SEX SELLS

We're very happy to have Regency Historical author Vanessa Kelly join us today! Her new book Sex and the Single Earl just came out this week!

Vanessa was born and raised in New Jersey, but eventually migrated north to Canada. Yay for us Canucks! She holds a Master’s Degree from Rutgers University, and went on to attend the Ph.D. program in English Literature at the University of Toronto. (GULP!) Alas, she didn’t finish her degree, but she did spend many happy hours studying the works of 18th century British authors and writing about the madness of King George III. In addition to writing historical romance, Vanessa also writes contemporary romance for Carina Press with her husband, under the pen name of V.K. Sykes.

Thanks for joining us Vanessa!

Thanks Joanna! Great to be hanging out with the popculturedivas!

This week sees the release of my current Regency-set historical romance, Sex And The Single Earl.  Cute title, isn’t it?  Really sexy and fun, and an obvious riff on the famous book by Helen Gurley Brown. 

And take a look at my cover over on the right.  Whew!  Pretty hot. 
Put together the title with that cover and you can only come to one conclusion – sex sells books.  That’s obviously what publishing houses think when it comes to romance, and I’m not about to argue with them.

Book titles are tricky.  More often than not, they’re something that makes authors want to tear their hair out, as editors reject one suggestion after another.  Frequently, the process is taken right out of our hands and we end up with a title that is really, really different from how we envision the book.

That didn’t happen to me with this book, but neither was my editor satisfied with the first title I proposed:  An Angel For The Earl.  I loved it because I thought it said a lot about my heroine, Sophie.  She’s quirky and sweet, and a veritable dynamo when it comes to protecting the weak and the unfortunate.  I also just thought it was a pretty title and a little bit different.

What was my editor’s first response?  Boring.  Not sexy enough.

Sigh.  Back to the drawing board.  You might think, then, that I went through some complicated process to come up with a new title.  Nope.  Instead, my husband and I cracked open a bottle of wine (it was cocktail hour) and started brainstorming.  We wanted to keep “Earl” in the title, so my readers would know right off that it was a Regency historical.  But sexy?  Arggh!  It was making us nuts!  Finally, when we’d killed the bottle of wine, my husband, in a demented flash of inspiration, said “how about Sex And The Single Earl?”

When we picked ourselves up from the floor where we were rolling around laughing, I emailed the suggestion to my editor – mostly as a joke.  Imagine my surprise when he immediately came back with the response that he liked it.  And the more I thought about it the more I liked it, too.  After all, my hero is a very sexy guy, and the book is a very sexy book.  Plus, it’s a fun, hip title, and is pretty eye-catching. 

I’m happy to say the title has gotten a phenomenal response.  People love it.  They get the joke, and also what it says about the book.  There have been a few dissenting voices, who think it’s silly.  Well, it is a bit silly, but that’s part of why I like it.

But at the end of the day, I think what have here is that tried and true marketing maxim:  sex sells.

So, readers.  What do you think of my title?  And my cover?  Do you think sex sells romance novels?  Or do you long for the days of stepbacks and more discrete covers?  One lucky commenter will win a copy of Sex And The Single Earl.