Tag: rockstar romance

Sinful Serenade is my favorite series, now and forever. It’s the first thing I wrote that I loved that other people loved too. I filled Sing Your Heart Out with all my high school musician crush feelings… the ones I still have (though not as strongly, if I’m being totally honest… it’s been eight years and I’ve matured and moved on to some degree, and that particularly lyricist is just sorta a has been now. Sorry! That one album is still my favorite though.)

(Editor’s note: Crystal’s Spotify play history does not align with the claim she has moved on).

Over eight years, the Sinful Serenade series has had a bunch of different covers! It’s been so much fun presenting the series in new ways. And here they are.

First, a note about covers: I’m a reader first. As a reader, I love a beautiful, unique cover. I prefer something unusual to something typical. As an author, I’m both an artist and a publisher. My artistic side wants a beautiful, special cover, because my books are beautiful and special! But my publisher side knows I need to reel it in: the cover can be beautiful and special… if it also signals the right things. Covers are “signals” and they need to contain A LOT of information: the genre of the book (romance), as well as the subgenre (in this case, new adult and rock star), the heat level (scorching), and the tone (a mix of humor and emotion). There’s a lot of other stuff I want to signal, but some of it is just hard to say visually!

As a reader, I totally get the hatred of a new cover… how dare an author change from the cover I loved! But as an author, I know it’s a necessary part of the job (an evil if you see it that way, or a fun experiment if you see it that way… and I do. I love trying new things!) Because I need to give the series a fresh look from time to time, in order to bring in new readers, so I can keep writing books. (and have a chance at returning to the world… because if no one wants to read a series anymore, there’s no reason to write a spin-off or a next gen or anything similar).

The Original Covers:

Play Your Heart Out Original Cover, with pink and greyscale design and bass guitar

Way back when, in 2015, I had very little idea what made a cover sell. But I had a few things to go on: sexy couples and musical instruments. I tried to hire a designer for a sexy couple and she made a nice cover, but it just didn’t say rock star, or feel exciting. So I searched far and wide, looking at “premade covers” everywhere. (A premade is a cover a designer has already created, which an author can buy, and make minor changes too–title & name of course, and sometimes some colors and fonts. The “typical” cover process is a custom cover, where an author brings a prompt to a designer, and she crafts a beautiful cover based on the author’s instructions. It’s a collaborative process, where, ideally, the designer brings a great mix of creativity and market knowledge, so the author has a cover they love that also tells readers “this is the kind of book you like”).

These are my favorite covers! I absolutely love them. The greyscale, the musical instruments, the fun pink font! Amazing! At one point, I did change these covers… I asked my designer to make my name bigger, so I looked like a bigger deal. (Later, I switched my name to my new branding, the one on my Inked Hearts Covers). For a long time, these covers did really well. But the look started to fade… between the fonts, the gritty texture, and the greyscale, these started to say 2016 in a bad way. And this sort of cover started to appear more and more on books featuring “alphaholes” and “bullies” and general “dark romance” sorta vibes. The covers no longer said FUN AND PLAYFUL because so many other books with similar covers said MEAN DUDES ONLY. And since I can only control myself, not other authors, I decided to change my covers.

The Second Try:

These were by Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations, the designer who created my Inked Hearts covers. I asked her to create some covers that looked a little more modern, covers that would signal “these books are just like the Inked Hearts books you love so much.” We struggled with the color scheme–the initial look she tried was way too pastel–but the final covers turned out great. They sold well to Inked Hearts fans and a lot of new readers fell in love with Miles, Drew, Tom, and Pete all over again.

Sing Your Heart Out cover two with maroon background and couple

Take Three: The Guys

A long, long time ago, I decided to write an alt POV version of Sing Your Heart Out, mostly from Miles’s POV. This book, called Just a Taste, did not sell particularly well. A lot of Sinful fans loved it but that was about it. Oh well! So it goes with our author experiments. I had a lot of fun writing the book. In hindsight, I would have written the entire thing from Miles’s POV, replaced less scenes, added more new ones. But I love the book as it is. (At the time, I felt Meg’s POV was necessary for context in a few scenes). I wanted to try a totally different look for this cover, one that said “dive into the head of this damaged dude” rather than “rock star” or even “schmexy couple” so I tried a style of cover that rarely works for me… a solo guy.

I know, I know… so many readers love sexy dudes, but, for some reason, I just don’t know what it is they love. I pick the wrong guy or the wrong image. These covers just don’t usually do well for me. They don’t speak to me and maybe that’s why. I hate to admit this to you, but I find images of men sorta boring.

With this new book, I retitled my Sinful Serenade prequel, Sing for Me, to call it Just a Tease.

This cover did all right and readers enjoyed it. I loved the model’s brooding look and suggestive pose. And when I started working with a new ad person, she loved it too. She convinced me to recover the book with this concept, but I never really *loved* the look. They did okay with Facebook ads, but it turned out they were too sexy for AMS (Amazon’s internal ads). AMS really hates horizontal images.

I tried a few things with these and they did okay, but never well enough to justify spending more money on ads. Plus, they didn’t really match up with the Dangerous Noise covers. So, eventually, I switched back to the pervious covers.

The Illustrated Edition

My Inked Hearts spin-off series Inked Love never really took off. It did okay. I tried all sorts of covers. Men (but the were horizontal… since that was the concept, and that meant ad troubles). Couples that matched Inked Hearts. Ladies. The ladies performed the best but they still didn’t knock it out of the park. So, on a whim, I tried illustrated covers and I LOVED them. They did really well with AMS (and the new kid on the scene… TikTok) and I thought they were so much fun. So I tried them for Sinful Serenade. To be honest, I wanted to do something more typography/object based, but it just wasn’t happening with my designer, so we ended up with these really cute figures.

To be honest, again… I have been expecting negative reviews on these books. The covers are cute. I get that they say cute (and I get if some people find them twee). But so far, I’ve had really positive feedback. Even though these books are angsty and smutty as hell.

I don’t expect to keep these up forever, but for now, I love them. Along with the change in covers, I updated the new paperbacks so the vectors better reflect the heroine’s journey (rather than the hero’s instrument). It’s something that’s important to me after so much time in romance: I always want my heroines and their journey to take center stage. (Or at least get equal weight).

Sinful Ever After

Available NOW – Get it HERE

Announcing Sinful Ever After, book five in the Sinful Serenade series. This collection of sequel novellas–one for each couple– follows the men of Sinful Serenade, and the women they love, as they figure out what their future holds.

Sinful Ever After is a collection of four sequel novellas, one for each couple in the series.

Sinful Ever After Except
***please note that text is not yet edited***

Megara

Thankfully, we’re in Miles’s sedan and not on his death bike. The motorcycle has grown on me in the last year, but I’m in no state for it today.

I aspire to make conversation but my lids are heavy. I close my eyes, rest my head against the window, and drift in and out of sleep.

Miles squeezes my hand. “You’re exhausted, aren’t you?”

I nod.

“Was thinking about taking you to a hotel in Beverly Hills and fucking you against the wall.”

“You were not. You’re teasing.”

“I was thinking about it.” He smiles. “Wasn’t a plan yet, but it occupied a lot of space in my thoughts.”

“It’s been twenty nine days.”

“I’ve been counting.”

“I think you’re as responsible for my hand cramps as finals are.”

He laughs. “For once, I beat school.”

“Miles, it’s been twenty-nine days.”

“It has.”

“And we aren’t having sex right now.”

“Better change that soon.” He squeezes my hand.

I squeeze back. He rubs the space between my thumb and my pointer finger with his thumb. It’s sweet, intimate. He’s really here. We’re really in the same space together.

And I’m really exhausted.

I press my eyelids together and I get lost in the rhythm of the road.

My hands go to the zipper of my hoodie. I have a surprise for him, but I’m terrified to reveal it. This is serious, forever, the next level of commitment.

It’s been a year, but we haven’t talked much about forever. A while back, he asked about getting married. I said I wanted to wait until I was done with my first year of medical school, and that was it. We haven’t talked about anything since.

We haven’t even discussed getting a place together. I stay with my parents during the week—they live twenty minutes from campus—and with Miles on the weekends—his place is nearly two hours from school, depending on the traffic.

The zipper is cool against my skin. I pull it down an inch but I can’t will myself to pull it down anymore.

Soon. I need to do it the first chance I get. Before the sex. I don’t want him getting derailed when we finally get out of our clothes.

It’s been way too long.

Miles changes lanes and exits the freeway. He pulls onto a familiar street. We’ve been here before. Together.

Oh.

There’s a cemetery on our left.

The cemetery where his uncle is buried.

It’s a strange choice for a celebration, but it’s perfect.

Miles parks and helps me out of the car. He slides one arm around my waist.

His eyes go to the ground. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him bashful before.

“You don’t have to explain,” I say.

“Sure you don’t want a celebration with champagne on the beach?” He leads me through the wrought iron gates.

“Neither one of us drinks.”

“Sparkling apple cider.”

“I don’t like sparkling apple cider.”

“What if I’m licking it off your tits?”

“Then you’re the one drinking it.”

He laughs. “You really are cute.”

It used to annoy me when he called me cute, but I’ve grown to appreciate the compliment.

The shining sun casts a glow over the vivid green grass. The world is alive today. Except for the mild chill in the air, there’s no signs of winter here. The sky is bright blue and free of clouds. The air is somewhere between crisp and warm.

I follow Miles to his uncle’s grave. Damon Webb. Father. Uncle. Friend.

“We were here a year ago.” Miles’s eyes fix on mine. “You remember what I said about Damon?”

“How he’d sit you down and tell you to stop running from your feelings?”

“Yeah. I always have a lot of time to think when we’re on the road. That’s how it started, me using drugs. Needed a way to shut out my thoughts. Never did learn to turn them off.” He runs his fingers through my hair.

“I know.” I lean into his touch. “Everyone runs sometimes.”

“You don’t. You never did.”

“Yes, I did. Just I used school instead of drugs.” I stare into his clear blue eyes. I don’t want to run either.

Here goes nothing. I press my lips together. “I have to show you something.”

“Let me go first.” He presses his palm into my lower back. “Okay?”

I nod.

“This tour, it felt like we were traveling twenty hours a day. I had a lot of time to myself. Mostly, I thought about you. About us having a life together. About how much brighter my life is than it was before I met you. Used to be the only thing that soothed me was writing a song or stepping on stage. Then I met you.” He stares back at me. “I know I promised to wait until you finished your first year of med school, but I have to do this now. I have to do it here.” Miles lowers himself onto his knee.

He… he’s really doing this.

He pulls a ring box from his jeans and flips it open. “Megara Smart, will you marry me?”