Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

I keep meaning to do a Misadventures in Stock Photography post about the stock photo used for that Julie James cover. I think I have 5 or 6 examples of it used on covers…

I used to care if the photos matched, would look at the covers and try to imagine them in the story.  That is probably a holdover from the days I read regular fiction and science fiction, where the covers matched a bit more.  In romance, it is off so much that I think I started ignoring the figures in general.

As readers most of us have wonderful imaginations and don’t need too much in the way of visual aids, but I also think that that makes us attuned to details. So it’s not to say the cover has to be a dead ringer for the characters, but for all the effort they put in to creating those things, you’d think they could at least get in the right ball park. Because, as many of the publishers are learning….we do notice! Is it a deal breaker in buying a book? If the mistake is egregious enough it can be, but most of the time…probably not.

The cover should be a way to grab me, the reader, quickly and transport me into the story visually. The blurb on the back (or the first few pages) should finish the job. They can’t do that if I am standing there flipping back and forth going…but—doesn’t she have long red flowing locks? Why’s the cover model got blond shoulder length hair?

I don’t always mind, but when an aspect of a character’s appearance is emphasized in the story—such as the fact that The Parasol Protectorate’s Alexia Maccoon has remarkably large breasts—and it’s not reflected in the cover art, I’m disappointed. Also, any kind of whitewashing is totally unacceptable.

Most of the time I don’t really care.  That being said, I think it was one of Suzanne Brockmann’s books (Into the Fire? maybe?) that had an Asian female protagonist but the woman on the cover was not.

It is hard enough to find characters who are not white, is it so much to ask that when one is written the cover show that?

I agree with what Elizabeth above has said, I don’t really mind, but sometimes when you realize you miss out on a book, for example when I’m looking for more books with Black characters, only to realize that you missed a new author because the cover girl was not the same race…its a little sad.  I can’t read everything, but I like to pick up some new authors when I can.  If they’re not going to mimic the physical characteristics of the characters with the cover then why bother.  We eat with our eyes.  If you were vegetarian you wouldn’t eat tofu if it were made to look like steak would you?

It matters to me although I tend to overlook it if I really get into the story.  What I’d like to see see is the “plain” heroine that the hero nonetheless thinks is lovely.  What is the author envisioning?  Certainly not the supermodel on the cover, that’s for sure.

It’s not a make or break issue for me, but it does irritate me when the cover image is totally, obviously wrong. Kristan Higgin’s book Just One of the Guys is my go-to example of annoying wrongness because it’s so mismatched with the text. The woman’s legs on the cover are in a skirt and shoes that the heroine would never wear. Worse, the fact that she doesn’t dress like that is a huge plot point. And worse yet, the cover shows the wrong breed of dog. What the heck were they thinking with that disaster?

I feel personally insulted when a heroine is described as being “plus-sized” or some other variation on fat in the book, but on the cover she’s really thin.  I love Gail Carriger’s books, but Alexia Tarabotti is described all through them as having a “substantial figure” and on all the covers, she’s this teensy model.  As a fat person, it makes me feel like I’m being told that, once again, that bigger people can be heard, but they absolutely should not be seen.

I often choose my romance novels based on the heroine’s looks. I admit it, I read them because I don’t date or have sex, I am one of those pathetic stereotypes. So yeah, it matters a LOT to me. I want to read about overweight blondes getting the love I don’t. So if there’s a curvy blonde on the cover, I don’t want to read the book to find out that the heroine is a willowy, tall, brunette!

Covers should ALWAYS match the books. ALWAYS.

It always bothered me that Harlequin heroes were ALWAYS equipped with an abundance of hair on the pecs, but when it came to the cover - where they naturally HAD to appear half naked - there wasn’t a hair in sight.

Why stress the fact that the heroine loves scrubbing her nipples against his bush of chest hair when the cover has him all baby skinned? Really, it boggles my mind.

If either cover or story would have a normal amount of hair, I wouldn’t probably notice.

I voted yes because it would be nice, but I really don’t expect it. Even when the model on the cover fits the description in the book, she (or he) rarely fits the way I imagined the character. That may be why I actually prefer the headless covers. At least they don’t interfere with my picture.

Hey, the misrepresentation also happens to males on the covers—- I actually harumphed (yes, I made that sound) when I was reading Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge, and the male protagonist is a skinny, drug-addicted mage/rocker (of course!), but the male on the cover is *built* (seriously, looks like he emigrated over from a JR Ward cover).

But really,  I’m more offended by bad design, poorly chosen fonts,  and incoherent blurbs on the book ‘s back cover.

As a visual artist, I rely on book covers to tell me how a book is being branded or positioned in the market. I notice whether covers are illustrations/paintings or photos, and whether the photos used are from stock collections. I look for and remember cover design credits on covers I especially like (or dislike). I can generally tell when a cover photo is a stock photo, just by looking at it, and it impresses me when cover art actually matches a book’s content. If a cover photo looks like a stock shot, I usually dismiss it as more about marketing than actual content.

That said, I’m afraid I remember this Julie James cover, but for all the wrong reasons. I kept looking at it because I absolutely hated the stock photo they used. I thought the dress did not fit the model and was extremely unflattering, and I kept trying to figure out if the dress would hang better if she weren’t in such a weird stance. Or why someone would cut and construct a dress in such a way that it would be universally unflattering to any human woman. From there I moved on to musing about the vagaries of men’s and women’s fashions. Then I got to pondering whether the German-sounding stock company name meant the shot had been produced for European audiences and that’s why the styling of the clothes seemed so off to me. It was somewhat distracting from the story, to say the least. So, when I got to the point in the book where the heroine describes that exact dress, but in very flattering terms, I was no longer able to dismiss the cover as a bad stock shot. It was like watching the big reveal on a makeover show and thinking o_O. Not good.

So, I appreciate the lovely beefcake shots for their entertainment value, but sometimes 1000 words *are* better than one photo, and I’d rather you just let me use my imagination, thanks.

I really don’t care either way especially for e-books.  Of course, after the horrors of weird covers on children’s books from when I was a child, nothing fazes me anymore.

I do agree that the dress on SAY (love the book!) is a weird cut - I hope the poor woman has no breasts to speak of - although I love the color.  I also hope the man doesn’t have sweaty hands.

Mostly, I just wish the covers were produced by people who had actually read the book.  I know, I know, this is cloud cuckoo land, but really that is what I want.

Others have already mentioned this, but I’ll mention it again because it’s important: cover models that don’t look like the characters inside are especially annoying when they’re not even the same race.

I’ve specifically made a point of buying books by authors who’ve had the whitewashing problem and whose publishers fixed it, just to vote with my money and show that yes, if a book I want to read has a non-white protagonist in it, I want to see a non-white protagonist on the cover. Justine Larbalestier’s Liar is one such book I bought, and so is Alaya Johnson’s Racing the Dark.

And I’ll also voice my support for cover models whose figures actually reflect the description of the heroine therein. I’d also be totally willing to specifically vote with my money (and believe me when I say I buy a LOT of books, I’m already over 300 books acquired for the year so far) for covers with heroines that aren’t ultra-thin.

Lastly, speaking as an (admittedly tiny-scale ebook author but nonetheless an) author myself, I’m absolutely in favor of a little more attention paid to making the covers match what the author wrote. I’m _really_ tired of generic ‘skinny tough chick with tattoos and weapons’ being the default urban fantasy cover, and I’m also quite tired of ‘shirtless tattooed overmuscled guy with weapons’ being a prominent paranormal romance cover, too. And after reading both of Zoe Archer’s released books, I can say with enthusiasm that I appreciate her covers all the more because they actually depict guys who look like what she wrote.

Honestly, it doesn’t even require that the artist read the book, does it? Even one tiny little paragraph of description from the author could go a long way in tailoring the cover to better match the work.

I’m not a stickler for the hero and heroine matching the story exactly, however I would like it to at least match the genre.  Diane’s Whiteside’s Kisses Like a Devil has a cowboy on the cover and there’s not even a mention of a cowboy in the book.  In a quick in-and-out rush at the library, I was in the mood for a cowboy and checked that one out—boy was I disappointed.  Granted, if I had the time to read the cover flap, I might have put it back on the shelf.  But this cover’s so off, it almost feels like false advertising.

The cover models not looking like the described hero and heroine can’t be a “deal breaker” for me because I don’t know what they look like until I start reading, BUT it freaking ANNOYS me when they’re described totally different from the way they look on the cover. I have a weird habit of looking at the cover from time to time while I’m reading and if I’m reading about a blonde but see a redhead it totally screws with my disco.

And I agree 100% with Jennifer. If the heroine is plus sized, don’t show me a size 2 on the cover. Is there some sort of shame involved with having a larger sized model on the cover? Even though we know in real life no woman involved in a steamy romance is EVER overweight….....

It appears that my comment has been eaten, so I’m trying again.

I’m most bothered by glaring errors. I recently read Courtney Milan’s Trial by Desire (excellent, btw) and noticed that the male cover model had rather startlingly blue eyes. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except right in the first chapter there is a mention of his brown eyes. It’s too bad too, since he was a rare cover model I actually found attractive. It won’t keep me from buying a book, mostly because I won’t know it doesn’t match until I’ve read it, but it will certainly annoy me once I know.

Unattractive covers or ones that hit my pet peeves may keep me from reading a book. Skeevy-looking models count towards unattractive covers, too. I’m all for headless covers if it means not having to look at some creeper staring at me from the page.

I hate to say that this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. For most books I can get past it, especially when the characters are fairly generic looking.  But when their appearance is a major plot point, it makes me crazy when the cover models don’t reflect that.  How hard is it it to get hair color right? Do they just randomly pick a guy and a girl from a giant pot and throw them up there?

My biggest bug is when the hero is scarred, tattoed, etc but nothing on the cover.  For example I was bugged when I read Beguile a Beast and the hero is missing fingers on one hand. On the cover, he has that hand clearly shown with all fingers. I realize they may not want to show something so graphic, but at least have his hand hidden or something.  Or when the hero in Gena Showalter’s book has blue hair and it is black on the cover (and his hair color is remarked on constantly in this book and others in the series).

On the kudos column, I loved how in Sherry Thomas’s His at Night the heroine is wearing a dress specifically mentioned in the book.

I really appreciate it when somebody goes to the effort to match the cover to the contents - I mean, they do it for every other genre, so why not romance?? If all they use are the same three stock photos on rotation, it just confirms for romance naysayers all those nasty stereotypes about ‘stock content’ and romance being pulp with interchangable plots and characters. When I read a book with a cover that actually matches the heroine or hero or setting or whatever, I get all warm and fuzzy and appreciative that someone out there has given the genre the respect it so often misses out on, and has treated it the same as any other work of fiction.

/end rant! ;)

I’m with Lori:  don’t care much about the people, but when they get the wrong breed of dog…kills me!

Ros: It’s not entirely cloud-cuckoo land. If you like urban fantasy, Rob Thurman is lucky enough to have an amazing cover artist doing her covers (I believe it’s Chris McGrath—she actually mentions him in her author acknowledgements) who clearly reads the MS before creating the covers. He re-uses models for recurring characters, and incorporates locations from the books in his cover illustrations.

Another artist who obviously incorporates details from books in his covers is Stephan Martiniere. His covers have to be seen to be believed.

Anyway, didn’t mean to sound like such a curmudgeon earlier. Your’re absolutely right, cories5, the color of that dress is fantastic. I wonder why it is that I don’t really expect the same level of creativity on Romance covers as I do on SF/F or mysteries? Maybe because of the sheer volume of product being generated? (I feel the same about the editing in Romance—wish it were better, not particularly surprised when it isn’t.)

*wandering off to Whatever to let Alan Rickman usurp my narrative some more & cheer me up*

Honestly, I usually don’t even look at the covers, but the one that always bothered me was the back cover art (not front, for some reason) of the original Devil’s Bride (S. Laurens) - the heroine is so…not good looking, and has really freaks kinky curly nasty hair - every time I pick up the book to reread I look again to see if somehow magically while residing on my keeper shelf she’s gone away and been replaced by what I imagine Honoria Prudence should look like!!

I’ll take Nathan Kamp on the cover anytime, regardless of whether he looks like the book’s hero. (sigh) I usually don’t pay attention to covers, because I KNOW they’re not going to match what’s inside. But there are some cover tropes that signal to me what’s going on inside—the old skool clinches, the trad Regencies, the Main Street setting, etc. I usually have a pretty good idea what to expect from that book, even though the H/h don’t match the cover models.

Speaking of the James cover, I remember Jennie Crusie talking on her site about one of her books:  didn’t have a dog in it (unusual for Crusie) but the publishers wanted a dog on the cover. She’s one of the few authors I’ve come across who seems to have some creative control over her covers. But she lost that battle. So she went back and wrote a dog into the book. Truth in advertising…

n

I’ll take Nathan Kamp on the cover anytime,

LOL, I just googled him to see who you were talking about and got quite a giggle at the link that takes you to assorted photos.  It is so funny to see all those cover shots in the same place. Look, he’s a regency guy. No wait, now he’s a cowboy.  Oh, here he is a highlander! 

I mean, I know the same handful of models pose over and over but it is funny to see them all lined up together.

For a truly beautiful cover that matches the story pretty closely, I love the cover of the first Sharing Knife book by Lois Bujold - but then, I believe she worked pretty closely with the artist on that one. Come to think of it, the cover of her Paladin of Souls is pretty appropriate for the book too, although the woman depicted is a bit young for how I envision Ista.

Lois is, on the other hand, also afflicted with some pretty bad covers, as well - the cover of A Civil Campaign is a notable bad example.

I don’t know any of the models by name but I would LOVE to know who graces the cover of Seduction and the CEO by Barbara Dunlop. I think that’s the most perfect cover I’ve ever seen! Not to mention the sexiest:)

CE Murphy has a great article about this at Bitten by Books. http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=31749 She specifically talks about covers with white models when the character is of a different race. Her Negotiator Series has a white, if tan, model, which absolutely astounded me.

@jayhjay:

I mean, I know the same handful of models pose over and over but it is funny to see them all lined up together.

I know, he’s like the cover model du jour, but still so nice to look at, and he does them all so well.

I will admit to one of my cover peeves beingLords of Desire. Here’s our model in all his Elizabethan glory. And every single story in the book is either Regency or Victorian.

Thank you Sandra! I have wondered who the heck this guy was I keep seeing on every other cover!

I don’t care because all of the heroes in the books that I read end up looking like Richard Armitage in my head no matter what.

I don’t care so much if the cover matches the characters inside but heaven help me - the covers have to be PRETTY!  The cover, even for ebooks, is what catches and sells me.  Many time before I’ve even read the back of the books. 

Take Lauren Dane’s Federation Series.  I like my romance to be more urban and fantasy rather than sci-fi but OMG those covers.  MUST. READ. NOW.  http://www.laurendane.com/books/  So all of those books are on my wish list - based on cover alone.

My first foray into digital was Moira Rogers and it was the Southern Arcana covers that totally sold me.  http://www.moirarogers.com/southern-arcana  Thanks to the fact that the books were freeking awesome this is now an auto buy for me!

There was really only one time I was bothered by how far off a cover was from the character inside.  C.E. Murphy’s Negotiator Trilogy.  http://cemurphy.net/excerpts-short-stories#negotiator  Margrit, the main character, is black.  The author even admits in her head Margit is a Halley Berry color.  What a beautiful shade!  But the covers?  Lots of WTFuckery going on.  The cover chick is WHITE!  That’s not a little bit off (like hair color or height) that a while different race!  The cover of the second book even looks to be Asian (thanks to the beautiful dress).  So I can vividly remember starting to read the book, getting to the description of Margrit and saying….uh….what the hell?  And going back to the cover.  It pulled me right out of the story and that is never good!

Now the Carina Press covers?  They are like crack for me.  I am so madly in love with them I want to have their cover babies.  They are so stunning that I’ve purchased nearly every book just because of that!  My husband thinks I have a spending problem.  I so disagree!  How can you resist those covers?

Samhain puts out some good cover tail too. 

Spam word: ill38.  I get ill when the same image is photoshopped 38 times for 38 different books.

Ok, I just went back and looked at my link again. There’s something seriously wrong here. Lords of Desire I originally bought this book as a trade, and then it was released later as a MMPB. So I paid more for the trade. I wasn’t expecting a MMPB or I would have waited. But I got what I paid for—a bigger, nicer book.

But WHY would anyone pay twice as much for an e-book version of the trade, when they can get the same e-book based on the MMPB for less than $5? What is this publisher thinking?

I always imagine my own picks of actors for the characters, but I do prefer when the cover somewhat matches content. I just finished Storm Warning and was so happy that the model matched the icy-blond heroine!

Why bother with a cover at all if it bears no resemblance to the story or characters? I think it makes the publisher look cheap and lazy (and not in a good way).

With all this talk about annoyingly wrong cover models, I wish we could go back to the days of big vagina flowers and swirly fonts for covers. Or even better (and totally unlikely), forget about the traditional covers of and get some Jon Gray-like designs.

Ros - Totally agree!

Sandra - The Crusie book in question is Trust Me on This.  I think the book seller was ridiculous to insist on a dog being on the cover when there was no dog in the book thinking somehow that is what will sell the book and not Crusie’s name.  I will admit to being a cat person more than a dog person.  Still, I won’t buy a romance just for a cute animal on the cover.

It bothers me a ton when the cover is irrelevant to the story or shows things that are just wrong or never appear in the story.  A headless woman in a polka dot dress on cover, I expect a polka dot dress in the story and am miffed if it isn’t in it.  Cover model is blond, then the heroine should be blond not raven black hair. These are 2 real examples of annoyance.  Eloisa James’ A Duke of Her Own has a blond on the cover but the point of view was from the brunette. There was a blond so it kept me guessing as to which woman would Villiers end up with.  James said it was her fault as when asked for a description of her heroine she said blond but hadn’t finished the book at that time.  Things changed between then and the printing.

So, yeah, I expect the cover to match and am grumpy with the people who make the decision for what goes on the cover especially when they are looking only at marketing and haven’t paid any attention to the story.  It’s false advertising and they should be punished.

I am always vaguely irked at inaccurate covers, independent of genre. I’d much rather have an abstract cover or a cover with an accurately depicted object, even one not prominent in the book (a pearl necklace of no particular import is just fine, for instance, or a quill, or a blackberry, or a full moon for your werewolf romances) than one where the folks on the cover bear no resemblance to folks inside.  It leaves me with the impression that the production is slipshod and rushed.

As a reader, I always wondered about the mysterious phenomenon of the non-matching cover models, and then I became an author. lol

And, now, I’m like…if J.R. Ward’s publisher won’t depict the Brothers accurately, then what chance do *I* have???

On my first novel’s cover, they did a fairly good job. My hero’s hair is jaw-length brown and he has gray eyes. They did regular/short brown hair and brown eyes. But, okay. It’s set in Detroit and they got the Detroit skyline in there and used the color scheme I had in mind. So I was overall pleased.  The real test for me is going to be my second project (cover expected any day now…), in which the hero is quite physically unique: skull trim, big crescent-shaped scar on the left side of his head, 7 tattoos, and 2 facial piercings. Ha! I got a message of complete alarm from the art director via my editor basically saying, “I hope she doesn’t think we could actually depict him accurately or else she’s going to be disappointed.” Alas, I had already resigned myself that Caden was likely to appear rather generic on the cover, despite the fact that his appearance is one of the central plot points in the story. And, of course, it’s because they use largely unedited stock images. I’ve just got my fingers crossed for one of their graphic artists I happened to meet at the RWA who is the queen of photoshopping and/or actually painting accurate details into her images.  [pleasepleaseplease let me get her!] Oops, I digress…

My editor explained that they really do try to be true to authors’ descriptions, but because they use stock images, if they depict a couple, the image may only really get either the hero OR the heroine right, but not both. And then they just have to choose the lesser of two evils…

This is why I prefer rear views of the cover models or with their heads chopped off.  They never look like who’s in the book or in my head and it annoys me.  I like the cover of Erin McCarthy’s You Don’t Know Jack for that reason.  The guy on the cover has the right hair and is in a business suit, so he fits the hero in the story, but you don’t see his face so he can look how my brain says he looks.  Plus, I love that book.  http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Jack-Erin-McCarthy/dp/075821409X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287528892&sr=1-1

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  if I cared what the *&^%%$£ covers looked like, I’d never, ever have read a romance novel in the first place.  I care deeply about the visual arts, yes, but the covers of popular novels are not art:  they are wrapping paper, and most of them are revolting. The good stuff is inside.  Would you whinge about about the hideous, tasteless wrapping paper if the gift inside is an exquisite piece of jewellery? 
Well, then.  It’s a lost cause.  Romance paperback covers are crap.  Ignore ‘em.
:-)

As a reader I’ve always loved it when the cover shows a scene from the book, but it happens very rarely these days. As a writer I long for the same thing but am resigned to not getting it. In my second book, The Wild Marquis, I heard (not saw) about the heroine’s red dress before I finished the book. Like Julie James, I quickly wrote a red dress into the last scene.

“You Don’t Know Jack” guy is in a business suit?! On my copy of the same book, he’s bare chested….growl!

I find it frustrating when the cover art bears no relation to the content of the book. I guess the artists don’t read the books.

By the way, I think Julie James won the cover lottery. That “Something About You” cover is gorgeous, and have you seen the one for “Practice Makes Perfect”? Equally lovely. Those are books I’m happy to carry around anywhere, because the covers don’t embarrass me.

I didn’t know she changed the content of “Something About You” to match the cover, but I think it was a good idea. I love that the cover and book match.

OH!!!!!! [My hand is up, waving madly—ASK ME, ASK ME!!] Thanks! In the mid-90s, I wrote my second book, A Light For My Love. The characters were very carefully described; the heroine was Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (in my head) and the hero was Kevin Costner, before he made sensational news with his infidelities. I was writing under the Topaz imprint for NAL, and they were using the same model on all their covers [major sigh—book signings with him were, um, not stimulating, mentally or otherwise]. I got the cover flats and there he was—my carefully described sun-and-weather-bleached blond, green-eyed sea captain hero was now a dark-haired fop wearing a puffy shirt on the book spine and a glistening shaved chest on the cover. He made me think of a cocker spaniel.

When I mentioned this problem to my editor du jour (I had five there), she said, “The model doesn’t look good as a blond.” With Mediterranean coloring, no, I’m sure he doesn’t. I just hadn’t realized we were working for him now. A few readers actually wrote to me to complain that the cover didn’t match the characters, and I gently told them I had no control over the cover. One wanted to know if I realized the error. Uhhh . . . yeah.

So to answer the question—YES, it bothered me, and it bothered my readers. I loved that story and when I got the chance recently, I gave it a new cover. And yes, if there are characters on the cover, it’s good to have them resemble the author’s descriptions.

I honestly don’t care. I quit looking for a connection between the cover and story characters years ago.

Now, the only thing a cover does is tell me at a glance the type of romance. Period clothing = historical (maybe it will show me the era, maybe not). Tribal tattoos and/or large wolves/panthers and/or lightning coming out of hands = paranormal. etc, etc, rinse, repeat.

OMG, Alexis, I had to google your cover, and I’m sorry, NO OFFENSE, but now I can’t stop giggling:)

I don’t know about hair coloring, but I’d be much more concerned that it looks like the guy is breastfeeding the heroine!  I can’t believe the people who approve these covers don’t notice things like that.

oKAY..I hope I don’t get bumped by my computer before I get this in. 
  1.  The one that absolutely made me nuts was Cherry Adair: TFLAK - IN TOO DEEP…any whaaaay the hero only had 1 eye and wore a patch!  @ ON THE COVER   Aren’t we surprised??
  2.  This is a biggie , for me, hair vs hairless manly chests…OHHH the heroine loves/is intrigued by/fascinated (yada, yada) the hair on his nipples arrowing down the the v where it enters his shorts, pants, smalls, buckskins.  How many covers with hirsuit men have you all seen?  I can recall 1.  I know it covers up the 6/8/10/12/16 pack,
  3.  Changing John DeSalvo’s hair to blond.  That’s just euwh.  (One of the old Sandra Hill Vikings)
  Cait
ps - I have a number of your books, Alexis.  Not this one, though, I have enjoyed them all.

Coloring really irritates me when they don’t match. If those don’t match I will always have a conflicting image in my head when I’m reading. My biggest peeve is hair length, though. I just don’t find guys with long hair attractive - it is what it is - and if there’s a hot, sexy, buzz cut on the cover I will be royally pissed off if the author waxes poetic about the hero’s long lush tresses. Shallow, but true.

Lindsay, I LOVE the cover model on Trial by Desire. I have the book but haven’t read it yet.

I don’t mind when the cover models don’t match the H/H exactly but like others have mentioned, it bugs me when an obvious, frequently remarked-upon feature of the H or H is clearly missing from the cover.
And whitewashing is always, everywhere, forever unacceptable. It just says to me that the publisher doesn’t respect the author or the readers.

Kanaxa, Kanaxa, Kanaxa. I love her covers—who remembers Blood, Smoke and Mirrors?—and requested her for my first full length, and it’s awesome. I’ve heard so much cover angst from fellow authors - esp. ebook authors - and I was terrified that my lil cover would suck, but it doesn’t. It reflects the story and, altho the cover model doesn’t match my heroine exactly, she’s got just the right “feel.”

RebeccaJ said:

OMG, Alexis, I had to google your cover, and I’m sorry, NO OFFENSE, but now I can’t stop giggling:)

It’s okay—I already pulled out my hair about this one and regrew it. ;-) I can’t even claim something wonderful and famous like the three-armed heroine on the cover of one of Christina Dodd’s books. And this, after the editorial and/or sales department had stared at a poster size cover in their offices for months. As soon as the book hit the shelves (too late) they realized their mistake. But that was kind of cool. Not like mine.

Having been blessed by all kinds of covers from all kinds of publishers from e to NY, I’m always just pleased that the book has a cover. The variety of input I have varies considerably as well.

Covers where I’ve expected to hear negative comments back from readers haven’t caused a ripple and then others, which I think are awesome like the Kiss of the Rose one, I get screamed at for because costume experts think there’s a safety pin under her arm or that its Elizabethan rather than Henrician, etc etc.

I buy books by author name and very rarely by the cover, so maybe I’m an oddity. :)

Another “dog where there isn’t one” cover is Accidentally Engaged by Mary Carter. I thought of that when I first heard the Crusie-dog story.

Man, A Civil Campaign was one of the worst offenders, wasn’t it? I can only resign myself to it by assuming they meant to portray Gregor and Laisa. Who isn’t all that blonde, but that’s still closer than *gasp* portraying short romantic heroes.

This is not a problem unique to romance fiction. Maya Kathryn Bonhoff has a brilliant song “There’s a Bimbo on the Cover of My Book” which explains all the things that end up on the covers of an SF or fantasy book even if it’s not part of the actual story. And then there’s the truly tragic bit about the author’s name. Anyway, she’s a very good singer as well as an excellent author, and the song is brilliant.

I bothers me. Yes. 

What bothers me more? When the blurb on the back cover does not reflect the book. At all.  Someone needs to be whopped up side the head with a knobby stick when they do that.

I don’t really care if the characters on the cover match their description in the book, though I find it cool it they do. What I can’t deal with is when the feel of the cover in no way matches the feel of the book. Does that make any sense?

Yeah, the blurb problem is more of an issue for me, too.  Or the blurb only mentions the first half of the book.  What?

In More Cover Questions: Boys on The Right, no Left, no Right

I said: Do Romance authors have any more say than most science fiction/fantasy authors (virtually none, that is)? What I really want to know from someone who has read the book, is “Does either cover picture match the descriptions of the character?”

SF author Eric Flint tries to get a look at the cover art before he finalizes the text. Then he incorporates a scene in the book to match/explain the cover.

SB Sarah replied: @Gary: I know that happens every now and again with some romances. Julie James edited a scene in her latest book “Something About You” so that the heroine’s dress in the book would match the dress worn by the model on the cover. Otherwise, it’s a long-standing ARRRRGH that the models on the cover of a romance look nothing like the characters inside.

And now this poll! Did I cause it, or just do the lead-in? Grinning, either way.

I wanted to ring in Bujold but Becca beat me to it:

@Becca:  For a truly beautiful cover that matches the story pretty closely, I love the cover of the first Sharing Knife book by Lois Bujold - but then, I believe she worked pretty closely with the artist on that one. Come to think of it, the cover of her Paladin of Souls is pretty appropriate for the book too, although the woman depicted is a bit young for how I envision Ista.

Lois is, on the other hand, also afflicted with some pretty bad covers, as well - the cover of A Civil Campaign is a notable bad example.

The covers of the first two Sharing Knife books are the left and right halves of a single picture depicting a scene where Dag summons fireflies to wreath Fawn in their light. It’s gorgious, and Lois says the two volumes are a single book split in half for size. And it’s a Fantasy on the one hand, and a capital “R” Romance on the other. The covers of the other two books in the series aren’t bad, either.

Her website contains a discussion of cover art on her Vorkosigan novels. The worst offender might be the book Komarr, which features a redhead instead of the Brunette from the story, and an object described as “the flying cuisinart” which also does not appear in the story.

All that aside, I’ve read numerous essays by authors and publishers alike that point out that the cover has to grab the eye. If you don’t pick up the book and read the cover, or the inside of the jacket, or the first page, you probably won’t buy the book. So, while I really appreciate a match, what I want is a Good Read. I’ll forgive a cover for being totally bogus if I liked the book.

anti69? No, I’m not!

I don’t mind some small differences, but when it’s obvious that the cover models look nothing like the characters, it drives me a little batty. Sometimes the story is good enough that I don’t care much, but it can be a big distraction from the novel.

One of my favorite cover sets is from the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray. If you haven’t seen them (or read the books), you should check them out. The series is really good, just like the covers are.

When l read bound books, it can really bug me since I see the cover each time l pick it up. However, with e-books it’s not an issue since my reader opens to the current page and I am not faced with the book’s cover.

To be honest I think it shouldn’t be that way for just the odd genre, it should carry on across the range as it feels like the publisher cheaped out on the cover art and just picked a piece rather than commisioned something specific.

It sort of goes hand in hand with the thought “if they can’t be bothered to get the detail’s right how much are they behind this title.”

I never heard that story about Julie James’ cover either! I had no idea she re-wrote it for the dress due to the cover!Surprise, surprise!  I wasn’t overly thrilled with the cover anyway, though I LOVED the book.  I much preferred the covers of her first two, particularly the first.  I wish they’d stuck with that trend.

Nathan Kamp - sorry, I’m so tired of seeing him everywhere, I roll my eyes now when I see him on a cover!  I know him so well as Nathan Kamp the romance novel model now - he is NEVER the actual hero to me from the book.  It’s like some superstar high profile actor, it’s hard to see him as the actual character in a movie (i.e. Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt) I want to see more of a variety, he’s okay, but never really did it for me.

And then there’s the whole shaved everywhere cover models. Who decided this was the way to go? When the author takes the time to describe a character’s manly chest hair or rhapsodise over his happy trail, show some respect!
Oh, the happy trail, how I miss it…  Speaking of which has anyone seen Charlie Hunnam’s Men’s Fitness cover? Yowza!

I’ll fifth what others have said before: I hate whitewashing, but I can live (or at least accept it isn’t going to change) that the hero/heroine don’t match the cover art. Hence why I tend to prefer covers that don’t have humans on it. As long as the cover art is good (since yeah, covers do attract new readers), and as sugarless said gets the feel of the book, I’m okay.

Best cover: Bet Me by Jenny Crusie - the shoes are part of the heroine’s character, the cover is light and happy, and she even has cherries (which is what her first fan group was named after) so it ties into her author brand too, and it reads comedy romance to me. Favorite cover, by far. And no stinking humans are on it to mess it up. :) She’s actually ended up with some really good covers, in my opinion.

E-books, in my mind, tend to have horrible covers. I’m sure there are exceptions but if I look at my (admittedly small) e-book collection, there’s maybe two good covers and two okay ones, and all the rest look like a lesson in how not to photoshop.

Alexis, I hope it was a best seller for you, regardless of the cover!;)

BTW, even though it does bug me, I’m surprised that so many other people want the cover models and the descriptions to match.

Interesting post, Sarah!

Being quite visual, I was dismayed when they changed the cover of my fave romance of all time, Lord of Scoudrels, from the over-the-top-yet-lovely classic cover to one featuring some drippy dame’s bare left shoulder. WTH? I’m pretty sure I picked the old paperback up because the woman on the cover had super-shiney-gorgeous-romance-cover-hair. At least the heroine rolling about in a fantasical field of flowers on the original looked like the person described in the book. The new, less representative, front image is so blah, who would be intrigued enough to read the back cover?

I happen to like when the hero and heroine groping each other on the outside of the book match the two characters knockin boots on the inside. it’s not a deal breaker of course. If the book is well written and exciting to read, I won’t toss it over my shoulder if I find out that the Fabio look-a-like on the outside really bears a striking resemblance to Geroge Clooney on the inside.
But I sometimes want to.
We just have to remember, that unless it’s Nora, the typical romance author doesn’t have much say in the matter.
I got lucky. I was worried my cover might not match my characters, but my publisher and cover artist took time to really get to know the story and the hero and heroine. As a result I have a cover that captures the feel of my story, the look of my characters and even their personalities to an extent. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the result.
I suppose I’m the exception to the rule.

Loved the post!!!
Good luck to all those writers out there!
Tamara
I just wish more publishers would respect the hard work their authors struggle through in order to pull a story out of their heart and soul and transfer it to the page. it’s not easy.

I think what bothers me about cover art not matching the content of the book is that it looks like shoddy work—like the publisher doesn’t give a crap and is just phoning it in.

But the situation is quite different from the author’s point of view. Many authors care very deeply about each book they write and want every detail to be perfect, and it’s that kind of attention to detail that can turn a merely “good” book into a great one. So I can see why several authors have changed the content of their books to match the covers—these, presumably, are detail-oriented authors who want everything to be as close to perfect as they can make it, and good for them! I bet they write damn good books. Unfortunately, there’s still an element of luck to it. If you write a disabled or scarred character and the cover model is gorgeous and perfect, there can be no changing the book to match. And if you wind up with a “flying cuisinart” on your cover, what are you supposed to do with that?

I think the reason covers are often so bad is that the person who cares the most deeply about the book (the author) is not involved in their creation. (Usually.)

I’m not saying authors should be responsible for their cover art. I personally shouldn’t be responsible for any kind of artwork, because I am horrible at visual design—that needs to be left to people who are actually good at it. Also, I recognize that covers are about branding and marketing, not just about the contents of the book. But is it really so hard for publishers to at least get the hair and eye color and basic physique of the hero and heroine right? That doesn’t even require the artist to read the book. It only requires that the author provide the artist with a physical description.

@jenniferarmintrout @jamisings

I agree with you on all counts. My issue as an author of Rubenesque books is that it’s very difficult to find stock photos that fit.
I do my own cover arts, mostly because I like the creativity that goes into it…and oh all right, I like having control of the finished product! I always end up having to choose pics of good-looking men instead of the women I’d envisaged.
I’d love to have a cover with a plus-sized woman that would fit the description of my heroine, but I haven’t been in luck so far.
Maybe that’ll change, but in the meantime I’ll be happy when photographers realize there is a need out there for models that aren’t stick-thin (wearing lingerie too as I write erotica and that would be so useful). Anyone? No? Nevermind then.

This does bother me.  I’m a visual person.  Yes I have a good imagination but unless I see a good representation all the Heros in the books end up looking like McSteamy or the Rock to me.  :0)

Back when I was first reading the Anita Blake books I loved going to the website because she had model and celebrity pictures that she though best represented characters in the books.  I still to this day picture Selma Hyak as Anita.  :0)  I think Sherrilyn Kenyon has done this in the past also but I cant rightly remember.

One that didn’t match that peeved me was a Kresley Cole book about one of the demons (Rydstrom’s) that didn’t show his horns on a full facial shot on the cover.  I was soooo looking forward to seeing the horns curving back on his head.  :0(  denied.   

I also get very disappointed when there is scarring or a huge tattoo that is mentioned in the book alot and then shows up NOWHERE (not even a shadowed area) on the cover model.  Just finished reading Kerrily Sparks “Eat Prey Love” and Carlos has a panther tat that is on his chest and wraps around his neck and collar bone.  Alas the cover model is shirtless and not one hint of tat anywhere!!!  Oh and he totally looks white boy.  Carlos is Brazilian folks!!!  Get with it!

Bah! 
************************’
spam word - figures98.  hmph, it does figure.

*** clarification - Carlos’ tat in Eat Prey Love is a panther.  On the cover he has the generic, seen on all romance cover lately tribal tat.  I really used to love tribals.  Now they’re kinda cliche and not as sexy.

I agree with Alissa.  While the cover art doesn’t usually make or break a book purchase for me, I want to know that someone put the time in.  I feel like it shows respect for the author’s efforts and for me as a reader.
Also, I feel like not matching the cover art to the story is just lazy.  And I don’t know about you, but if I were that lazy and that oblivious to details in my work, I’d be fired.

If it doesn’t have Kinuko Craft as the cover artist, I don’t care what’s on the cover.  If she’s there I buy the book.  I don’t even see the covers when I read the book on my Kindle, and even if I did, it would be in B&W.  Covers are wrappers, and I enjoy some cover art, but I wouldn’t make a buying decision based on it, K Craft excepted.

I agree. I look for three things on the covers: snark-worthiness, title, and author. If it’s snark-worthy, bonus points, but I don’t actually care if they match the characters’ descriptions. It’s nice when they do—sometimes I’ll check—but it’s not a deal-breaker for me.