Romance book cover

KBooks

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My upcoming release is a paranormal romance. My cover designer has made two versions of a potential cover for me (both with stock I purchased.) They match genre expectations in terms of what other paranormal romance covers look like (font, tone, muscley male model, etc) and look great. Version one had the model's face, version two had it cropped from the nose.

However, upon reading more, apparently all stock photo sites have disclaimers that any sort of "sensitive subject" use is not allowed for stock photos with models, and this would seem to include any sexual content in a book. (It is a romance, so there are a few steamy scenes.) Also not allowed are topics like substance abuse, sexual orientation, mental instability (it goes on and on, basically any source of conflict.) So now I'm kind of like... gosh... how does anyone put models on the covers of their books? I can certainly understand it from the model's perspective, and wouldn't want to use their image in a way that would be exploitative.

So if you can't use a model on the cover of your romance, but that's the genre standard... how do you make a cover that fits in and still makes it clear to readers it's a paranormal romance? What do other people do?
 

Sarah M

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Oh wow. My books are Contemporary Romance so I wonder if I will be in the same boat?
 

Marissa D

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Why not send an email to whatever stock photo site you're using, and ask? There are varying definitions of "sensitive subject", after all. I'm guessing there won't be a problem; tens of thousands of published romances have covers made from stock photography (and that goes for both Big 5 and self-publishers), after all, and I've never heard about there being a problem.
 

KBooks

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Thank you. I emailed and received permission.
 

veinglory

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Models doing torso shots know they will be used for romance covers. "Sensitive" means stuff that could embarrass them like an "I have genital warts' poster.
 

Sonya Heaney

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Models doing torso shots know they will be used for romance covers. "Sensitive" means stuff that could embarrass them like an "I have genital warts' poster.

:roll: Seriously - what else are those pictures even used for (other than romance covers)?