In the past few days, we’ve been talking a lot about cover makeovers and the photoshoppery that creates multiple covers out of the same image – and stay tuned, because there is MORE coming. I know, how can it possibly be?
Since I began reading romance sites online, I’ve encountered with some regularity the frustration that some readers have when the cover models look literally nothing like the characters described inside. Sometimes, when the character in a romance is a short, curvy, buxom woman with a dark pixie haircut and the cover model is a lithe, extremely slender redhead with curls down to her backside, it drives romance readers right over the edge.
Personally, I’m so used to cover models NOT matching the characters that I’m surprised with they do. I remember being charmed when the heroine in Julie James’ Something About You wore a dress in one scene that was described exactly as it appeared on the cover – only to find out that James made that change after the fact when she saw the images from the cover shoot. It was so unexpected that I still think how neat it was.
So: behold, a poll! Try to contain your excitement. Does it matter to you that the cover models resemble the characters inside? Or do you not care much?
