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.

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.

Yeah, it's weird. But it's still not her decision.

The stupid thing is, I'm sure it went through, like, seventeen meetings to get it to precisely that size, and there will never be any recognizable difference made.

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.

Yeah, it's weird. But it's still not her decision.

I'm just annoyed because I dislike her books so much.

Last Wednesday, I was doing a purge on my romance bookshelves, trying to winnow them down a bit. Only managed to get rid of 14 books out of an estimated 250, though--the big purge I had back in the beginning of 2006, when I got rid of about 2/3rds of my romances, was as far as I think I'm willing to go.

However, it's now obvious that my Nora Roberts books compose almost 1/3rd of the collection. She's the one whose books have been branded the most out of all the ones in my collection. Since I've been reading her so long, I've got a wide range of cover styles for her various books: the clinch for most of the Silhouette books, the abstract drawing with big title/smaller author name for her first standalone novels, the no-drawing covers for her more recent standalones with her name in huge letters.

Yeah, nothing about covers are ever up to an author, although if you have some pull, you can get some things changed.

So, so true. I'm still astonished we were able to have as much input on the GCS cover as we did. Of course, having Pete hand them a completed cover image helped immensely.