Our wonderful French Publisher is looking for input on the new cover for Magic Slays. They have two covers and they would like you to choose one.
Update: Please vote at the link. Telling us in the comments doesn’t work, because French Publisher won’t see it.
Blue
Vote at the link, please.
I tried? It got weird and I left the site. They wanted me to log in with my FB account, and I don’t do that. Trust issues.
Me too. Just in case, I prefer the yellow one.
Blue
Vote at the link, please.
Yellow. The one on the right. Whatever colour that is.
Vote at the link, please.
It took me a while to figure out how to vote (I wasn’t asked for my Facebook anything), but I really like the gold one better. That pic more closely represents the book. The hot sand, the pitiless ambience – the blue looks too peaceful.
Both are pretty and it is a hard decision to make, the forest where she is led by the bunny/cat and has an interesting conversation. The house could represent several things through out the story in Magic Slays. But the Kate in the golden toned cover seems more aggressive and more Kate, the Kate in the blue appears to be gentle and frail, definitely not Kate. My vote goes with the golden shaded cover merely based on the pose of the model who represents Kate better (in my opinion of course).
Vote at the link, please.
I’d go with the gold.
Vote at the link, please.
They both look great. I chose the one with the lion, but I can’t really say why. I guess it just “pops” more. Really nice art for both, though.
Vote at the link, please.
I like the one on the right.
Vote at the link, please.
Gold
Vote at the link, please.
It’s kind of funny how you posted this eight times.
I’ve had a lot of experience.
“Please enter giveaway at blog post. Please don’t comment on Facebook or other social networks. Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter comments will NOT count. Please enter at the blog.”
250 Facebook comments and several emails from Goodreads readers asking why they never win.
After see this I take back my amusement. It’s really kind of sad that so many people were unable to read and follow directions.
Agreed… lol
Gold one
I find it fascinating that so far the English speaking audience seems to prefer the gold, while a brief survey of the French audience’s choice leans heavily towards the blue.
Personally, I prefer the blue cover for the sense of mystery it imparts, though I much prefer Kate’s pose on the gold cover.
I don’t think there was a lot of mystery in Magic Strikes, more pain, blood and sand.
Gah, I got my books confused! I blame painkillers.
In which case I changed my vote to the gold, thanks!
Still interesting the difference in preference between the English speaking audience and the French audience.
I can’t vote. I have never bothered with social media and see no reason to start now. However, I have an opinion.
The gold cover has one glaring problem for me. If the lion is supposed to be Curran, he is much too small. Otherwise, I’d definitely go for it.
Free opinion. Worth everything you paid for it.
I can;t vote either for the same reason but I agree with you kommiesmom. That lion is way too small to be Curran.
Could be Conlan.
I agree, I couldn’t vote without going on Facebook, as I understood the link I clicked on. I clicked on the Gold picture and saw that someone had commented Curran was too small, I agree but otherwise prefer the Gold because it indicates that its ‘urban’ for the genre.
I can’t vote either since I don’t have a Facebook account (which is fine with me). :p
My opinion? I would choose the blue cover. I agree with everyone else that Curran is way to small in the gold cover. Now, if I could influence the French publisher, I would put how Kate is standing in the gold cover onto the blue cover. No Curran in the picture unless he is huge. The urban setting could be put on the blue cover (to make it look like it’s night instead of a dusty day (which is what the gold cover looks like to me)).
Thee cheers to me for remembering my French from a long time ago! 😀
Voted!
Why can’t cover artists figure out the difference between a saber and a katana? Out of curiosity, are cover artists /illustrators supposed to familiarize themselves with the work they are illuminating? If so, to what extent would be expected? Do they read some of the book? Get a list of salient points? Always wondered about that. (Going back to Frank Frazetta covers for Conan and Pellucidar series).
And, is that Curran or a kitty-kitty? };{p>
Having asked Rachel Caine’s husband – Cat Conrad, who has done many book covers, he said his job is to sell the book, not the story.
Thank you for sending us “over there” – I had no clue I retained so much french (happy moment of the day!)
Btw I voted for the blue one, because – as someone said previously – Curran is muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch too small in the golden one.
When the publisher announced that “the lion” won over “the forest”, it stated that the final gold version WILL have a “more impressive Curran”, so WIN!
lmao
what link ??? too funny
at top under Blog title
“Vote here”
Stupid corporate network won’t let me go vote. I’ll have to remember to vote from home. Ilona, did they mention how long the voting is open? Or is that mentioned on the voting page that I can’t get to at the moment?
I’m partial to the blue myself, if anyone is curious. ‘Cause I know you’re all waiting for my opinion. 😛
The site said 23:59 hrs today (not sure but probably GMT+1?) when I voted. At the link. You do need to sign in to Facebook to vote.
I’m out then.
Although I would enjoy the looks on my brothers and nephews faces if I told them I finally joined Facebook, not so I could communicate with them, but so I could vote for a book cover in a different country. Man, that’s a tempting thought.
Voted at the link .
I wish there was a way to buy the French versions. All their covers are so beautiful and I wish there were English versions! Maybe I’ll just buy them and learn how to read French!!!
Nice that the publisher is letting fans choose. Wish Avon had thought about doing that. You ARE NOT Jeanine Frost!
I AM JEANIENE FROST.
As long as you’re not Negan.
Amen!
Rofl! Amen!
Truly? If so, I find it interesting that I enjoy Kate Daniels and Innkeeper stories but Jeaninen Frost’s books drive me batty (haven’t been able finish a single one…)
Really?! I thought I was the only person, who totally couldn’t stomach Jeaninen Frost’s books and loved Ilona’s:)))
lolz
Voted on link ❤
It was hard to choose both looked good ?
I voted at the link for the Lion cover.
The color will attract the eye more so than the blue. Urban fantasy implies urban, not forest. The Kate in the Lion one looks far more kick-ass.
There is a magical forest hinting at great adwentures and a girl. She is going to enter the forest but she is afraid. At least she looks afraid next to the woman in the second picture. The woman is great heroine. She is so strong and fit and she is ready for … sightseeing? there is so much sunshine I am telling you She and Curran are going on holliday. Or maybe they are going shopping. I can´t tell the background is so bland.
I voted for the gold. It just felt more right for Kate.
Voted on link
If the forest had a lion walking next to Kate, I would have been sold on it… alas, the lion clinches it for me
Not to disparage our French friends, but that page has lots of issues.
And the deciding factor for me was the way Kate is standing. Much too calm in the forest. Although maybe the blue is soothing.
Voted at the link. You have a lot of patience to have to repeat (such simple) instructions so many times!! ?
(Don’t worry, I see the link to vote)
They’re both very pretty covers. Which is dispiriting, because Kate is not a very pretty girl. These two are very slender and young looking. I loved the cover (Magic Bleeds) where you had this barbarian looking woman. She was not pretty. She was striking – and beautiful – but not pretty. And she looked like she knew where the pointy end of the sword was meant to go.
This is just me bemoaning the fact that there aren’t more kick you in the teeth looking women on book covers.
*shrug* I’ll read them anyway.
Like the commenter said above, the artist’s job is to sell the book. How many would buy a book of a tough woman vs a slender, pretty woman?
But yeah, I wish things don’t work that way.
Well, the argument of the bread companies when it came to bleaching their flour was “our customers wouldn’t buy our bread if it wasn’t so white”.
Actually, the customers were very happy to buy less than snow white bread, especially if it meant not having to ingest potentially harmful chemicals.
Most of the women who read Kate Daniels actively enjoy her being so kick ass. So if the covers represented Kate (mercenary, sword fighter, headbutt you in the face kinda woman) rather than a girl closer in age to Julie (who would probably also chew up the girl on the cover)…who knows? Perhaps more people would buy the books, rather than dismiss them as “fluff”.
Would be an interesting topic for a consumer survey, perhaps? We could line up all the KD covers and ask people to pick their favourites. :p
I might try it. I do enjoy a good scientific experiment.
We just like to put in our 2 cents (gold) without impacting the choice – I have no idea which would be more appealing in France.
Voted at the link. Lol. No issues for me. I don’t think it’d be a Kate book without a lion on it.
I decided to stretch my old French gray cells, and since when I plugged it into Google Translate and got what I’d intended, I guess I diudn’t make any major mistakes, though I may bed off on a noun-gender or two. What I posted at the link:
Je dirais que les couleurs plus chauds conviennent meilleur avec Kate — et clairement avec Curran, qui mérite avoir sa propre présence sur la couverture! Aussi, quand même que la version bleu est très belle, elle parait moins distinctive. —— Si j’ai commis des erreurs syntactiques, pardonnez-moi, s’il vous plait. Mes classes à l’université étaient il y a beacoup d’années!
Translate results:
I would say that the warmer colors fit better with Kate — and clearly with Curran, who deserves to have her own presence on the cover! Also, even though the blue version is very beautiful, it seems less distinctive. — — if I have made syntactic errors, please forgive me. My classes at the university were many years ago!
I do agree with everyone pointing out that Curran’s not supposed to be just an “ordinary”, “small” lion.
(Yikes, I made plenty of typos in my intro to it, here — and there’s no Edit option.)
Totally off topic but I just saw this http://www.globalyell.org/blog/scythians about an exhibit of the Scythians at the British Museum. I’d never heard of them until Kate Daniels found one and brought her home ~ I’m looking forward to exploring the online exhibit since I can’t get there in person, and I thought some of the other members of the BDH might also be interested.
Did you see the final version they posted? Definitely better!