Guest Post and Giveaway: The Love Starved Blog Tour With Kate Fierro

Hi, everyone! I know this isn’t the usual post time for blog tours here at The Novel Approach, but we had some technical difficulties to get ironed out, and now we’re ready to welcome author Kate Fierro on her Love Starved blog tour.

Once again, I’ve gone the route of cover art and asked Kate to chat a bit about the artwork for the book, with a focus specifically on:

• Who is the cover artist?
• How much input did you have in the design?
• How much importance do you place on a book’s cover—do you think books really are judged by their covers?
• What made you decide to go with an illustrated cover?
• How closely did the artist capture your characters?

Enjoy Kate’s answer, and then be sure to click on the Rafflecopter widget below for the chance to win a $25 Gift Card for Interlude Press.

Good luck!

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for hosting me on your blog! I will gladly talk about my cover because it’s a thing of beauty.

The first time I saw my cover art was one of the truly magical moments in the journey towards the publication of my debut novel. It was one of those steps that drove home the realization that yes, there was an actual, real book in the making – a book with my words and thoughts and characters in it. My hands shook and my heart pounded when I got the email from my publisher containing the first picture; I was excited, but also terrified. What if I hated it? What if it didn’t fit the idea of my book that I had in my head at all? All the book covers by Interlude Press that I’d seen were beautiful and perfectly crafted to the novels, but what if…

I shouldn’t have worried. When I looked at the proposed cover, I loved it instantly. It felt surreal and amazing to actually see the characters that had only lived in my head for so long. And the luminosity of the picture, the beautiful play of lights and shadows, was a perfect representation of the recurring element of stars and fairy lights in the story.

I’m no artist, so I’m glad that most of the decisions concerning the cover have been taken out of my hands. All I did was send photographs of men that fit my vision of Micah and Angel (heavily annotated: “this hairstyle but lips from the other photo, sans stubble but add dimples…” – you get the picture), and then let out the final squeals of delight (that is, accept the final version). I have BuckeyeGrrl Designs (http://www.buckeyegrrl-designs.com/) to thank for the cover idea and design, as well as the choice of the style and artist. I was delighted to learn that the cover was illustrated by Valerie Schroedl, an animation student whose fan works I’ve loved for a long time. RJ reached out to her when the concept of my cover was first discussed, because Valerie is known for her gorgeous work with lights. She says that lighting is the first thing in her head when she starts thinking about a new drawing, and it shows; the radiance in her drawings is what pulls attention. You can see some of Valerie’s works on her blog, valerieschroedlart.tumblr.com.

I’m really happy with my cover – I love the style, the color scheme and the typography. There is a fun little detail on the back cover, too: a business card that plays an important role in the story. The fun part is, the email address on the card is an actual, functioning address of one of the main characters, and there are ways in which readers can use it once they read the book. (For the details, check the category “Custom-Made Fantasy” on my website).

I do believe that a good cover is an important element in the perception of a book. It’s not the be-all and end-all, of course, but in that short moment we get for the first impression, a beautiful, eye-catching cover raises the chances of keeping a potential reader’s attention and making them stop to read the blurb or leaf through the book. Plus, I just like pretty things :)

Would you reach for Love Starved based on its cover?

Blurb: Micah Geller considers himself lucky: at 27, he has more money than he needs, a job he loves, a debut book coming out, and a brilliant career in information security before him. What he doesn’t have is a partner to share it with—a fact that’s never bothered him much.

But the romantic in him isn’t entirely dead. When a moment of weakness finds him with a contact to a high-class escort specializing in fulfilling fantasies, Micah asks for only one thing.

Show me what it’s like to feel loved.

Buy Links: Interlude Press | Amazon

About the Author: Kate Fierro spent ten years translating, editing, and reviewing other people’s words before making an impulse decision to write down some of her own. She hasn’t been able to stop ever since. Kate lives in Europe and is bilingual, with more love for her adopted language than her native one.

With nearly a million words under her belt, Love Starved is Kate’s debut novel.

Where to find the author: Website | Twitter: @kate_fierro | Pinterest: MissKateFierro

THE GIVEAWAY: