Early cover reveal for Love in the Eternal City!
I've had such a hard time keeping this cover under wraps (pun intended) since it was finalized in January. It's just plain awesome.
How do book covers come to be? Well, usually there's some idea input from the author — preferences, visuals that have been floating around in her head as she writes, or particular things she really doesn't want.
In my case, as I'm not a very visual person, I started out with what I didn't want: faceless outlines of people. It's a trend in the contemporary romance genre — Emma St. Clair is one of my favorite romance authors, and if you take a look at her covers you'll see what I mean.
Then I started looking at some comp titles, particularly those in the same genre and set in Italy. Pretty quickly, I realized that I wanted something bright and cheerful, with a Catholic icon of Rome. I shared a few photos from Pinterest, and off went my cover questionnaire to the team at Chrism. Roseanna M. White worked her magic, and with a bit of back-and-forth tweaking, the end result is (drumroll please):
LOOK AT BENI PEEKING OUT OF THE DOORWAY!!! Also the fact that Elena's outfit matches his Swiss Guard uniform delights me to no end. Elena is exactly how I envisioned her. And St. Peter's dome in the background with the cross lined up in the C of City! The fonts, the colors, the overall vibe...I love it so much.
Truth be told, we do judge a book by its cover, because that's how our brains are wired — which makes a cover one of the most essential pieces of book publishing and marketing. My thanks again to the Chrism team, especially Roseanna, for the fabulousness that is this image!
I hope you love it as much as I do. Tell me what you think. ;)
And have a happy early St. Valentine's Day/Ash Wednesday. I'll see you in Lent with more book news!
Love, Rebecca
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All opinions are my own, and are not endorsed by Our Sunday Visitor, Chrism Press, the Order of Preachers, or the Catholic Writers Guild