Evolution of a cover

I originally posted this on Regan Taylor’s blog, but as this story comes out later this month, I just had to share again. Enjoy!

For me, seeing cover art for the first time is one of the most exciting aspects of being a published author.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the whole cover art process, I’ll walk you through it. For my story DEEP BLUE, which releases later this month on March 29 (!!!!) with Siren-Bookstrand, I filled out a cover questionnaire that will be sent directly to the cover artist. The first thing they wanted me to do was write several blurbs in different lengths. Here’s one of them:

One hundred years ago, Thaddeus was cursed and banished to the depths of the ocean as a half man/half sea creature. He has only three more days to find someone to love him in his beastly state or he’ll live the rest of eternity as a monster of the sea.

Then I needed to provide basic information like word count (24k), genre (paranormal erotic romance), series name (Cursed Love), theme (Beauty and the Beast story) and setting (under the sea in a lair—it’s dark with very little light to see).

Then I described my heroine:

Kate Hargrove, 32, long auburn hair, brown eyes, curvy.

Thaddeus Ryker, 28 years old, long black hair, blue eyes, always bare-chested.

I explained objects central to the story, for instance the ocean is an integral part of the story; it’s always dark; hero is half man/half sea monster so the heroine only sees him from the waist up for much of the story.

I gave the cover artist links to covers and clip art I liked, told her the general feel and tone I hoped for (romantic, sexy and haunting), then sent it all in and…waited.

And the cover you see is what I got in my inbox last week. What do you think?

Becca Simone writes contemporary erotic romance from her home in the Pacific Northwest. DEEP BLUE is her second story. You can learn more about her on her website http://BeccaSimone.com.