I have a new look!

Okay, well in all honesty, it’s my books that have a new look, not me personally, but I'm super excited about it. My Hollywood Headlines series has gotten a serious makeover this week with all new covers and titles. Why the makeover, you ask? Lemme tell you.

Originally when my editor and I came up with the concept for this series I had some titles in mind that I liked. HOLLYWOOD SCANDALS was the first one, with other “Hollywood” things coming for future books. At the time, they were primarily going to be released in print. And print distribution databases have this weird quirk where often you can only see the first few letters of a title without clicking on it. Meaning that at first glance in a database, all my books in this series would look like "HOLLYWO", potentially creating some ordering confusion. Not good. So, I went with my editor’s suggestion of different titles, and we came up with SCANDAL SHEET for my first book.

And then I got a glimpse of the cover art for SCANDAL SHEET.  Let’s just say some covers are better than others. Without dissing anyone in the art department, I almost cried when I say the original cover.  Okay, I'm woman enoughto admit it, I did cry. A lot. It was a perfect cover for a contemporary romance, maybe even a sexy Harlequin style book… but had nothing to do with the story I wrote. It didn’t capture the edgy feel, the humorous style, the snarky tone, or even that it was mystery. It was a disaster. And, sadly, when it released, I heard the same comments from readers and booksellers. So, from the first, there are some things I've wished I could change about the look of this book.

And now I can.  :)

Now that these books are primarily being sold online, there are no tricky database issues. They’re all instant downloads or print on demand, so the ordering is being done directly by consumers.  And… I really did like my original titles. So, back they went. SCANDAL SHEET become its original conception of HOLLYWOOD SCANDALS, and it’s sequel, THE PERFECT SHOT is now HOLLYWOOD SECRETS.  And they both have new covers that, I think, totally capture the sexy, cool, face-paced feel of the stories.  What do you guys think?

I’m just now finishing up the last book in the this series, HOLLYWOOD CONFESSIONS, which will be out in early June. At the same time, all three books in the series will be available in print with their hot new covers as well.  I can’t wait!

~Trigger Happy Halliday