A makeover for Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke

My new book cover is finally here! I have been working on a second edition version of Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke since November, and yesterday a box of books finally arrived at my doorstep.

Why did I create a new cover?  I have always loved the original book cover, don’t get me wrong. However, I feel it portrays an historical novel more than an historical fiction novel-and I want potential readers to know that Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke is about a family just as much as it is about Civil War letters. My novel brings to life two extraordinary time periods in history; the Great Hunger in Ireland, and the Civil War in America, and it is told through the eyes of those who lived it. My first-generation Irish ancestors made incredible sacrifices to survive in their new country and to create a better life for their children. This is not easy to relay in a book cover, but the new cover hints that a family is being torn apart by war, and from the blue uniform, readers can observe that Florence is fighting for the Union Army. I think the title suggests that the book is based on letters, it is the formal way Florence signed each letter (Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke), so I didn’t think it was necessary to include an actual letter on the cover as I did in the first edition. Florence’s letters are the centerpiece to this story–  they reveal the human side of war, a first-person perspective of a soldier, a husband and a father on the front lines. Florence had no political motives or patriotic incentives, he only hoped  that owning land would change their fate in America. I hope readers enjoy learning about the real-life of one Irish immigrant family caught up in the brutal Civil War.

What else will the new cover feature? I have been fortunate to meet many amazing people over the past two years, especially two Irish historians/writers who were willing to contribute to my book cover. The first is Ronan McGreevy. He is a journalist for the Irish Times in Dublin, as well as an author, editor and historian. He interviewed me while I was at the Famine Exhibition in Ireland last September, and he also reviewed Yours Faithfully, Florence Burke. On the top of my new cover is a quote from his review which is fantastic!!

Damian Shiels, author of The Irish in the American Civil War, is also an archaeologist and historian. He generously provided me with a summary of my book. It appears on the back cover in the second edition.

I was honored to win an Independent Publisher’s of New England book award for fiction in 2017 and I wanted that award seal to have a permanent place on my book instead of having to use the award stickers. The new version proudly displays my coveted award.

The final reason for wanting to create a new cover is to add a link to Boston College-the Burns Library, so that readers can view my great, great grandfather’s original letters after reading my book. In January I donated Florence Burke’s letter collection to Boston College .  The event was covered on the front page of the Boston Globe Metro section!  Link to the Jan 31st article here.

I hope readers enjoy the new cover-the title is certainly easier to read, and the color still symbolizes the Emerald Isle.

Please let me know what you think. Which version do you like best?

Thanks to everyone who has bought and read my book. I appreciate it very much.

Ellen