I don't remember any of the titles, but they're the kind of "divorced woman finds her mojo/single woman discovers happiness in being herself and then the perfect guy comes along/hanging out with your girl friends and gossiping over lattes and shoes is the best thing ever" type of books.

I wonder if they were older titles, because really, that sort of book has been somewhat out of vogue for quite a while. They are annoying, but frankly, I'm finding the glitz lit book covers more annoying-- the Candace Bushnell and Gigi Levangie Grazer and Lauren Weisberger titles.

I've got a secret weakness for that stuff. It actually embarrasses me more than reading about stash houses and shooting galleries, and etc. But I don't pay full price for it. And Entourage is really chick lit with a dick, anyways. Except that at least canonically, it doesn't seem to bother E. that Vince is totally prettier than him.

Covers like this, Connie? [link]

Covers like this, Connie?

Exactly.

It was the first author I thought of when I read your post - almost all of the covers of her books look like that. Although, recently, her books have switched to no person covers like this: [link]

It was the first author I thought of when I read your post - almost all of the covers of her books look like that. Although, recently, her books have switched to no person covers like this

They've also started branding her covers (much in the way that Diana Gabaldon covers are branded) with her move more into Women's Fic:

[link]

[link]

[link]

Although, recently, her books have switched to no person covers like this: [link]

Interesting that her name is so much bigger than the title. Is that common? I guess maybe bestsellers, but even then, the Dan Browns of the world seem to have their name the same size as the title, not massively bigger.

That seems really ego-trippy for such a hack. (Sorry; I really dislike Jane Green.)

That seems really ego-trippy for such a hack.

It's not up to her, though. It's all based on sales -- if you're selling enough books, and especially enough backlist, the publisher wants readers to know you wrote this more than what the title is.

It's common to start with a bigger title, smaller name until you gain a readership.

That seems really ego-trippy for such a hack.

It's not up to her, though. It's all based on sales -- if you're selling enough books, and especially enough backlist, the publisher wants readers to know you wrote this more than what the title is.

Yeah, but I was looking at Amazon's bestseller list, and the only fiction authors with names bigger than the title are Nicholas Sparks and Charlaine Harris, and even their names aren't so insanely huge as Jane Green's. (Also Glenn Beck, but that doesn't surprise me.)

I guess I don't understand why Dan Brown's name wouldn't take up the whole cover of the book, if it's based on sales.

It's not up to her, though.

Yeah, nothing about covers are ever up to an author, although if you have some pull, you can get some things changed. I had a friend who hated her latest cover, in part because the primary color was, as she put it, "Gamma radiation green." Her editor tried to tell her that the art department had wanted to transition to something a little different from the blue hues the previous book covers had had, but she put her foot down on the green. It was bad.

But for whatever reason, that shade of green has been popular over the last six months. That's another thing you'll see with covers-- not only the styles, but the primary colors will also trend. Right now, red dresses are very popular in historicals.