New cover!

Here's the gorgeous cover for Forget You, coming out on July 20.



And you know what that means. Together with Going Too Far, now I have an "author brand"!



I am fascinated by this idea. When an author writes several books for the same publisher, often her books are given a similar look to signal to readers that the novels are the same but different--if you liked the first one, you'll probably like the second, and vice versa. My favorite example of this is, of course, Stephanie Kuehnert's brand, which you can see in the right column. And the most interesting thing is that Stephanie herself seems to be part of this brand, if you know anything about her. She is cool and punk and urban decay.

(Maybe "urban decay" is not the right term. Perhaps Stephanie does not want to be associated with decay. I just have this term on the brain. I consulted my friends from high school recently on what foundation they wear to hide their wrinkles. Armed with this information, I went to Sephora and asked the consultant, and I came away with the ironically named Urban Decay mineral makeup. The Urban Decay people need to listen up to this discussion of branding.)

So. We know Stephanie is cool and punk and...let's leave off the last part. Whereas I am...what am I?



I am an author with chocolate on her teeth at a book signing. In contrast, take a gander at my books. On both covers we have a soft-focus super-close-up of a couple, so we know I write dreamy romance. My (*ahem* still VERY VERY SMALL) author name is printed in a mod font, so we know the books are current and edgy. Going Too Far has a tagline that makes you itch to turn the book over and read the description. But NOW that I am all established and fancy, I have even better things to make you turn over Forget You: a fabulous quotation from Romantic Times magazine, and the fact that I am an Award-Winning Author.

[Son: "But Mom, are they talking about your National Readers' Choice Award for Major Crush? Wasn't that, like, a really really long time ago?" Me: "Cool it, kid."]

And last but not least, we have Pirate Map Font.





And that's my brand.

What are some of your favorite author brands? And have you ever been dazzled by an author brand, only to meet the author later and think, "I can't believe SHE wrote those books!"?