Credit where credit is due and setting the record straight time--again.
One of the ways I tried to differentiate
Outlanders from DL was in the area of cover art.
Although professionally and beautifully rendered by the uber-talented Mike Herring, I was never fond of many of the early covers because they were almost interchangeable with those of DL, particularly in the choice of the props and palette.
Mike employed the symbol of the Archon Directorate as something of a signature instead of the DL daisy, but the composition was still very reminiscent of DL covers.
I provided detailed descriptions of the cover elements--my experience in writing comics coming to the fore--and I often asked that the main cast be featured prominently.
I also wanted the lead female character of the individual novel to featured but that didn't happen much.
It wasn't until I sent Mike the cover description of
Purgatory Road that I became pretty durn insistent about it, arguing that we needed some sort of visual "branding" of Kane, Brigid and Grant.
We discussed cover art one afternoon on the telephone and agreed that in the future, most of the books would feature the main female character of that particular novel, sort of a homage to the great Robert McGinnis and his memorable women for so many paperback series covers during the 60s and 70s.
http://images.search.yaho...cginnis+cover+artistI wanted to go in this direction for a couple of reasons...mainly, books with beautiful scantily clad women on the covers attracted my attention far more than generic portraits of sweaty, constipated-looking guys with clenched teeth gripping .50 caliber penis extenders.
The main reasaon...it was a simple, straightforward way of differentiating
Outlanders from DL at a glance.
Unfortunately, Mike left GE shortly thereafter and was unable to implement this approach. He was replaced by artist Cliff Nielsen and starting with
Dragoneye (the cover description of
Devil In the Moon was already in-house) the OL covers were essentially "branded" by beautiful women taking center stage.
They were referred to as "Danger Babes."
I know the approach worked--at least for a time--because the sales went up. For example, the numbers on
Far Empire and
Cerberus Storm were very high.
For the most part, Cliff Nielsen has done a fabulous job, although I was never 100 percent happy with the way he presented Grant, since the man was never described as having a shaven head.
It wasn't until after I was prevented (not left, not stopped, not quit) from continuing to write
Outlanders that this branding technique became less frequent.