What Covers Do Romance Readers Prefer?
5July 30, 2013 by Mod
Recently a question was posed on a writer forum I belong to:
“Has anyone seen any data (or does anyone have any anecdotal evidence) that covers with a couple sell better than covers with just a man, or vice versa?”
Never one to be daunted, I set out to conduct a little research of my own by asking romance readers and writers to answer some questions.
Here are three Romance covers:
Take a look at the covers again, thinking about how romantic you think the books will be.
Great! Almost done. Think about the covers again. what do they say to you about the heat level (sex scenes etc) of the books?
And finally, literary quality. Some romance novels contain beautiful, complex prose, while some are just fun reads. Which of the above covers do you think suggests the most literary book?
Super! I hope I get some interesting data from this poll. If you have any other comments about the covers above, or about romance covers in general, I’d love to hear them. everyone who comments will get $10 off their next cover purchase or a free query consultation.
Thanks!
(cover images courtesy of Jason Baca and Faestock)
Cover Your Dreams 
Thanks for this! Both informative and and great fun!!
I am really getting very tired of books with no plot and dark, frequent, kinky sex; not every book I read has to have that. I love appropriate eroticism, and when I spent money on a book, it better have a great plot that draws me in. And I read about 1 book every two days. I am glad you ask about the cover, because I have almost stopped ordering any books with younger-than-30 something people are in a photographic (often black and white) closeup (often their faces; sometimes just entertwined bodies). I realize search engines like Amazon’s base suggestions on history and rating, and I keep trying to adjust my past preferences… but their best seller lists are useless to me. I guess that is what sells. I am tired of them. Why did i EVER read 50 shades… Anyway, I know use Goodreads to find books.
As the original poster of this question, I’m so grateful you did this! I found the exercise itself was helpful for me, as well as seeing the other replies.
Yes, I found it most interesting that the female only cover was so much less preferred, while still being viewed as the most literary.
[…] Last week’s poll was very enlightening, but it left some questions in my mind, in particular about title design. Romance literature is blossoming these days and breaking into new and interesting sub genres – dark issues ridden New Adult, and suspenseful paranormal erotica are just two sub genres that we are seeing more and more of in the bestseller lists. […]