All They Wanna Do

It seems I have been looking at book covers for far, far too long. I now recognize when Ewa Da Cruz is featured on a cover, and I can almost tell the artist when I look at a picture. I'm not the only one keep track – this Pinterest board has artist and model notes, too.

But I'm beginning to think there's something seriously wrong when I can recognize the same two people from a very sexual photo shoot. Have a look – and BE YE WARNED. This is so not safe for work: 

This is the first book cover on which I saw this couple. It has since been re-released, likely to move it slightly away from the problems of being “Daddy porn”: 

 

Now, I think there's a nipple on the Mr. Parker cover. The nipple is important, because this same couple shows up on other book covers, still doing it. 

 

 

Same dude, but… where is her nipple? 

There is also another version of this cover, with a bit of bikini top: 

 

But still the lack of nipple is troublesome to me. 

I emailed Mandy Roth about the cover, and she told me that the nipple is indeed an issue for some – but not for readers: The no top one had a bit of backlash and raised brows from some vendors. I’d made sure to airbrush away any actual nipple—leaving her very Barbie like. I painted the top on for another level of “safe” and the readers didn’t like it. In the end I went with what readers liked best, using that on the print version. I’ve attached the cover flat jpeg too so you can see I blew up the “palming of the boob” as big as I could.

Readers like nipples? Who knew! 

Roth also told me that bookstores have varying limitations on what can be shown on a bookcover: Each vendor online and print has their own acceptable policies as to what can be shown as far as nudity and so forth. I’ve been doing cover art for years for varying houses and it has been beaten into me to show no actual nipple, ass crack or other dangly bits so that a cover complies with most if not all vendor polices. I think by this point I’m just conditioned to remove anything that could keep a book of a shelf (be it actual or virtual).

Fasinating! So even though the pose simulates actual coitus, the nipples and other dangly bits have to be removed, like the girl with no asscrack.

Meanwhile, this couple is STILL AT IT. Here they are again – I'm 99% sure that's the same dude, and perhaps the same woman with the corner of her jaw softened a bit:

 

 

I think I see some nipple shadow. 

This one couple has raised many questions for me. Are these the only two people having sex in the stock art file? And why is possible coitus ok but nipples are not? Are nipples DANGEROUS?

How long have these two been doing it? What does the complete set look like? And what is WRONG with me that I remember this guy's profile and think, 'Hey! It's the Daddy's Best Friend Sex Guy!' Heaven help me if I run into him at Target or something.