We’re introducing yet another new feature here at Sweet Savage Flame! This One Book, Multiple Covers series will look at the original cover art for a popular romance novel and then compare it to re-issues and foreign language or alternate editions. Today, we’re focusing on The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux.
Happy Spring! (Or if you’re located on the other side of the planet, Happy Autumn!) There’s nothing like the first romance in bloom. In Latin languages, the word for Spring translates into “first-seen” (Italian, Spanish, & Portuguese “primavera”) as in, the first seen sight of life–or love.
As it is St. Patrick’s Day, we thought you might be in the mood for something a little bit Irish. These eight old-school historical romances are set on the Emerald Isle. We’ll be reading Irish romances on March 17.
In a previous post, I wrote about one of my favorite authors, Cassie Edwards. Before plagiarism allegations ended her career, she was billed as the “Queen of Indian Romance.” In this post, I will write about the formula Mrs. Edwards used to become a New York Times bestselling author of Native American romances.
By the dawn of the 21st millennium, the stepback was the pinnacle of cover art in the romance genre. The combination of a best-selling author, a prominent artist, and fantastic design aesthetics meant quality all around. The stepback was an acceptable middle-ground and proved to be constant in an era of transformation.
A fun way to show off old and new stepback cover art is to post them on “Stepback Saturdays” on bookish Instagram or Bookstagram. Using #stepbacksaturday bookish Instagrammers upload pictures of cover art.
By 1990 every established publishing house was rethinking the way they did cover art. The stepback was starting to mean something special. Rising stars–both authors and artists–would combine for a winning combination, and no publisher could ignore that.
Throughout the 1980s, romance publishers would use various tricks to catch prospective buyers’ eyes: embossing, foil lettering, bright colors, explicit embraces, big-named artists, superstar cover models, and more. Nevertheless, the stepback was not commonly utilized until the mid-1980s.
I’ve searched around to find which was the first mainstream paperback romance to use a genuine stepback cover. I’m not 100% sure but it looks like Pocket Books published it in 1979.
The history of stepback covers goes back to the early-to-mid-20th century. Bantam, Warner, and Pocket Books would be among the first paperback publishers to use this innovative cover design in the 1970s.
