What's with the simpering come-hither book covers?

[KittyOfSteele]

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As soon as I read the title I immediately thought this was too specific, so I was about to ask if this came from Paperback Paradise. Turns out the corner snitches itself.

 

[YmaOHyd]

As soon as I read the title I immediately thought this was too specific, so I was about to ask if this came from Paperback Paradise. Turns out the corner snitches itself.

I knew I should have gone with Goblins with Huge Asses.

 

[AG31]

I don't think that's really true any more. For example, here are the books on the front page of the Romance category on Goodreads at the moment:

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Romance never had the kind of covers I'm talking about.

 

[AG31]

I'm sorry, but have you ever met a man? If you have, then you have to realize how pointless your query is. The scantily clad beauties are there to try to grab the male eye, when most sites only offer a thumbnail. It goes right along with the Busty Babes of Bikini Beach sort of title, full of suggestive keywords rather than something a little more mature like Bolton Beach Adventures, that we might get away with here. When you are trying to get people to pay money for something they can likely find for free elsewhere, you have to set being artistic, aside. Or so my publisher tells me.

Yes, this thread has been an eye-opener to the demographic that these publishers must be aiming for. And I thought women were the largest segment of erotic literature readers.

 

[TheArsonist]

Romance never had the kind of covers I'm talking about.

And my reply wasn't directed at you.

But now that you mention it… Are you sure? I'm not 100% clear on exactly what you're objecting to, but if it doesn't apply to any of these Romance covers, I'm at a total loss about what you mean:

 

[AG31]

And my reply wasn't directed at you.

But now that you mention it… Are you sure? I'm not 100% clear on exactly what you're objecting to, but if it doesn't apply to any of these Romance covers, I'm at a total loss about what you mean:

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Well, yeah. It could apply to these.

 

[calmlikeabomb]

Sex sells and people are good at following trends.

Source: used to work in Amazon's books division. These books used to have the highest number of hits on their details pages. Some would even bear established authors.

 

[AG31]

A number of replies seem to assume male readership. I've always heard that women comprise the vast majority of erotica readers. Is that not the case?

I doubt its their face people are focusing on.

If the expression says, "Yes," then I think the answer by many, if not most, is also, "Yes."

The scantily-clad-beauty formula obviously works. Playboy magazine seldom strayed from it on their covers, and that’s a financial decision.

I'm sorry, but have you ever met a man?

 

[YmaOHyd]

The highest number I've seen is about 33% of erotica readers are men, the lowest is about 5%. The obvious explanation is that these covers are chosen to appeal to women.

 

[AllenWoody]

LOL. You try to find one featuring a centaur and an Asian girl for an erotic romance cover. So hard! I might have to go the AI route for that one.



Part of that is the cost. You can DIY, but most of us (well, me for sure) aren't any good at graphic design and designing book covers. I did try doing my own using stock images and Canva, but they weren't even okay for the most part. Mostly what I do now is I use the pre-made book covers from a couple of the book cover sites that specialize in these things and they're, I think, quite good. I mostly use bookcoverzone.com and goonwrite.com but you really have to search to find good ones, even with them.

Just some examples below - the first three I did for novels I'm finishing of now, I got them from bookcoverzone, and the last is a custom one I had done by James from goonwrite - I haven't written that one yet but I wanted the cover in front of me for inspiration..... the last couple are ones I did myself.

I suspect the thing with the simpering covers is a combination of time and cost. You rip something out, it's short and fast and you don't want to invest much time or money in a cover - you just want it out there so you go with whatever looks okay and isn't going to cost you anything much. On the other hand if you want a good cover, you have to spend time looking, and then working on it - and it's going to cost you more. The bookcover zone covers are priced at $USD99 each - the Hammered one was a custom one from goonwrite but cost a bit more - James is charging 250 Euro's for a custom cover now. And the last couple are ones I did myself just to try out a few ideas. I have to replace the images tho, because both were from movies.....

I find the real challenge is to find a slightly erotic image that matches the story a little and titallates, so that when you see the thumbnail you want to click on it. The standard stock images very rarely do that and there's also very little to differentiate your story from every other one out there - they just merge into the mass which is why its worth spending a little bit of time looking for something a bit more individual that's not quite standard.

James from goonwrite has a pretty good writeup on what makes a good cover.

Anyhow, just my thoughts and a few images to go with it.

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In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree...


Thanks for getting *that* chunk of verse in my head.

 

[MetaBob]

Back when I first got involved in reading and writing erotica (reading after a 50 year hiatus), I subscribed to Shameless and Excite Spice and joined Smashwords. I rarely look at the books on offer any more. Almost none are attractve to me, but I do take a peek occasionally. Compared to what people in AH talk about and, presumably, publish, they are incredibly juvenile to my eye. Scantilly clad beauties simpering for the camera. Who finds that erotic????? What is the appeal??

What, you mean like this one?:


I like my book covers even if they might not pass the James from GoOnWrite test:

 

[TheRedChamber]

What, you mean like this one?:
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I like my book covers even if they might not pass the James from GoOnWrite test.

Oh, its GoOnWrite not GoonWrite. I was expecting a.different kind of site...

 

[ChloeTzang]

Oh, its GoOnWrite not GoonWrite. I was expecting a.different kind of site...

LOL I didn't capitalize that at all did I. Sorry