Squawk Radio

The advantage of having the most famous cover mistake in history (CASTLES IN THE AIR, the heroine has three arms, and if you want to know how this happened, read my article at http://www.christinadodd.com/castles.php ) is that when another author gets socked with a bad cover, everyone — booksellers, authors, readers — rushes to tell me about it. Now I’m not talking about bad covers from publishing companies who are working on a shoestring budget. I’m talking about covers that come from multi-billion dollar corporations with professional art departments operating with huge budgets … who just happen to blow it once in awhile.

For instance, here’s my friend Heather MacAllister’s alien baby cover.





And her one-legged heroine cover.




















And her, “I’ve got fat legs, silly boots, and a skirt that barely covers the essentials,” Spanish cover.
Heather’s been gifted with more than her share of really horrific covers.















But my friend Susan Mallery, who used to write as Susan Macias, has had a few whoppers, too, notably FIRE IN THE DARK, her western historical with the naked rubber man in the water with, if you look closely, a floating orange penis. Or a trout that got really intimate, but in that case, why is he smiling?

I was with Susan when she got the cover in the mail … I’ll never forget her outburst of maniacal laughter. It was sort of scary.



When I worked at the bookstore, I stopped cold when I saw a hero who looked like Mr. Rogers. And no disrespect to Mr. Rogers, I thought he was great, but I never wanted to be a really close neighbor, if you know what I mean.




But the cover I’ve been saving as the piece de resistance is a book by Maggie Price.

Take a look at this. Check out the expression on his face. Then note the title …


BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

So obviously collecting cover mistakes has become my hobby. Have you heard of any more? Let me know, and I'll post as many as the ones I can! (I guess the gorgeous Italian cover that spelled my name wrong seems minor now, huh?)

Heather MacAllister sent me this one:

Check out the position of his body and her legs and ... that cover is mind-blowing!
AHAHAHAHAHA!
Okay, I'm going to hell for that pun.

Thanks to suec for calling my attention to this cover:

Lucky? You have to be kidding!

And I have the newest Susan Mallery cover:

Which one is the girl???

A cover from Maureen Child:

She says, "LOVE the awful covers on the blog today!! Thought I'd throw my 'hat' so to speak into the ring.........this one--the poor heroine will be waiting to be a mom forever. He has no lower body.................."

Hey lookie here, Liz--Teresa popping in here with your DONOVAN'S CHANCE cover! (Thank goodness I have the entire Elizabeth Bevarly collection--all 80 gazillion books!) And I have to say that I think you just have a dirty mind because the thing coming out of that guy's pants looks much more like an extra from SNAKES ON A PLANE. It definitely has eyes and it's about to nip the heroine's hand! Click on the pic for a closer view (if you dare!)