Just bought "Swords of Sorrow" - how do I explain the cheesecakey cover to my parents?

I think you say we messed up and got the wrong cover. Lots of the covers were cheesecake, but this one, much as I love J. Scott Campbell, was just a bad choice. I found out about it too late. I have been promised that when a new edition is made, it will have a cover that fits the tone of the book better. 

I like cheesecake, I don’t even mind the art itself at all, it just didn’t fit the book inside and that wasn’t good for readers…people who think it’s a ‘bad girl’ book because of the cover don’t get the interior they expected, and people who want the interior have a cover that’s completely wrong for the book. 

It happens, it’s not intentional.  It’s just that this case was pretty off-model in terms of tone. I like J. Scott, I love his art, I think he’s a good guy. He was just doing the cover as he was asked.

What makes me sad about it is that we had dozens of covers, some of them simply spectacularly beautiful.  The process went wrong, I think.  It happens.