I can’t stand book covers that have nothing to do with the content or look like they were slapped together at the 11th hour by an intern with rudimentary Photoshop skills. Considering books ARE judged by their covers, you’d figure they’d take the time and effort to do it right.

While I love Mr. Palumbo’s work for God’s War, his Infidel is lacking. Nyx has gone from kick-ass merc to Greek goddess/angel of death??? While it’s a cover that might still have caught my eye, it doesn’t have the strength of the first where you have the characters looking in opposite directions with the angled background all creating a sense of urgency and tension. In comparison, Infidel looks soft and dreamy.

Luckily, I think I’m addicted to the story so I’ll be making future purchases based on your name and not the cover.

I do wish somebody would actually do an A/B test on covers to “prove” this “marketing” theory, because as it stands it just feels like publishers are self-censoring themselves. Another good example is what happened to Ben Aaronovich’s books. Look at the difference between http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Over-Soho-Ben-Aaronovitch/dp/0345524594/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_34” rel=”nofollow”>this cover and this cover (!).

I do think things are changing in the field. Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City just won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and had a write-up in the NYT and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death has gotten a lot of critical attention – and both have non-white heroines on the cover.

On another note, for what it’s worth I’m told Nyx’ll look darker on the final printed cover of Infidel than she does on the PDF – we’ll see. But she still lost a lot of those bold Middle Eastern/Indian features that made her… well, Nyx.

I really do hope your publishers take into consideration the opinions of your readers and get over the convention that color is a stigma. Being an aspiring writer myself I’ve went from annoyed, to vexed, to angry over this wall of the stereo typical heroine rightness on the covers. I have followed the story of Justine Larbalestier since it started and one never truly tires of being disgusted by her ordeal. Now I’m just pissed. History has always taught us that change comes to its peak when people get pissed about something. So I would advise many publishers to be true to the authors story and don’t take readers for idiots.

I will be purchasing Infidel in the fall, its just a shame I will not be able to relate the real Nyx with the one on its cover.

(Alternately, have you considered letting Hollywood write movies based on your books and stories? Beware though — if you leave it to Hollywood, the hacks might change your stuff into something unrecognizable…)