Undead and Unworthy Book Covers

Here are copies of the Book Covers for Undead and Unworthy.
This is the US version...

and this is the UK version...

I Get Copied By The Entire World

UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY has an entirely different cover than the other UNDEAD books. It is all part of a sinister plan.

Oh, all right, it is not. Sinister, I mean. But there’s definitely a plan. But what I thought was interesting was the polarizing effect seeing the new cover had on my Yahoo group. I think it’s safe to say that at least 90% of them didn’t care for the new cover one bit, or didn’t think it said “the new Betsy book” to them. Or they’re annoyed because the new book won’t match the rest of their Undead collection.

To which I replied, “Oh, shit.”

As I mentioned in my last blog, my publishing house decided to go in a completely different direction with the next Undead cover (whereas my British publisher used the same artist and concept for the 7th book in the series). Gone are the cartoons, the smiley bats, the faceless heroine reading a paper or powdering her nose. The new look is edgier. And shinier!

I’ll admit I had my doubts at first, until I went to Amazon and looked up the newest paranormal romances. Thirty book covers scrolled by my glazed eyes, only two written by yours truly. But damned near every one of those covers were a) cartoons, about b) a young, hip, ditzy heroine who c) loves fashion or jewelry or designer suits.

Bottom line? Anybody looking for an MJ Davidson book would have a tough time selecting mine from the crowd. This wasn’t the case four years ago, when the only one writing paranormal chick lit was, well, me. That’s all changed now, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I mean, the whole reason I thought up Betsy in the first place was because I was tired of the broody ancient grumpy wealthy distant male vampire protagonist paired with the trusting virginal no-bad-qualities-at-all heroine. If I go to the bookstore today, there are all kinds of nutty heroines getting into trouble in the paranormal world, mistresses (sort of) of their own destiny. That works for me. It makes going to the bookstore a real pleasure. I’ll admit it: I like my romances frothy. Angst=yawn, as far as I’m concerned.

Will the new cover help me or hurt me? I’m clueless. But was it time for a change? I think yeah.

I guess we’ll see.

I Make Betsy's Life Worse

So, UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY is done. Well, that’s not entirely true…my part is done, I’ve written the book, incorporated my editor’s excellent suggestions, and now the book is trundling its way through the publishing house’s slow-winding publication highway.

Slow-winding publication highway? Wow. I need some Nyquil. Or something. That was terrible. Sorry; I’m on low sleep. My husband has a terrible cold, which I have caught, and neither of us are sleeping well. Nyquil is our horrible friend; tastes terrible, helps a little. Blech. Anyway. UNWORTHY has been turned in but while I’m hacking and sniffling and glaring blearily at the partner who gave me this wretched illness, my books is trundling its way through copy edits, line edits, galleys, covers, cover flats, ads, ARCs, promo spots, printing, shipping. Yup; mine was definitely the easy part.

UNWORTHY has an entirely different cover—a different look—from all the other Undead books. That’s all right; it’s also a different book. And, as the first six books in the series were their own story arc, so are the next three books a story arc. (It’s like a trilogy in the middle of a series.) I can’t really get into it because we’ll be in spoiler territory before too long, but it was definitely time for a change. Don’t worry, Betsy’s still a smartass, the book is still funny (so says my editor, at least), irreverently mundane things happen to many characters.

But, yeah, a different book. Because time passes and things change, you know? Even for the undead. Maybe especially for the undead, who can look at a relationship in terms of centuries rather than decades.

I will admit, when my editor told me they were going with a completely different cover design this time, my first thought (which, as many of my first thoughts do, popped right out of my mouth) was, “If it’s not broken, how come you’re fixing it?” And when I saw the cover, I liked it right away, but it didn’t seem like mine, you know?

Now it seems like mine; now it’s hard to picture another cover for UNWORTHY. But of course there is—my British publisher, Piatakus, has used the same artist and look for UNWORTHY that they used for the other six books.

I’ll tell you, it’s interesting when you’re staring down at both of them. And I’ll go into the reasons for the change in the next blog. But for now, change is good.

Right?