The Story Behind "The Sagebrush Bride" Cover

 One of the most common questions I'm asked is how a book's cover was developed. The answer varies with the book.

For The Sagebrush Bride, an ebook short set at Fort Laramie, I had two requirements: I wanted it to have the same look as Brides of the Old West, and as was the case with that book, I wanted the photo to be one my husband had taken. 

You remember Brides of the Old West, don't you? In case you haven't looked at it recently, here's the cover.

There were so many things I liked about this cover that I wanted to stay as close to its design as possible. The challenge was finding a photo that would work well.

Since the first line of the book is "They called it Chimney Rock," I thought a picture of Chimney Rock might be appropriate. The problem was, it was too monochromatic -- dare I say almost depressing? -- and so I searched for another photo.

The majority of the story takes place at Fort Laramie, so I tried to find a picture of the fort. While I liked the covered wagon (the heroine is traveling with a wagon train), there was one fundamental problem: no sagebrush. There was also a secondary problem, namely that although this was taken at Fort Laramie, most readers wouldn't realize that, since Fort Laramie never looked like the Hollywood version of a western fort.

I kept looking through my files and finally found one I thought would work.

This one was taken near South Pass City, which is on the opposite side of Wyoming from Fort Laramie. I liked it because it has sagebrush and the colors work well with the sunflower spray under my name.

I thought I had the right cover design, but I wanted to be sure it would appeal to readers, so I asked my newsletter subscribers to choose which of the three they preferred. They confirmed that the South Pass cover was the right one, which is why that's the one you'll see if you look for story on Amazon.

It was a longer than usual process, but I'm pleased with the result and hope you are too.