New cover art for ECHO paperback

The U.S. trade-paperback edition of Diana Gabaldon's AN ECHO IN THE BONE will be published on June 22, 2010. I happened to be browsing on Amazon earlier today and was startled by the new cover picture. Lime green?!? What happened to the elegant, classy-looking gold-on-black of the hardcover edition?

So, I asked Diana (on Compuserve) for an explanation. Here is what she said:

Well, I can tell you that: the publisher (i.e., Top Dog) worried at the last minute (as the book was going off to press) that the black cover "wouldn't be visible enough" on a table covered with trade paperbacks and wanted to change the color. With an eye to the extant cover colors in the series, I picked the soft green. (Yes, I think the black is classier, too. But I am not The Publisher, <g> and she _might_ have a point about the visibility, who knows?)

I also asked about the 8-page preview of the upcoming OUTLANDER graphic novel, THE EXILE, and she confirmed that it will indeed be included in this ECHO paperback.

So, all right. I'm not thrilled with this color, but I guess we'll live with it. In keeping with the "jewel-tone" covers of the rest of the books -- OUTLANDER is the sapphire, VOYAGER is the emerald, FIERY CROSS is the ruby, and so on -- clearly ECHO can't be the black diamond anymore. Anybody know of a light green gemstone that would be suitable? (Links to gemstone pictures would be much appreciated; I know very little about what types of gems are available.)