Saturday, April 25, 2009

The On-Going Saga of Craptastic Covers

<-- This guy? He's hot, yeah? It's kind of a bummer that I have no idea who he is. Cuz he sure as hell isn't the hero. The hero with white blond hair. The hero with massive scarring over one eye, who frequently wears an eyepatch. Who is this ubiquitous guy who keeps ending up on romance covers? No matter how different the author writes the hero, this same guy keeps popping up. I don't get it. If you know why then please, I beg you, explain it to me.

Yes, he is attractive, but I do not buy books based on the pretty boy on front. I spend very little time looking at the front cover while reading. It's somewhat distracting to keep closing the book to drool. And why do I buy books? To read them, not to gaze at them. Funny, that.

I will buy a book because I like the author, or the premise, or on a recommendation from a friend. But apparently, I am in the minority, because I keep hearing "Covers sell books!" everywhere I go.

Does Sherrilyn Kenyon, 5 time #1 New York Times Bestselling author, really need a pretty boy on the cover to help her sell books? Can't the man on the front at least vaguely resemble hero? Maybe you don't want to show that the hero is disfigured in any way (he is supposed to be perfection, after all), but why is his coloring all wrong too?

WHY, WHY, WHY?

As an author, if I am ever lucky enough to have Sherrilyn Kenyon's level of success, I'm sure I will be given ridiculous covers and keep my big mouth shut, smiling all the way to bank. But as a reader, I still want to know why the cover can't in some way reflect what is going on inside. Arg.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I totally agree. I have picked a book up before based on a cover and then when I got to reading the book I was like "whoa!" flipped to the cover, flipped to the description of the book and was like "What the crap, that's not my hero! lol I feel like if the author has gone to so much work with the book, they should at least be given a cover that reflects their hero.

Anonymous said...

I don't want a hero (heroine) on the cover at all. I want to decide for myself what they look like. What if one reader likes 'em rough and ready, another likes the pretty boys?

Kelly