Have you ever been dissatisfied with a book title or cover?
JEL: Nothing is ever perfect in this business, so of course, there are covers and titles I haven’t liked. Titlewise, nothing that I objected to really strongly–all of those I was able to get changed before the title was put on the cover. I love my Dirty titles, as they are mine, as are most of my titles, honestly. I wasn’t crazy about Brazen & Burning. I wanted the title Slow Burn (which was the heroine, Sydney’s, nickname) but Heather Graham had a book coming out with the same title, so I lost. As for covers, yeah, I’ve had a few that I was really miffed about. But a very small percentage.
CP: I’ve always worked with my editor on titles and so I can’t say I’ve ever been unhappy. The only major changes for me were that Under the Boardwalk and Summer Lovin’ was supposed to be Jersey Girl and Manhattan Woman and those were changed and took a lot of getting used to for me. But for the most part, if they can’t go with a title I want, we brainstorm until we’re all happy, so it works well.
LK: Uh…yeah. 
As I said in the answer to last week’s question, I’ve been less than thrilled with some of my s.t. covers. I haven’t ever *hated* a title and I’ve just loved many of them. I really am thrilled with the title of my next HQN single title–SHE’S NO ANGEL–although I sure wish we’d realized we didn’t want to go with the “Trouble” titles *before* the first book came out. Anyway, my editor is very very very good with titles and she can always come up with something that I really end up liking.
JD: Most of the titles I didn’t like were the titles “assigned” to my Harlequin Romances, when I was writing the sweet, traditional stories. At that time, Harlequin was certain that any title with Bride, Baby, Cowboy, Mother, Father, Dad or Wedding was certain to be a best-seller (uh, not according to my records they weren’t, LOL!). Some of the titles I got stuck with were: Ready-Made Bride, Bride Included, A Dad for Daniel, Substitute Father, The Wedding Bargain, The Wedding Secret and The Baby Surprise. Uh, do you see a theme here? LOL. Most of my Temptation and Blaze titles I’ve really liked, even if they did come from my editor, and all my single title and novella titles have been my own. As for covers — yeah, I’ve had my share of less than spectacular ones. Like Christmas Fantasy, which featured a guy (solo) on the cover with a goofy grin and ears as big as Dumbo’s. Oy! And then there was Pure Indulgence, where my heroine had TWO ears on one side of her head. But other than that, I’ve been fairly lucky with my covers.
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold over forty books to four publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her daughter, a spoiled dachshund, a haughty lynx-point Siamese and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
Destiny
Dirty Little Secrets
Once Upon A Valentine
Through The Night
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It seems that categories have the worst titles. I think some of them are responsible for giving romance a bad name LOL. Blazes aren’t so bad, though. And you ladies have fabulous single titles, and covers.
I’m off to the Celtic fest, maybe I’ll see some men in kilts – enjoy your day :)
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Hmmm…two ears on one side…that didn’t draw a lot of readers??? ha!
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poor Janelle…that sounds horrible….none of the titles sound ‘steamy”, just horrible.
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I remember when HT used to love titles with one word or no more than three. Talk about a limited vocabulary!
Oh, and the covers. I just read one where there is a little boy on the cover that the hero is holding. In reality, the little boy is only a minor character and is not the heroine’s son. If I’d been the cover goddess, I would’ve picked another cover for that book.:coffee:
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The worst thing is you can see a direct correlation between bad covers and bad sales. :cursing:
Suz Brockmann had the right idea with her horrible Get Lucky cover and turned a bad thing into really good publicity.
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Oh Janelle, I had forgotten about your 3 eared heroine. That was unbelievable!
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I think that sometimes a cover and or the title can make or break a book, especially if you are looking for a new author. I get turned off with so many books that come out under the same theme titles like Baby, Mother, etc……..you get to the point where you skim over them since you think Oh another one of them……….
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I don’t pay much attention to covers or titles—buy mostly by author.
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If I am looking at books the cover can draw me to pick it up off the shelf if it is not one of my favorite authors. Even when the cover is terrible if the author is an auto-buy for me I will pick the book up. What I really hate is when the cover does not relate to the book–of course you don’t know that until you have read the book!!
I don’t read many historical novels/romances anymore but they sometimes have covers that are a real turn off! When I see some of them I tend to think that “no wonder Romance books have a bad rap!” Surf’s Up is my idea of a great cover! Yum!! :love2::thumbsup2:
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some are real bad, most are just good
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I agree with the SURF”S UP cover…I am still drooling over it (I had to buy it and just stare). LOL! ROTFL!!!