I decided to change the title of Not the Marrying Kind to Patty’s Gamble. (This is the rewrite of The Keeping of Greg Wilson.) I took a look at the cover I was thinking of doing and while that cover is funny, I don’t think it best reflects the direction I’m going with my covers now. So I decided to change the cover, and while I was experimenting with a new cover, the title “Not the Marrying Kind” didn’t seem to fit the cover. So after brainstorming with Stephannie Beman, we came up with Patty’s Gamble, which is actually a good way to tie it into a series. This book is the planned second book for the Montana Series, and book one is called Mitch’s Win. Mitch’s Win has a poker game in the beginning where Mitch wins the freedom of a young woman whose brother had made her part of the bet. So I was thinking if I’m going with a poker kind of theme in the title, then I wanted something with the person’s first name and a suitable word to go with it. So I decided to use Patty because she’s the one who traps our poor unsuspecting hero, Greg, into marriage. After brainstorming words like wager, bet, “stakes her claim”, etc, Stephannie came up with gamble.
So now Not the Marrying Kind’s new title is Patty’s Gamble.
Here the old cover and title…
Here’s the new cover and title…
I should add that this is a tentative title and cover. I might end up changing parts of it or the whole thing. Nothing is set until I publish the book and even then, I’ve been known to fiddle with covers if they’re not working. One of the perks to self-publishing is that you can keep tweaking on things.
I really like the look of having a woman or man up front and either scenery or another person in the background when I do covers. I’m thinking the border where the title goes in for Patty’s Gamble might be a good one to also use for Mitch’s Win. It would help identify the Montana books, but it also says historical western and helps to set the tone of the books. This summer if all goes well, I am planning to make a trip to Lewistown, Montana to take pictures and get a feel for the history of the town. These books take place in the Lewistown area. With the Nebraska series, it’s easy to research because I live right in the Omaha area.
Since I have Patty up close in Patty’s Gamble and the title is based on her character, I figured I should have Mitch up close and Heather further away. However, it is much easier to find women for close ups than far away and get away with a more historical feel. So… we’ll see. If I need to put Heather up front, I will, but I’ll play around with putting her further back first.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
I really like your new cover and title Ruth:) I’ve been inspired by your passion of self-publishing and will be doing that with my 1st historical romance this summer…so thanks! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with all of us…it help!
Thank you, Lorna! Are you writing historical westerns or Regencies or another area of historical romances?
I am writing a trilogy based in Russia, 1913 with a russian peasant girl, then going into WWI and the last book will be coming over to Canada to find land:) These stories are a little out of “genre” as they do have moments of angels etc.
Sounds like you’ve had to do a ton of research. I’m impressed. Do you have a blog or website? I’d like to see what you do with your covers and titles. 😀
I like it!
Thanks, Judy!
I love the Patty’s Gamble cover. She has a great expression!
The tricky part was getting her expression right. I went through several women until I came up with one who looked like she was up to trouble. 😀
Nice!
(from “boxed in” – referring to our move – LOL)
Lotsa hugs, Dorothy Paula
Glad to hear you’re moved in! I hope everything went smoothly. 😀
Do you usually change things as much as you’ve done recently or is this a new development? LOL. I like the second cover better. The first one is a little…scary. :;)
Good luck with your changes both in your cover and in your manuscripts. Sometimes you just know when it’s finally right.
Sadly, this is normal for me. I make covers and change them all the time until I decide on one I like the best. I use the blog to think through the process. I’ve tried to do it on my own, but I do my best thinking through my blog. When I see how covers look, titles sound, and book plots sound on the blog when I explain it, I get a more objective picture of what I’m doing. The only drawback is that I end up confusing people. It wasn’t a big deal when no one read my blog, but now that people are, I try to emphasize that the stuff I’m doing is tentative. I’d do a private blog if I didn’t keep getting requests for people to have access to it every time I make one so I gave up on that idea.
Honestly, I’m not a fan of silhouette couples so I shoudln’t have even made the mock up of it. LOL
Well, Ruth, it wasn’t exactly the silhouette that was scary. It was the fact that the man is holding what looks like a whip and the woman is kneeling on the ground and looks like she’s begging. Hee hee.
ROFL I didn’t see that at all when I looked at the cover, but now that you pointed it out, I’ll never look at the picture the same way again. LOL
I like the cover change…and if you’re coming through, you’re always welcome here!
I’m not a fan of silhouettes on covers unless something else is going on to make the cover lighter. Coming up with a new design was easier than finding the pictures that worked together. Now I know I have to consider lighting of the original photos. No more indoor images being placed together with an outdoor image. Also, I noticed some colors work better together than others. Who knew so much went into designing a cover?
It’s a 50/50 chance of going to Montana. I’m willing but Tony gets squeamish about taking four kids through that long of a trip. I guess I’m so used to them I don’t even think about the extra work.
Love the new cover! Excellent choice.
Thanks!
Loving it….I think something’s missing though…hmmm…..I can’t put my finger on it though…. maybe it’s just the font type??? Great cover so far.. ❤ BTW when does the Dave and Mary's court interrogation start?? I can't wait to see how Dave squirms….lol
Do you think the rope portion where I put the title in needs to be bigger? Maybe my name needs to be in a different font? I’m not sure what other font I’d use for the title.
I’ve been trying to get through the final edits for Her Heart’s Desire. I don’t know why, but I’m going slower than usual with this book than the others. I think part of it is that I’m trying to do too much, so I’m trying to figure out what to cut back on. I want to keep doing my own covers. I already decided to let the story blog go (few people were happy with it anyway so it was an easy decision) and the Nook blog will have to go. I’m not sure if there’s anything else I want to trim back my time on. What I really need is two of me. LOL
I hope to get the ball rolling on suing Dave and Mary in a couple of days. *fingers crossed*
I like the new cover and title – that guy is one of my favorite stock cowboys (yes, I have spent lots of time scrolling through them and he’s in my lightboxes a few times 😉 )
I feel like half my online time is spent sorting through stock photos. Now that I can put two images into a cover, I’d like to do it so my cover can stand out. Even if the same model shows up, it’s nice to have something different about the overall cover so there won’t be the risk of someone confusing my cover with someone else’s. I probably go through about twenty mock up covers before I settle on one to use. 😀
I have to say I like the new cover. 😀
Thanks. I think I need to tweak something but am not sure what. Maybe make the part where the title goes in bigger so the title and name do inside it?
You could make your name smaller and in a different font like Garmond, and then lowering the Title to allow more of the picture to show through.
I ended up lowering him and putting him in a different background, but she was pretty much set because of that weave in her hair that screamed contemporary. But I did change the font for my name. I also put it at the top.
Love the new cover 🙂
Thanks! I did a little tweaking so I hope it’s even better. I plan to post it soon. 😀
Hi Ruth… I was wondering what if you put your name a different font…. it kinda looks like it’s part of the title right now…. but we want your name to be distinguishable as the author…. maybe that’s what it is?? 🙂
It could be. I read comments prior to answering them today and have made a few modifications to that cover. One of them is the font I used for my name. 😀 Thanks for telling me what you noticed. Sometimes it’s hard to see a cover from an objective point of view so I appreciate the feedback.