Cover for The Piano Tutor

[antheal]

Here's the blurb:

In this romantic Regency short story, widowed Lady Diana Waverly finds love and passion in the most unlikely of places when a new piano tutor arrives at her door.

Any thoughts welcomed!

Attachments:

[Carradee]

Main issue I have with it is… well, I can't read it.

Also, make sure you have the commercial license for that font. If it came free with your computer, you probably only have a non-commercial license.

[stephlaurens]

I'm a longtime reader of historical romances and quite aside from the readability, I found the cover confusing. And the blurb doesn't help.

For most hist rom readers, "romantic Regency" means something like the old Signets or Harlequin Regencies, also called traditional Regencies - no sex, or at least none on the page.

The cover - the background screams hot sex, while the inset panel (which is tilted for some reason - just made me want to 'correct' it), that image says sweet and romantic.

Then the tagline says 'Spicy" a word usually associated with erotica, or at least romantica.

So what is this?

The current description for a work set in the Regency period with explicit sex (on the page) is a Regency historical romance, Regency-era historical romance, historical romance set in the Regency...any version of those words.

Also:
- the background cover image is a pose associated with contemporary romance or erotica.
- the title font/size would work if the background was different
- the name size is fine, but the font is too fine at that size - see the A in Anthea.

Sorry - this needs work. I can see that you've picked elements for what you want to convey - Regency, sexy - but they have to be integrated into one reader-message, and that has to match your work and blurb.

[antheal]

Great feedback - thank you Carradee and Steph! I've been tweaking the font readability today. Steph, your input is spot on and invaluable. Your points on the use of "romantic" and "spicy" being confusing are well taken. Back to work I go~

[angiepenrose]

I agree with the above that the nekkid people picture doesn't fit the very sweet drawing in the middle; the contrasting styles are jarring on several points. I'm assuming you wanted to communicate both "Regency" and "sexy," but couldn't find one picture to do both; stock art has lots of nekkid people, but very little in the way of historical costumes. [wry smile]

You know, if you're willing to go with that level of drawing for your cover, you might browse around DeviantArt and find an artist whose skill and style you like but who's just starting out and might be willing to do a custom cover for you, a couple of figures halfway out of period clothing, say, for a reasonable price. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard other writers say that's a workable tactic, especially when you're looking for material that's tough or impossible to find in stock art. It'll cost you a bit, but that'd probably be better in the long run than having a jarring or mashed-up cover that doesn't really fit your story.

Angie