A PICTURE WORTH 1000 WORDS

 For reasons altogether too complicated to relate, I’m thinking I may have to redesign the covers for my Interstellar Rescue Series novels. 

Time for an update?

Not the conceptual framework, necessarily, which was developed by artist Jessica Hildreth and works beautifully—colors, formatting, fonts and so on. I don’t I want to change that, because it says what I want it to say: this is Science Fiction Romance. Cool, future-y stuff inside!

The problem I’m having is with the images of the couples that are central to the covers. The original concept was a good one: I wanted to show that the stories I’m telling are about “two against the world;” that the couples on the covers are equal partners in telling their stories. I still believe that’s a good place to start, but I don’t really think the images I’m using convey that concept.

First of all, the concept of “danger” is missing; the couples look entirely too comfortable. Then, there’s little emotional connection between the couples, except for “Rayna” and “Sam” on the Fools Rush In cover, my favorite. And, finally, there were all the problems of finding the right couple in stock images—two people that match the two people in my books.

My favorite, though still not perfect.

I had no choice about the couple that represented Ethan and Asia on the Unchained Memory cover. They were my publisher’s choice, and I still field questions about whether the book is a young adult novel because the models are too young. So I stepped up to do the image search for the next three books and discovered how difficult the task was. The only one I’m satisfied with at all is Fools Rush In, and though “Sam” is perfect, “Rayna” is less so. *Sigh*

Okay, so now I have a different “concept.” (You’ll soon see that working from a concept is part of my problem.) Though it’s true that my couples are equals in their relationships, my heroines most often drive my stories. They are strong, determined women working to overcome a central dilemma with their partners, the heroes. So, why not have them come front and center, with the men slightly in the background? That way I could use (and search for) separate images for each heroine and hero, then layer them. (Or Jessica could—I don’t have the skills.)

But here’s where I’m running into my next obstacle—“concept” vs.“detail” in image searching. All my heroines share certain character traits, even though they may physically look different. I thought if I looked for those character traits, I’d get a variety of physical types to choose from. But no.

I first tried searching for “kickass women” in my stock photo source. No results. (Really?) Okay. Then I tried “strong, active women.” I got lots of images of women lifting weights or running. Hmm. Then I typed in “powerful women.” I got over 37,000 images. At least that was helpful, if you ignored all the images of women imitating the “Rosie the Riveter” bicep curl (thousands). Or women in business suits and high heels (just because). Or women manifesting a “qi” ball (of course, that is power, but not what I’m looking for). Still, I’ve gleaned quite a few images for my preview library of women with the right “look” who might match the physical characteristics of my Asia, Lana, Rayna and Charlie. (Oh, and, of course, of Lael, who will be the heroine of King of Pain, book five of the series.)

As I’ve scanned these photos I’ve seen how the stock image search engine would like me to narrow my focus. The engine names its images “blond woman staring into the sky holding a flag;” “redhead with curls dressed in shorts climbing a hilltop on a sunny day;” “beautiful woman in business suit with briefcase and phone.” If you ever need anything that specific, stock photos have you covered. “Beautiful dark-haired woman looking at you like she’d take your head off if you crossed her” doesn’t seem to be a category.

The more exotic your character, the easier it is to categorize the image, though I’m not sure it’s any easier to find what you’re looking for. I haven’t specified a need for “powerful African-American women” yet for Rayna, or “otherworldly/exotic-looking women” for Lael (who’s a shapeshifter), but I’m sure the search engine will love those qualifiers. However, when I was looking for “sexy Latin men” for my hero Gabriel years ago, I didn’t get as many responses as I’d hoped. Maybe things have changed.

At any rate, looking at handsome men and beautiful women with a potential for gracing your next cover can be a lot more fun than struggling with contracts or staring at a blinking cursor on the screen. So, show me “powerful women # 20,473,” please!

Cheers, Donna