[John Hamilton]

The article itself isn't exactly great journalism, but the headline amused me:

The Real Force Behind Ebook Sales: Heaving Bosoms

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/14/force-behind-kindle-nook-ebook-sales-heaving-bosoms/?test=faces

 

[CraigInOregon]

LOL, I notice the source of that is Fox News. I like FNC, but it's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black considering they allegedly hire their female anchors based on their... visual appeal, shall we say?

 

[momilp]

I'll call my cover artist right away 

 

[Nathan Lowell]

The original presser is at The New York Post and reveals some of the dangers of secondary (and tertiary) sources.

The original study might be very interesting given its limitations. Some things stand out.

1. They studied a billion searches that had been abstracted and aggregated via another site. (Not people. Searches.)

2. They've made some assumptions about who made the search. They reference "straight men" and "gay men" etc. I'm not sure how they were able to draw those conclusions.

3. The ebook link is specious at best. Looking at the cover art represented the commonality is not "heaving bosoms" but "naked pecks." It also ignores some interesting data coming out of the publishing world that men over 50 are the fastest growing segment of eRomance readers. (No more "cover guilt.")

Still I love the push it's giving to ebooks. The more this kind of titillating stuff makes it into the mainstream consciousness, the more ebook readers will sell. After all, we all know what the internet is for, right?

 

[16205]

Does that one book title really say, "I'm About to Let One?"

I got distracted from heaving bosoms and naked chests by thoughts of breaking wind. Hm.



Thanks for posting, John!

 

[Ryne Billings]

Does this mean the cover of Double Share will feature Ish's pecs? Because it could. Just sayin'.

I really did not need my imagination to picture such a cover.

 

[Ryne Billings]

You probably aren't the target audience .

No probably about it.

 

[Nathan Lowell]

Does this mean the cover of Double Share will feature Ish's pecs? Because it could. Just sayin'.

Um.

No.

Just sayin'.

No.

 

[MegHarris]

OMG!!!! Look closely, folks, and you'll see one of my books on the bottom row! It's from the Italian edition of my very first book, but hey... I'm on Fox News!

Uh... that's a good thing, right

Seriously, that article is a mess. All the covers shown are circa the eighties (my Italian cover was actually lifted from an earlier Western cover, as foreign covers often are). But "heaving bosoms"? There haven't been heaving bosoms (or their masculine equivalent, "throbbing manhoods") in romances since, yep, the eighties. And what is this about "salacious chick lit"? Chick lit and romance are NOT the same genre, guys.

Basically, this is out-of-date nonsense... just as out of date as the ELLEN FISHER COVER on the bottom row *snerks and runs off to Twitter to make the most of my two seconds of fame*. That being said, I don't deny that pecs sell as ebooks (obviously!), but so do a whole lot of other things.

ETA: And some of these are actually spoof covers. For the Love of Scottie McMullet? Tee hee. Come on, Fox, do some research-- don't just grab images randomly off Google!

 

[daringnovelist]

Does that one book title really say, "I'm About to Let One?"

I got distracted from heaving bosoms and naked chests by thoughts of breaking wind. Hm.



Thanks for posting, John!

Yeah. And I couldn't make out the titles of any of the others -- which made me wonder about whether the art was actually satirical.

But aside from that, the article didn't seem to be about heaving bosoms on covers at all. It seemed to be about the fact that romances sell well on ebooks. D'uh. The only real mention of the covers was that in paper, the genre is obvious with such books -- not that the covers actually SELL books -- and some speculation that maybe the readers like to read them as ebooks because they nobody will know what kind of book their reading. (Both points are also not news.)

If you get past the sensational headline, it's an interesting story, even if it's just old news digested for general consumption.

Camille

 

[MegHarris]

And I couldn't make out the titles of any of the others -- which made me wonder about whether the art was actually satirical.

Several of them (I'm About To Let One; For the Love of Scottie McMullet; Okay, You're Taller Than Me, Happy Now? are spoof covers, probably hailing from the Smart B*tches, Trashy Books website. Obviously the person who put that image together just grabbed randomly off Google Images, with absolutely no knowledge of the genre whatsoever. It kind of undercuts the whole article to show ancient clinch type covers, which have no bearing on the current ebook market, but it's even worse to post spoof covers without realizing it.

ETA: If you search Google Images for "romance novel covers," almost all these pop up at the very top. Impressive research skills there! But darn, they didn't pick up the very best spoof cover: Lord of the Hissy Fit.