Cover Art Pet Peeves

Characters on book cover don't match character descriptions in the book. Unbelievable how often that happens, and it annoys me to no end. I'm already imagining the picture on the front, and now I have two different pictures of the same person.

Skimpily-clad characters when they're in regular clothing or even armor throughout the book. Grrr.

I happen to like art better than photographed covers. I don't know why, I just do.

Poser... shudder.

Ditto on inaccuracy and always having to make the heroine look like a Barbie.

Or having to make the hero look like he's a body-builder. I hate that.

*gasp* You mean this isn't accurate?



My whole night is ruined.

OMG!

I HATE clinch covers on romance. No Fabio! Bad Fabio!

*falls over laughing* I would say no. Though I'd love to see him try and fight a battle (mostly fantasy reader here) in that. Methinks he'd lose.

Now there's a strategically placed... shadow.

veinglory said:

Now there's a strategically placed... shadow.

Click to expand...

Airbrush....'tis a wondrous thing.

Gross muscular, tanned, greasy guys. I HATE really toned, "attractive" type guys.

This right here is an example:
I HATE, HATE, HATE men that look like this. People aren't naturally supposed to look like that! I'll stick to the average guy with no butt and a little gut, thank you very much.

Someone who looked like that tried to hit on me once, so I nailed him in the nuts. Nasty ass.... Go gorge some Cheetos or something!

*looks at picture, dry retches a little*

Agreed.

I console myself by imagining how much all that chest waxing must hurt.

sunna7kore said:

Agreed.

I console myself by imagining how much all that chest waxing must hurt.

Click to expand...

Ew, chest waxing! I don't want any man I date to have less body hair than I do. I want to be able to skip shaving a day or two and not hearing any complaints about it.

Seriously, though. I won't even pick up a book with the cliche romance cover on it. Ugh....

What *is* it with the waxing? Even the photos look like Poser alot of the time.

sunna7kore said:

Agreed.

I console myself by imagining how much all that chest waxing must hurt.

Click to expand...

BIG ouch. I don't want a guy that worries so much about his looks. On the other hand, I don't want Larry the Cable Guy either.

Give me Gerard Butler any day. (More Timeline and Phantom than 300. Too much waxing there too!! LOL) He can be on all my book covers he wants. I'll even pose for the clinch shot with him.

We had a charity used book sale at our office. Over two hundred books all over the board room table. One... ONE cover had FABIO on it!

Chumplet said:

We had a charity used book sale at our office. Over two hundred books all over the board room table. One... ONE cover had FABIO on it!

Click to expand...

IMHO, that's one too many.
I ran across an old copy of a Laura Kinsale book, and I swear I thought the guy on the cover art looked like Nick from CSI. It was downright creepy.

There's a new guy on 50% of the covers now. I forget his name. Once you know his looks you realise how many of the torsos are his.

I stumbled across this looking for the model everyone uses. Kinda interesting...

http://www.romancebookcoverart.com/create1.htm

veinglory said:

What *is* it with the waxing? Even the photos look like Poser alot of the time.

Click to expand...

I dunno. I have yet to figure out what's supposed to be attractive about that. Getting snugly with someone with no chest hair would be like cuddling with a pre-pubescent.

My apologies if that image gets into anyone else's head the way it just did mine. Ick, ick, ick. I'm going to go wash my brain out with Listerine now.

Mmn, Butler on the other hand is a fine choice. Or Matthew McConaughy. Or *snorple* James Marsters.

Sandy J said:

I HATE clinch covers on romance. No Fabio! Bad Fabio!

Click to expand...

Fabio is even worse when he's on a "young teen" book...CAMPAIGN TO RID THE WORLD OF FABIO ON BOOKCOVERS!

You guys must love this commercial then...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3555737421114282707

"Life comes at you fast."

Being into illustration myself, I hate book covers which are nothing but the Title and the Author. Or some meaningless minimalist pastel swirl of non-colour.

Tells me nothing about this book.


...

Makes me want to read this book (and I don't speak German, but dammit I wish I read German so I could read this book)


I say to myself: Whoever published some book with its empty cover is too chickens**t to commit to an image to put on its cover, so I'm thinking the book itself will suffer from that lack of vision (obviously, not THE ROAD, but the days are gone when Minimalism = automatic cool)

I want a book cover that I'd hang on my wall. The Beatles did the White Album and now it's done: everybody else has to fill the damn canvas.