Friday, June 01, 2012

Wha . . .? Who IS that dude?

Y'all have probably heard that authors often don't have much control over their cover art. It's an unfortunate fact of this business.

Now, I'll be the first to admit I've been spoiled. I've been graced with some extraordinary (and two award-winning) covers. The one for Carny's Magic is quite nicely done. But . . . but . . . who's that dude in the foreground? Frankly, I haven't the slightest idea. It's like he sneaked in from somebody else's story, because he doesn't resemble any character in this one.

It's been bugging the snot out of me.

So of course, being as spoiled as I am, I feel the need to clarify. Here's roughly how I envision Carny, Peter, Jackson, and Adin (not that it matters; I'm only the author). All the details aren't exact, but these are fair approximations.

  Carny
His face, his build, his spirit.

Peter
This is a lovely Silver Publishing cover.
My character has brown eyes and no wings. :-)

Andrej Pejic would do, too.

Jackson
This is the image that appears on
the covers of InDescent and
To Be Where You Are,
and it's amazingly accurate.

Adin 
(Take your pick!)
Top photo is from the cover of Kresley's Cole's
Dark Needs at Night's Edge.
Bottom photo was ganked from M.J. and Piper
at Babes in Boyland.

9 comments:

Tam said...

I had to go look at the cover. Isn't that Slave Boy at the back? I have a bit of a thing for Slave Boy.

Well, sometimes you hit paydirt, sometimes just dirt. LOL It's not bad, but it's always fun to see how the author envisions the character. No wings? Hmm. Shame. ;-) Adin looks delicious, not matter which way you cut it.

K. Z. Snow said...

Yes, Chris has verified that is Slave Boy. Based on the hair, I assume he represents Carny.

Which means the other model must be Carny's love interest, Peter. But...HUH? How did an ethereal-looking character with long blond hair end up a much-shorter-haired brunette with a whole different face and body type -- complete with droopy nipples? To this day I'm mystified by how that happened.

BeeCycling said...

Ooh, how about another picture of that last guy - with a lot more flesh on display. (No, not everything! :D)

But he's one of my characters! Except that he's way too young...

K. Z. Snow said...

Ooo, Becky, is he the same one? Wowzers!

Chris said...

The second to the last guy is Nathan Kamp. He's on a TON of covers, but they're generally mainstream romance with somewhat original art (not the same two poses rubberstamped on every cover). I have a number of paperbacks from the library's discount sale room purely because they have Nathan Kamp on the cover...

K. Z. Snow said...

Yes, I'm quite familiar with Nathan Kamp. I used to keep him under my desk. ;-)

BeeCycling said...

I'm pretty sure he's the same one. If you zoom in on the face on my one it looks like him. Actually, I have a colour version too and his lovely red lips are definitely a giveaway. :D

Plus look at the white wall in the background, which looks the same and on your pic you can just see a metal horizontal thing behind him on the left, which matches the rail of hooks you can see in my one.

Erika said...

I MUCH prefer how u envisioned them. They're all just yum and I love Andrej Pejic. Just remembered reading how authors get more royalties if their books are bought from their publishers so I'm off to buy Carny now. :)

K. Z. Snow said...

Thank you!

BTW, I prefer how I envision them too. ;-)