Cover Reveals with Wild About Bones!

Hello!

Today is a special day here in my Room. I get to host the illustrious and mysterious "Wild About Bones," the creator of the wonderful site Cover Reveals. If you haven't yet had a look at Cover Reveals, it features some of the hottest covers in today's lit. Wild About Bones is not just a blogger, but also a book reviewer, content editor and acquisitions editor as well, and she knows romance! If you write in the genre, or related genres, you will want to check out her cool blog. I hope you enjoy our interview!

 

Cover Reveals is a hot site which showcases some of the best covers out there. How was the Cover Reveals idea born?

Thank you, Rosanna. I saw so many good stories not getting the attention I felt they deserved, stories I thought were great and knew others would too – if they only knew about them. I decided to see what I could do to change that. I was already telling friends and was on an author’s street team, but I just wasn’t reaching enough people. As a book reviewer for a friend’s site, I was able to post a few cover reveals, but only for the genres that site catered to. So Cover Reveals (http://CoverReveals.blogspot.com) was born. I started out only featuring the romance sub-genres and urban fantasy but soon added fantasy. In the future I will be added more genres. 

 

What do you think makes an effective cover? Does this vary depending on the book genre?

Absolutely! But before I elaborate, I want to talk about a cover’s purpose. The cover’s job is first to catch the readers’ eye and entice the reader to pick it up/click on it to find out more. Secondly, the cover needs to reflect the genre at a glance. And lastly, it is an advertising tool for the author. Therefore to be effective, the author’s name must be prominent, the series name and book number should be present, and it must represent the genre, sub-genre, and/or theme. It should be relatively uncluttered, especially if it will be available online. The cover needs to be legible at thumbnail size. A book’s cover can make or break the book unless the author is able to get everyone talking about the story.

 

What do you think of the old adage about judging a book by its cover? Do you look at cover first when choosing your reading material?

Without a doubt. Whether I’m browsing the shelves in a bookstore or shopping online, even within my favorite genre, the cover is what attracts my attention first. If it is appealing or has a familiar author name on it and looks like it is my genre, I will pick it up, or click on it, and read the blurb. Most readers will do the same.

 

So many of the covers showcased on Cover Reveals are from the romance genre. What do you think of the current trend for spare covers, featuring a single item such as a pair of cufflinks or a rose? Do you think readers might gravitate to these covers, rather than the ones featuring a couple/group in a risqué position?

I think the single item covers work for a few very select genres.  Most of the time, you can’t tell what genre a single item cover is for.  Many readers have precious little time to waste time looking at titles not in their preferred genres. I think this trend comes from being a popular choice of the indie authors who don’t want to invest in their cover or don’t realize how important it is to reflect the genre in the cover. Sex sells. So a sexy cover is going to grab a romance reader’s eye much quicker than a cover that isn’t sexy. And that is the purpose of a cover.

 

Okay, the question burning in everyone’s minds (meaning me). Why are you “WildAboutBones?” And what sorts of bones are we talking about? (hee hee)

LOL! I needed a fun name to post books reviews under for a paranormal review site. I am a huge Jeanienne Frost fan, and I love her Night Huntress series featuring Cat and Bones. Bones is the nickname of the main vampire character. I just adore him. I got the idea from a Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake series fan who was WildAboutJeanClaude on Laurell’s forum.

 

Was there one particular romance book that inspired you to join this industry? Who is your favourite author and why?

I’ve always been a huge horror fan. I loved the Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, I was a Teenage Werewolf movies growing up. And reading has been a passion since listening to my mother act out the voices while reading us Where the Wild Things Are. Although I read the bodice rippers in the seventies and eighties, horror was my favorite. I couldn’t get enough of Stephen King and Clive Barker and they led me to Brian Lumley who has a very cool vampire/necromancer series called Necroscope which in a roundabout way led me to Laurell K. Hamilton’s urban fantasy Anita Blake series (she is both a vampire hunter and necromancer of sorts) which led me to my love affair with paranormal romance and urban fantasy. I read a lot of many different genres but also come back to paranormal romance, urban fantasy and fantasy. 

 

Who is my favorite author? I just have too many to name. There are so many really good authors out there, and I find new ones I really like every day.  I have about forty authors I will drop everything to read their newest releases and the list just keeps getting longer.

 

What do you ask of authors who come to you for a cover reveal?

First I ask them what genre their title is. Then I ask if the book was released within the past three months or will be releasing within the next six months. If the book matches my criteria, I ask them to visit my Requests page at http://coverreveals.blogspot.com/p/requests.html for a list of all of the information I need including up to three past releases. I want to not only help get the word out about their current title but also provide a way to check out some of their past releases. I also ask for their twitter handle because I tweet about every post and will include their handle if they have one as a quick way for their fans to engage them.

 

Many authors ask when the best time to do a cover reveal is. My answer is basically any time. If you have a big fan following, you can do it several months in advance to get readers excited. You can slowly reveal different things within the six week prior to release. For example, reveal just the book trailer six week ahead of release. Reveal the cover and blurb four weeks prior to release and two weeks before release, reveal an excerpt.  If your title has pre-ordering, make sure to take promo it. Many authors will wait until release day or just afterward for their reveals to take advantage of impulse buying.  Authors can also do reveals months after the release to provide a boost to sales or keep the current sales momentum going. I tell authors not to get caught up in the word “reveal” and let that stop them from promoting their titles after release. 

 

For fun:

 

Daniel Craig or Pierce Brosnan? Pierce Brosnan 

White or dark chocolate? Dark,,,yummy

 

Cotton PJ’s or silky things? Cotton

 

Ereader or hard copy? Wow, that is a really hard one. I love the convenience of being able to carry around hundreds of books with me in case I am stuck waiting somewhere for a while. I also love being able to shop in my PJs without having to leave the house and having the stories delivered immediately. But there is just something about being able to sit in a comfy easy chair with a hard copy. So I guess I have to say…both.

 

If you could travel to a fantasy location with any romance hero, who would it be, where, and what would you do to, ahem, with him? The place? Alaska, the northern wilds of Canada, the North Pole, or South Pole. While those don’t seem very romantic at first thought, hear me out for me minute. The what to do? Snuggle, cuddle, and always stay close to keep warm, wrapped around each other and…ahem…you get the idea. The who? Well now, there are so many good candidates, why limit myself to just one? I’m thinking of a triad or quad ménage lifestyle. *wicked grin* They would be paranormals of some sort…a shifter/were or two, maybe a vampire, a Sidhe or fae, and/or something else intriguing. I really like the whole mating for life thing. My first choices would be Bones from Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series, Zsadist from J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, or Zarek from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series, but they are all taken, and I don’t poach. So I’ll just have to find some of my own. Hmmm… I wonder if there are any of Calan Kirk’s brothers still unattached? I could go for a sexy selkie.

 

Why thank you, Wild About Bones...I will do what I can to send a selkie man right over!! Thanks for being here. :)