Sunday 9 August 2009

Tranquil covers


Tranquil scenes of the North Sea on a summer's day. Temperature 23 degress, no wind and a calm, calm sea.
Dh presented me with a link to a site displaying cover pics of Mills and Boon and how they have changed over the years. Check it out here
The modern covers are not the ones I won't be seen dead buying over the counter - and not under it either! You know the ones I mean. The ones with impossibly handsome men, so handsome that the sensible mind shrieks oh yeah, pull the other one. The ones where the men look as if they need a bra to hold in their rounded pectoral muscles and their abdomens seem painted on. The ones where the female displays wanton limbs with only a scrap of limp muslin preserving her decency...
But even in the examples shown, we have a preponderance of couples lolling around on a bed.
Why do the media people want to give the impression that the stories are all about couples bedding each other?
The ones I have read (OK, yes, I have read some of them - ebooks do provide anonymity! - must be why erotica does so well there - No, really, I choose carefully so that the covers will not make me blush to admit reading them) Well, the ones I have read always have more story than the cover would have you believe. Carefully thought out, well motivated plots about why couples don't make it to bliss at the drop of a hat. But does the cover tell you that? It does not. It tells you Read About Sex Here.
When is the advertising/media world going to get over its preoccupation with sex?

2 comments:

Glynis Peters said...

I read a book recently where the cover was as you describe. I was short of reading material and thought, okay let's give it a go. I loved the story, it had me hooked on the second page. If I had gone into a bookshop, I would not have touched it at all, it seems a shame that a cover can ruin sales sometimes.

Anita Davison said...

I agree Jen, I am totally put off by the naked torso books with a woman in a loose negligee is hanging onto him like a drowning woman. But as Glynis says, I may be missing out on a lot of good stories because I find the covers trashy - a good point

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