within a series?

If you'd like to read my other cover drama stories, you can find them here:

Death in Four Courses

Killer Takeout

A Scone of Contention

Jenn's release BOOKED is out today!

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JENN McKINLAY: One of the things I love most about the self-publishing gig is the input I get on the cover. An author friend of mine (Lori Wilde) who put out her extensive backlist in e-book form after she got the rights back to her books, connected me  with my cover artist Lyndsey at Llewellen Designs. 

Lyndsey designed the cover of each novella, which you can see sitting on the bookshelf on the cover of BOOKED, which the omnibus of all three of last years novellas. 

The covers of ROYAL VALENTINE, THE ATTRACTION DISTRACTION, and IT HAPPENED ONE CHRISTMAS EVE are all the finished products of our collaboration, which went something like this. I sent Lyndsey my idea for a cover, which was usually a mock up pulled from various bits and bobs on the Internet such as:

And she returned this:

How great is that? She just makes everything so much better. In fact, her covers are so perfect, that the audio publisher who bought the rights to the novellas bought her covers, too!

What I love most about working with Lyndsey is that she can execute whatever I imagine and she is open to all of my input, which I so appreciate. For example, the book our gent is holding on the cover of BOOKED is a color reversed version of the original (look closely). When I asked Lyndsey in the design stage if this was possible, she jumped on it and made it happen. So fun!

Not for nothing, but authors rarely get so much direct contact with the art department. 

Clearly, I am a firm believer in hiring a professional to do what you need to have done, which is why I also employed a professional editor to go through each novella a couple of times to make certain they were as tight as could be. The fabulous Traci Hall, recommended by another author friend (Jennifer Ashely) was amazing. There was not one line that went unscrutinized, which is exactly what you want in an editor.

All of this is to say, the writing community is one of the most generous and gracious spaces out there, and I could not have pulled this off without the help and support of a lot of writer friends.

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, what positive interactions have you had within the writing community? Has any author made a huge difference in your life on a personal level? If so, how?

About the book:

From New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay comes the Museum of Literature RomCom Omnibus.
For the first time all three novellas are in one volume.

Royal Valentine

The Attraction Distraction

It Happened One Christmas Eve

Come join the fun with a secret identity and a trip to England, a second chance romance while in search of an ancient literary artifact in Greece, and a holiday caper starting with a hijacked sleigh! As the intrepid librarians and archivists of the Museum of Literature travel the world for the love of books, curating their own happily ever afters along the way. What more could any romcom adoring book lover want?

Buy Links: 

Audio: https://tinyurl.com/2s3kcuu2 

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2s3wxr6n 

Books-A-Million: https://tinyurl.com/mvpw2y9p 

Bookshop.Org: https://tinyurl.com/yc5mzdxm 

BN: https://tinyurl.com/45zr5uhb 

Kobo: https://tinyurl.com/w86s88aw 

Apple: https://tinyurl.com/38w45s9c 

Other (Books2Read): https://books2read.com/u/4AjEnp  

What We're Writing--Debs Does the Little Details

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yep, I am still plodding along on A KILLING OF INNOCENTS, Duncan and Gemma #19, but I am getting there! I have a cover, too, which is now approved by the sales and marketing crew (the really important people!) at my publisher's, but I can't share it quite yet. I'm so excited about it, however, that I have to give you a little teaser.

The background photo is a pub, so perfect for this book. And not just any pub, but this iconic pub!!

It's the Bloomsbury Tavern, one of London's most historic pubs, reputed to have been the last watering hole for the condemned en route to the hangman's noose a few miles to the west at Marble Arch. Tucked away where Shaftsbury Avenue meets Oxford Street, you could say it sits between Bloomsbury and Soho, the two London areas where most of this book is set. And look at those windows! Are they not gorgeous?

I think this cover is perfect!! Fingers crossed that by the next time WHAT WE'RE WRITING rolls around, I can show it to you. (And that I will have actually typed THE END.) 

In the meantime, as I get further into the book it becomes more and more challenging to find little excerpts that don't contain plot spoilers. But here's a snippet I especially like because it's such fun to write Duncan and Gemma "off camera", so to speak. And it's not that this happens to be a bedroom scene, but rather that one of the things I love most about reading and writing is seeing the little details of people's lives, whether it's how they dunk their teabags or what time their central heating comes on.

A faint rattling sound gradually penetrated Kincaid’s consciousness. Blearily, he forced open one eye. The room was dark except for the faint glow of the night light in the bathroom. Gemma lay with her bare back pressed against his side like a human furnace, her shoulder bare where the duvet had fallen away.

He lay, listening to her breathing, which was deep and regular but a bit more wheezy than usual. It came back to him then in little fragments, her outing with Sidana, and the aftermath. Gemma had been tipsy—well, maybe more than tipsy—and he hadn’t objected to her lowered inhibitions. At all.

Smiling at the memory, he rested one hand on the curve of her hip and with the other adjusted the duvet so that it covered her again. With a sigh, he sank back towards contented sleep.

Then the rattling began again. No, not rattling, buzzing, like an angry insect. This time he came fully awake, eyes wide. His mobile, left face down on the bedside table in his haste to get undressed, was vibrating against the hard surface.

Swearing under his breath, he grabbed the offending phone and eased out of the bed, trying not to wake Gemma. He swore again as the cold air in the bedroom hit his nakedness, puckering his skin in a wave of gooseflesh. Reaching the bathroom in two strides, he pulled the door closed and slipped, shivering, into his dressing gown.

Only then did Kincaid peer at the phone screen, checking the time and the missed call log. Half past six. And every call said Simon Gikas, Simon Gikas, Simon Gikas. His heart sank. An early morning call from his case manager was never a good thing.

The radiator clanked as the central heating switched on. Sitting on the edge of tub, he rang Simon back.

Simon picked up on the first ring. “Boss. Sorry to wake you at such an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning.”

“What’s happened?” Kincaid asked.

Well, dear readers, you will have to wait and see!

Debs on the Cover That Wasn't

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I thought I might have a least a first draft of the cover for Kincaid/James #19 to show you today, but, alas, I fear that particular cover was not meant to be. Covers are so difficult! A cover has to convey what sort of book it is, it has to draw the reader in, and you want it to identify the author as well as the series if you are writing a series.

To compound the challenge, this book is set mostly in Bloomsbury and Soho, parts of London that have turned out to be remarkably difficult to photograph in a way that says LONDON! MYSTERY! READ THIS!

My London photographer friend did a little Bloomsbury photo shoot for me in early December--good timing for the setting of the book, but not so much for photos. London is pretty brown and drab at the beginning of December. But there was one shot of the Number 14 (Russell Square) bus that my editor and I both really liked, so we sent it to the art department. This was a close shot of the front half of the bus, with a beautiful carved pillar in the background.

What came back from the art director last week was a sequence of covers with London buses on bridges, complete with time-lapse light trails. He took the bus idea and ran with it. The 14 bus was in there, too, and while I still liked it, my agent HATED it. NO BUSES. NO TRANSPORTATION ON BOOK COVER. All caps.

So we are back to the drawing board, this time with the idea of lighted pub windows, seen from the outside. I have no idea if this will work! The good news is that they managed to get the title on the cover and it looked fabulous! (And, no, I'm not sharing it quite yet.)

In the meantime, I've been consoling myself by looking through my Portobello Market photos. Here's a snippet from the book, in which Kit goes to work at Otto's cafe in Elgin Crescent, one of the streets that bisects Portobello Road right in the center of the market. Otto's is entirely fictional, but I know exactly where it is. See the hat vendor in this photo from 2016? Otto's is just to the right. (I was sitting in the Duke of Wellington pub. Oh, the short hair! With no gray! Not to mention being IN a pub!)

You can see it better here, disguised by the graffiti and the scaffolding. Just imagine the blue awning...

Kit walked down Arundel Gardens with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie. After yesterday’s drizzle, the air was sharp with the sort of biting nip you only got on crisp, clear autumn days. If Gemma had been home she’d have told him to wear a coat, but he didn’t want to look a prat. No one at school wore a coat unless it was the apocalypse.

He was looking forward to working the lunch shift at Otto’s. The cafe was always busy on Portobello Market day, and Otto and Wes would need the extra help. Otto was paying him, too, although Kit suspected Otto knew he’d happily work for free. He loved the buzz and efficiency of a busy kitchen, and he felt comfortable there, more so than he ever did at school. People who knew what his parents did for a living tended to avoid him. He got bullied, too, for not having every social media app, but once when he’d tried to explain that his parents had seen first-hand what sort of trouble people could get into by sharing personal stuff, that git Trevor had fallen over himself laughing. Now everyone thought he was some sort of goody two-shoes, and God forbid they found out his little brother was dancing ballet.

That nerve-wracking thought took him into Elgin Crescent and he was glad to see the cheerful blue awning of the cafe front. Sandwiched between the charity shop and a bar that had changed hands half a dozen times since Kit had moved to Notting Hill, Otto’s café was a neighborhood institution. Just beyond it, the hat stall set up on the pavement provided a blaze of color against the crowd thronging Portobello Road. The fine weather meant it would be a good day for the market, and the punters should be edging from morning coffees into early lunches.

Pushing open the cafe door, he met a blast of warmth and the smell of fresh coffee. With one glance, he checked the small dining room’s occupied tables. One woman, plastic shopping bags piled at her feet, was scrolling through her mobile, an empty coffee cup and a crumb-littered plate on the tabletop. At another two-top, a couple were perusing menus. The man set his down and looked round impatiently.

Kit frowned. The first table should have been cleared, and someone should have taken the couple’s orders. Where was everyone? Neither Otto nor Wes had appeared at the door to the kitchen. Usually, Otto’s daughters helped out on busy Saturdays, but there was no sign of the girls, either.

Kit crossed the room, nodding at the impatient man and murmuring, “Someone will be right with you,” as he passed. Pushing open the swinging door at the back of the room, he clattered down the stairs to the kitchen.

He stopped dead in the entryway, staring. Wesley Howard sat on the single kitchen stool, the palms of his hands pressed to his face. Otto stood before him, flapping his apron like a rotund chicken, his bald head gleaming with sweat under the harsh overhead lighting. The smell of hot fryer fat singed Kit’s nostrils.

“What’s happened?” he asked, his heart thumping into overdrive. “Wes, are you okay?”

Wes’s shoulders gave a convulsive heave. When he swiped his palms across his cheeks, Kit saw that his dark eyes were brimming with tears. Although a good few years older, Wesley was the first real friend Kit had made when he’d moved to London to live with his dad and Gemma. He had never seen Wes cry.

“Ah, Kit, you are here.” Otto turned to him with a look of relief. “I’m afraid Wesley has had some bad news.”

REDS and readers, what do you think about buses and book covers?  A double-decker definitely says LONDON, but not necessarily mystery. How about old buildings? Pub windows? What would draw you in?

 

 

 

How the World Sees Me! A look at covers by Rhys Bowen

RHYS BOWEN: Recently I have had an astonishing number of my books sold to foreign countries. 29 languages in all to date, I believe. Some of them have published my books for many years: Japan has published all of the Molly and Georgie books. Their take on how Irish girls should look has always slightly scared me. They look as if they have just escaped from the nearest asylum.

 Lady Georgie looks a little bit better:

Italy has always published all my books in their ‘yellow’ series of Montadori. Where all the crime books are published. They have the typical old fashioned crime novel covers.

France now publishes my Royal Spyness and is doing a marvelous job with both covers and advertising. When I visited their offices in Paris last year I was shown the videos, the display cases and of course the social media. This has resulted in a lot of French fans who put pictures of the book on Instagram.

Germany now does mainly E-books of all my series. They are also enthusiastic and I did a half hour interview in German (ja, ich spreche Deutsch) for their podcast. That was fun, especially as they live in my part of the world—Stuttgart where I used to work in a corner deli shop during my gap year. Near to Freiburg where I studied and loved every minute. Also near to Esslinging where my father ran a factory. So lots of ties.

But more recent additions to my mulit-country publishing experience have caused me mirth and sometimes confusion.

Georgie is now in Russian. The covers all look like a healthy Soviet girl on her tractor.

It’s interesting what their concept of an English stately home is.

This is the Polish Molly Murphy series. Rather nice covers that speak to what the stories are about.

 This was a media picture for In Farleigh Field, I believe. Somehow it doesn't remind me of German Planes flying over the English countryside!

 More strong and hefty Georgie, I suspect.

Even England publishes very different-looking covers from my US ones (all of which I utterly adore)

The same is true for Bulgaria, Slovakia and all those countries in that part of the world.

China has now joined the ranks with an interesting cover. Some concept of Tuscany there.

Sometimes they are polite enough ask me what I think of the covers—especially Russia. They are good at doing this. I always tactfully reply that they know their readership better than I do.

My most fun encounter recently has been with a dear Syrian man who is translating my books into Arabic and finding it a bit of a strain to understand English expressions. I get desperate little messages which always start “dear great author,” or dear esteemed author,” and then he says could you please explain the meaning of Binky calling someone ‘old bean’. Beans are plants, are they not?  And don’t even get me started on cricket matches. I’ve had to explain those to the French and German translators—or at least try to explain them.

 Is this one Hebrew? I can't find out.

So in a way they are fun, as is receiving messages from all over the world. I got a lovely fan letter from Hong Kong yesterday. I have a fan in Austria who reads all my books in English, likewise a fan in Norway. I get many nice things said about me in Russia. Lots of Instagram comments I can’t understand (since I dropped Russian rather rapidly, when I realized I was the only member of the class who had not had two years of Russian in high school first.)

But it gives one a warm, fuzzy feeling to know there are young women all over the world who identify with Lady Georgie or Molly Murphy and have to share their stories on social media. It reaffirms that inside we are not so different after all.

Have any of you had fun and interesting cover experiences with other countries?