As I mentioned last week, one of my reasons for postponing the release of Loving Miss Darcy is the difficulty I’m having with the cover. The first problem is my own weakness–I am not a visual person. I don’t come to things with a strong image in mind, at least not usually. (The one exception is when I’m purchasing clothes.) This is why I have to go back through my book and layer in physical description.

It also makes it very difficult to search for a cover image. What’s the one picture that would best sum up my book? His Good Opinion was much, much easier. Of course Mr. Darcy belonged on the cover. I think Jess and I spent two or three evenings looking at pictures of Regency men on Wiki Commons and then hey! There he was!

With the title Loving Miss Darcy, I feel like Georgiana should be on the cover. Right now I’m searching for a picture of a blonde young lady in Regency dress playing pianoforte. The two biggest emotional scenes in the book take place while she’s playing, so that seems appropriate. Of course, “blonde girl at the piano” is a pretty narrow search, so I’m willing to take any blonde Regency girl that looks similar to the way I’ve described her. (Curls! She must have curls.)

Out of curiosity, I checked a Georgette Heyer book to see where traditional publishers get their pictures. They go to Fine Art Photographic Library, which supplies pictures of paintings to publishers. I’m searching their archives right now, trying to find something I like. So far, the collection far outstrips Wiki Commons… but I have no idea how much they cost.

If anyone has some free time and wants to help an author out, I’d love help scanning through the mountains of pictures online. I’m even willing to provide a finder’s fee–if you find the picture I end up using, I’ll give you a free ebook copy of Loving Miss Darcy when I publish in December. Likewise, if you know of another site I should use and I find the picture there, I will give you a copy of the book.

Help me find a cover!