Happy Wednesday! Today we have a shorter edition of Wednesday Links today, but if you see some good stuff that you’d think we’d be interested in talking about, send me an email!
I am fascinated by cover shoots for romance novels. Big thanks to publishers who Instagram photoshoots by the way. Recently, the New York Times published an article on what it’s like to grace the cover of a romance:
“I never thought I would say this,” said Liz Pelletier, the chief executive of the romance novel company Entangled Publishing. “But I am so tired of looking at men’s abs. I don’t know if these ones are sexier than those other ones.”
“It used to be that everyone wanted Fabio,” she added. Today, though, individualism prevails. “Readers don’t want every book to have the same face.”
And while I hate the term “beefcake,” I thought the profile to be pretty interesting.
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We’re all familiar with the fact that bad reviews can sell a book. Just take Sharon Kendrick’s The Playboy Sheikh’s Virgin Stable Girl. On NPR’s Morning Edition, they talked with some authors who received bad reviews and whether it helped or hurt book sales:
A while back, behavioral economist Jonah Berger got curious about whether stories like Kaufman’s were more the exception or the rule. So he did a study – he got sales data from hundreds of books that had been reviewed in the New York Times.
Admittedly, I wish the interview were longer and I feel like there are some variables to bad press selling reviews like genre, where the review was posted, etc. but I’d love to hear more stats on the study!
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Big thanks to Reader Jimthered for letting us know that Disney is getting the LEGO minifigure treatment!
Available in stores and online starting on May 1 for $4 each, the official reveal confirms the new collection will also include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Alice, the Cheshire Cat, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Maleficent, Ariel, Ursula, the Genie, Aladdin, Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, and Pizza Planet Alien.
You’re never too old to play with LEGO and I’m calling dibs on that Alice in Wonderland set.
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I don’t think anyone here has mentioned the belated RWA apology for their 2005 survey, “Should romance be redefined as between one man and one woman?”, as yet.
“I never thought I would say this,” said Liz Pelletier, the chief executive of the romance novel company Entangled Publishing. “But I am so tired of looking at men’s abs. I don’t know if these ones are sexier than those other ones.”
YES. SO MUCH THIS.
I’ve said before how I’m a weirdo who is thoroughly bored by the stream of shirtless beefcake on covers, and I say that as someone _with_ shirtless beefcake on one of her covers. But this is what I get for being someone who needs a hero to demonstrate to me that he is awesome before I’ll find him sexy.
(All bets are off though for any covers demonstrating a hero who’s clearly demonstrating that he’s capable of playing a fiddle or a bouzouki. ;D )
I’m also tired of shirtless men on covers. I actually notice the cover more if the hero has clothes on.
I’m definitely tired of the shirtless men as well. While I love looking at a good six-pack now and then, all the covers blur together if they look the same. I’m beginning to notice covers that have nerdy-looking guys wearing clothes more than shirtless beefy guys.
I just want covers that I’m not embarrassed to have in front of my small children. And not verdant meadows or beach scenes. I’m tired of those, too.
I, too, was hoping for more from that NPR segment on bad reviews. I got to the end and was like, “That’s it?”
Book covers, and romance covers in particular, fascinate me. I love reading “making of” articles about the process and how they get to the final product. It’s kind of funny that I’m so intrigued since I read Kindle books and only see a color picture of the main cover briefly when I’m clicking it to buy. 🙂 And I agree that, as gorgeous as some of these male models are, there’s been an eyeball-numbing glut of shirtless dudes on covers. All those ripped dukes whose shirts are falling off them. And bare-chested SEALs who don’t need body armor because bullets would just bounce off their disturbingly giant pecs. It’s worse than those women whose dresses are always undone and falling down. But it’s all a cycle.
BTW this LEGO link lead me here:
http://lego.gizmodo.com/5872578/hey-anti-lego-feminists-lego-for-girls-actually-kicks-ass
Love the space fighter!!! Somehow the pink LEGO stopped to bother me that much after I saw it :))
PS> Still, the figurines from LEGO Friends are terrible… :((((
I decided long ago that if I ever write a book, I will lobby really hard for no people at all on the cover (both to avoid Cover Snark, and the overabundance of pecs and abs). I’m in an m/m phase and I’m really burnt on six-packs right now. Covers are what pull me in, and I’m skipping a lot of what might be good books because I’m over the shirtlessness, made worse when there are two, sometimes three, men on a cover.
What’s wrong with a military guy in his uniform, or a handyman in a t-shirt, jeans and a tool belt? Less is more.
@Konst- agree and agree. They are the wrong scale and don’t work or play well with others.
I don’t put people on my covers for just this reason! No baffling, naked-backed heroines, and no oily pecs to wink at the reader.
Wait, which publishers have instagrams that talk about behind the scenes stuff for that covers?
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who does not mind romance covers. Really I like all the category covers, like how mystery will have some rando object in the middle that’s spotlighted, or suspense thrillers have people running looking over their shoulders. I like that they make the genres identifiable, and I like that over time these similar themes have developed into a tradition.
@Sue Harlequinn’s instagram page has some behind the scenes info on their covers
@Sue: Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you! I’m swept up in RT craziness. Forever Romance has some great behind the scenes photos and short videos on their Instagram.