For our second title, Peacock Cries, it was important to differentiate this book from K whilst keeping the book recognisably 'by Hong Ying'. So we kept the Asian floral theme and put a picture of Hong Ying herself on the cover.

The second edition kept the same design but the colour was changed from blue to pink.

So, for The Concubine of Shanghai we had a couple of successful models.

At first, however, we thought about emphasising the historical aspects of the novel. The image to the left is taken from a 30s postcard from Shanghai. The problem with this technique is that the cover ends up rather brown. This means that it has little chance of standing out on a crowded bookshelf.

Next, we decided to go a little more modern, going back to the nude theme that had worked so well for K.

This cover was rejected because a major bookseller reportedly 'hated it'. We try to get as much feedback as possible from booksellers and reps. They are, after all, the people who actually have to sell to the public.

This cover is another reprise of the nude but is combined with clear, modern text. The original image is from Getty images.

This cover played well with reps and booksellers and for a long period of time looked as though it was going to be the one going to print.

But, in the final month before publication, as often happens, we had a rethink. Our new designer noticed that we had some amazing pictures of Hong Ying herself. She suggested working a cover up from these - the more girly type (hand written and scanned) was also designed to appeal to Hong Ying's core market. This cover was worked on right up until the last minute.

It worked. This edition sold out in weeks.

For the new B-format 7.99 edition, we saw no reason to change a succesful formula. We chose another image from the same series of pictures and used similar typography.