The title -- "The Billionaire's Prince" -- was the first spark of inspiration I had back in 2015 during Christmas break, while I was visiting my parents at the vineyard: What if the billionaire we romance writers spend so much time writing about was a woman?
In three-and-a-half years, that spark has grown into a completed book, an agent, a three-book publishing deal, a new title, and, at long last, a cover.
I am thrilled to reveal the cover for my debut novel, Lush Money:
Creating a cover is an intricate process of me giving suggestions and then the smart people at Carina Press -- art, editorial, marketing and publicity -- putting together their much-more-experienced heads and coming up with a cover that defines the book and leaps out among a million romance novels.
There are some awesome things that make this cover distinctive from the others on the shelves.
One of the best bits -- they got the woman on top! It's super hard to find stock photographs with the woman in a dominant position. And my self-made billionaire heroine, Roxanne Medina, is certainly in charge of this book.
Initially, I thought our prince, Mateo de Esperanza y Santos, was a little scruffier here than I'd imagined him in my head. But my brilliant editor Kerri Buckley pointed out that in the opening of the book, he's in a baseball cap and muddy muck boots. She said:
"Mateo is a next-gen prince... He’s the winemaker, he’s the man-of-the-people savior, he’s down on his knees in the literal dirt. He’s the one who doesn’t want the throne or all the trappings that go with it. I think that is infinitely more interesting and appealing to depict than yet another guy in a suit."
See, I said they were smarter and more experienced than I am.
Additionally, I love the golden vineyard in the background. So many romance novels fade to black. I think the lush couple and mellow gold scene will make it stick out when people are rushing through thumbnails on Amazon.
The fact that my cover will be one of those thumbnails is a dream come true.