After seeing my Russian cover last week, I started thinking about book covers, and how they vary from place to place. This was all the excuse I needed to spend a lovely couple of hours yesterday browsing in a bookshop (I didn’t spend too much money – honestly).
These are my thoughts after a comparison of the covers of some best sellers and some of my favourite romance authors each side of the pond.
First – a confession. Although I write contemporary romance – I love the covers of historical novels.
Such gorgeous gowns. I almost wish I could walk around looking like that – but it would be pretty impractical on the New York Subway.
There is also the not insignificant matter of the corsets!
I digress.
A vast number of book covers for historical novels seem to follow a similar pattern in both countries. Women in glorious gowns of the appropriate period.
Each country has it’s own sub-genres – in the UK there are sagas and in the US there are westerns – but the covers are similar in the way they hint to the contents of the books. The main difference seems to be that the US publishers are far more likely to put the hero on the cover as well. Particularly in the sexier novels.
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For contemporary novels, however, the cover stories are vastly different.
UK contemporary romance covers, particularly for the more light-hearted books, tend to be a sketch or drawing or graphic representation – usually of the heroine.
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In the US, photographs are used more. Even if the book is romantic comedy – in the US you’re still far more likely to get a photo on the cover. And it might just be of the hero – particularly in a romantic suspense.
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The biggest difference I see is the number of cover illustrations which are a setting, rather than a character. A house by the beach. A table set for dinner for two. Perhaps a view of the countryside.
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I think part of the reason for this is that many US contemporary romance authors write serials – three four or more books set around the same community. Although each book of the series will feature a different romance, the same characters appear in all the books. It makes the readers feel almost like part of the community. The covers of these books tend to reflect the community, rather than the individual characters.
The other stand-out cover story is the paranormals. These tales of vampires and angels and shape shifters fill a lot of shelf space in the bookshops. Almost all of them originate in the US – they are exciting, packed with suspense and unashamedly steamy.
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The covers say it all – and do add a certain spiciness to a wet afternoon’s bookshop browsing.