I know, but this has to be said

What was done to this cover between the version at left and the one that went to print and is on shelves now is criminal.

Viehl expressed her dismay over the new cover on her blog, and some people had the audacity to suggest she shouldn’t complain about it.

I thought the new cover was bad when I saw it on the web, but the full hideousness of it is something that can be appreciated only face to radioactive-pink albino Robin Hood face.

I say Viehl deserves mad props for the saintly restraint she demonstrated.

I ordered some books online. They were delivered. I opened the box. This one was on top.

I closed the box to shield my eyes.

Yes, it’s that bad.

If I’d been browsing in a store, I would have averted my gaze and hurried past, and I’m NOT someone who pays a lot of attention to covers. It’s hard to ignore one that reaches out and slaps your face, though, as if to say, “Hey! Look what they did to me! You will acknowledge my suffering and suffer alongside me! I used to be pretty! NOW LOOK AT ME! *sob*”

I know affected sales because if I weren’t a rabid Darkyn fangirl, I would have steered clear of that cover.

The moral of the story: I don’t know, have it written into your contract that you’re to be informed BEFORE your book goes to the printer if the art department hits the hookah and decides to make WTF-were-they-thinking changes to the cover?

Now… off to print out the original cover and find a glue stick because in this case, defacing a book is not only acceptable, it’s necessary.