I know I shouldn’t do it, but there are times I just will not read a book.
I am getting into vampire romance (my 2007 self is happy about that), but I hate urban fantasy. The moment there is a man with his abs out on the cover I will not touch it.
If there’s a real photograph of a person on the cover rather than an illustration, 9/10 I won’t read it. I don’t blame the authors, but damn who is making these images and saying “yeah, that looks good”. Not cover related, but if the title is something like “A noun of vern and noun” that puts me off, it’s like best seller bait idk why.
by beskar-mode
5 Comments
A woman with her back facing us looking out across Paris as a plane flies overhead. It’s about WWII and I’m tired of it.
I won’t do what I call “Fabio smut.” I can respect that these books are extremely popular with a lot of people, but every cover with a shirtless man in a romantic encounter with a big-busted woman just makes me think of ghost writers churning out book after book using the same formula with different names every time.
Honestly, Guy Stands with Sword, Lady with Bow, and Guy 2 with Daggers on a fantasy novel cover makes me less likely to pick it up because I’ve ready dozens of those in my life. Mostly I judge books on their title though. If the title doesn’t hook me I’ll usually pass it by.
>, but damn who is making these images and saying “yeah, that looks good”.
Genre expectation and trends inform a lot of what goes on in covers. Illustrations have only come back en vogue in the four-five years or so (the last time that was really in was in the late 90s/early 00s around the reign of Shopaholic/Bridget Jones Diary type stuff).
That said for me personally, I don’t care these days. I worked too long in the book cover business to still make decisions based on that haha. I only really notice when there’s some exceptionally clever redesign that breaks the mold coming out.
The cover