Very few new books about royalty were published this month, so I didn't have many covers to choose from, but I really do like this one:
The Kingmaker's Sisters by David Baldwin is about six sisters who married noblemen fighting on opposite sides of 15th century England's Wars of the Roses. The cover is simple but pretty — I like the way the roses are worked into the design.
What's your opinion? Do you like this book cover?
It's a very pretty cover, though not very "grabby." And with the gold spine it reminds me of the series of "Golden Book" children's books I read as a little girl, and of course this book is not at all a kids' picture book.
Does anyone else remember the "Golden Books"?
Yes, good point about the Little Golden Books! I knew there was something about that gold design that looked familiar!
I like it a lot. I am a little sick of the decapitated people covers. This has a classic feel to it.
What's with all the War of the Roses books out lately? Must be the next hot trend.
I noticed that! I guess it's a spin-off of the Tudor craze.
It's the publishers who are nuts about the decapitated people covers. I think it began withthe branding of the Philippa Gregory Tudor-era novels and other publishers jumped on the bandwagon. Maybe they thought that readers would see another decapitated woman and figure the book was like a Philippa Gregory novel (which are commercially successful), so they'd buy the other book, too.
Authors rarely have a say in what their cover looks like. I wonder what other authors think about them.
There was a discussion among writers at the Writing the Renaissance blog about decapitated-woman covers:
http://writingren.blogspot.com/2008/04/knowing-book-by-its-cover.html
I like pretty book covers and I think people's faces are more interesting to look at than their chests or elbows, so I'll be glad when the headless craze ends (if it ever does).