So way back in 2013 I noticed that Booklikes was using the wrong cover for Cecilia Grant’s A Gentleman Undone: a Polish-language scholarly book on medieval history with a distinctly scholarly-book cover. And then, a meme was born: re-cover romance novels to look like academic works. The rest is history.
You can see all past covers (by me and other authors) at this Pinterest board.
Today, to celebrate my DABWAHA nomination (don’t forget to vote for True Pretenses tomorrow, Friday the 18th, from noon to midnight Eastern time) I’ll be making covers for other books in the contest! Let me know if you’ve got requests. To start off, here are covers for arch-nemeses Theresa Romain and Jeannie Lin!
1. Jeannie Lin’s The Warlord and the Nightingale:
Image sources: Clockwork diagram via Wikimedia Commons and karakuri puppet from the British Museum.
Inspired by The Great Reform Act of 1832 by Eric J. Evans.
2. Theresa Romain’s The Sport of Baronets:
Image source: “Tiresias, Derby winner,” by James Pollard.
Inspired by An American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781-1783 by William M. Fowler and Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick by Thomas Bewick.
3. Rebekah Weatherspoon’s So Sweet:
Image sources: hot tub and sugar via Wikimedia Commons.
Inspired by Twitter: A Digital Socioscope.
4. Alyssa Cole’s Let It Shine:
Image sources: boxing gloves via Wikimedia Commons, Freedom Rides map via Library of Congress.
Inspired by Welfare States and Working Mothers: The Scandinavian Experience by Arnlaug Leira.
5. Susanna Kearsley’s A Desperate Fortune:
Image credits: Hogarth engraving and early-18th century manuscript via Wikimedia Commons.
Inspired by Politicizing Domesticity from Henrietta Maria to Milton’s Eve by Laura Lunger Knoppers.
6. Kat Latham’s Taming the Legend:
Image source: rugby ball via Wikimedia Commons.
Inspired by Luce Irigaray and the Philosophy of Sexual Difference by Alison Stone.
7. Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown:
Image sources: Portrait of Zamor by Lemoine and “Young crocodile hatching from its egg” via Wikimedia Commons.
Inspired by The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England by Amanda Vickery.
8. Jenny Holiday’s Sleeping with her Enemy:
Image sources: skyscraper and businessman icon from Wikimedia Commons.
Inspired by Politics, Gender, and Concepts: Theory and Methodology.
9. Eva Leigh’s Forever Your Earl:
Image sources: Curricle via Wikimedia Commons and Henry Raeburn’s portrait of William Fraser via the Metropolitan Museum.
Inspired by Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance, by Alan Lester and Fae Dussart.
More on their way!
These are great. How about a scholarly cover for Suddenly One Summer, by Julie James?
Eep, I put this on my list, but I didn’t get to it. 🙁 Sorry!
When I was trying to decide on a cover-image for my academic book about romance I remembered your earlier academic covers for romances and thought it might be fun to have a romance-novel cover for an academic book. I was very tempted by these images as the book’s called Pursuing Happiness so they seemed perfect. They’re not creative commons, though, which made it easier to be sensible.
Ooh, those are NICE. Too bad you couldn’t use them! I really love what you ended up with, but words tattooed across chests are my Kryptonite. (Yes, “Memento” was formative for me…)