Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Pink Problem - more on covers

Seeing as I managed to confuzzle Joanne yesterday -

I love the cover, Kate, she writes, but why is it pink? I thought 'romance' was pink and 'modern' blue.Hopelessly confused :-)
I'll explain for anyone else who doesn't know how the M&B romances are published in the UK.

Once a book is accepted, the first form it's published in is the hardback/library edition, which comes out a couple of months before the paperback edition. These are known amongst the authors as the 'pinks' because they are all - Modern or Romance - the 'contemporary' romance lines, that is - published in this pink binding. And it is, as you can see - a very pink binding . (This is a great excuse to post that fabulous cover again.)


Then, two months later (usually) the main edition - the paperback edition - appears on the bookshop shelves and at that point the lines are divided into Romance, Modern and Modern Heat, each with their distinctive bindings.




Finally, if the book is then put into another library edition- the Large Print edition - this then is a hardback again and it is once again very pink.


Way back when, when I first started writing, some of the books only went into the library hardback edition -not every title was published in the paperback and sold in the shops. My very first book for example - The Chalk Line - was only in a library edition first and then didn't appear as a paperback until 1991! My second book, Game of Hazard, did appear in paperback - and guess what - it was very pink! But then all the paperbacks were different colours.



So I hope that explains things for you Joanne.
A lot of people don't realise that there are any special library editions.
It seems a lot of you didn't know about the new way the books will be scheduled and distributed in the future too - so I'll try to keep you up to date on this as things develop. I'll hope to have some new covers to show you too. As to the designs, I tend to agree with you Caroline - I prefer the artwork covers rather than the ones that show photographs - those are somehow too 'real' for me. And some of them look too much like models -too thin, too perfect etc.



Interestingly, I was looking at my new cover and wondering why it seemed so familiar - then I remembered the cover of a book I had out in 1998/2000 - The Temptation Game - and that's what it was reminding me of.

Though the hero has rather more clothes on - and he's not getting quite so close . . . It was always one of my favourite covers of the time.

3 comments:

Jan Jones said...

I think the heroine's hair is just a little more natural this time around!

Joanne Coles said...

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Kate. I knew hardbacks were printed first but didn't realise they were all the same colour. I know they are very pink, but I like them, I like girly!

Unknown said...

Honestly, I don't care if it's pink, blue, etc. as long as it's a Kate Walker romance!

 

Home Bio Books USA Readers Writers Contests Events Blog Links

Join Kate's Newsletter

Email Kate

Modified and Maintained by HR Web Concepts