[BrassMan]

I'm sorry, but I have to share this site a friend just sent me. If it's any consolation I'm a little embarrassed too, having written a quasi-romance novel myself. I only wish I'd had access to these artists!

http://worldoflongmire.com/features/romance_novels/

 

[Sailor]

There may now be romance novels in my future reading!!! Ha, ha, ha!

Too funny,

Sailor

 

[Gertie Kindle]

I actually recognized one of those ... The Deflowering of Marie Osmond is actually The Arrangement by Lyn Stone. It is on my shelves.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

There may now be romance novels in my future reading!!! Ha, ha, ha!

Too funny,

Sailor

Or at least the covers.

 

[danfan]

  ha, that's funny! I especially liked "Get a Room"

 

[Leslie]

Those are priceless. Thanks, Al!

L

 

[MichelleR]

I saw that site a long time ago.

Why would you apologize to romance fans? There's not one fan of the genre who doesn't know the covers are "ri-dick." But we don't judge a book by it's cover, do we? Especially not Kindleistas, who only get to see them in black and white. 

 

[Anju]

Oh Al -    too funny - thanks for sharing.  I'm like Sailor, hmmm maybe some romance books in my future?

 

[BrassMan]

Why would you apologize to romance fans? There's not one fan of the genre who doesn't know the covers are "ri-dick."

I wouldn't be too hasty about that. They wouldn't put those covers on there if someone, lots of someones, didn't like them.

Shoot, I like them too, but for more ironic reasons....

 

[MichelleR]

I wouldn't be too hasty about that. They wouldn't put those covers on there if someone, lots of someones, didn't like them.

Shoot, I like them too, but for more ironic reasons....

Male book distributors, that's who liked them, and that's why we have clinch covers today. Seriously.

From Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan:

No, the cover, specifically the clinch cover, has its roots, according to the oral history of romance, in the male gaze, but what good sexual image doesn't? Here's the funny thing about romance covers: the cover art originally was not about reaching the romance reader. Really, we're not kidding. The sexy, clinch-laden covers with peri-orgasmic women with giant breasts, giant hair, and dresses that were one quick tug away from total nudity? Never meant to entice you as a reader. So why do the O-faced couples continue to haunt you as you shop for romance?

According to Kate Duffy, Kensington editor, the clinch cover art became a self-fulfilling prophecy because of how and why it sold. It sold because it was clinch cover art, and it was clinch cover art because it sold. Chicken, egg, meet clinch cover. "As little as eight years ago there were over seven hundred different wholesalers and distributors," Duffy says. "And your safest option in developing a romance cover was the clinch. It was never a discussion of what the consumer wanted, it was 'What signal can we send to the distributor to get the book in front of the consumer?'" <snip> The cover designs, at least back then, according to Duffy, were created to catch the eye of the distributor and the wholesaler, who placed the orders ultimately to get the book to the consumer.

These wholesalers and distributors? At the time, they were men. They liked the clinch cover, and that was what was ordered for and thus sold in bookstores. Hence: self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some women do like them, of course, but usually not for the reasons many assume. We all like a little kitsch. Some pay no notice. Some hate them with a passion. But, clearly, a knowledge of what women really want is not what brought these covers into being, but rather a Don Draperian assumption of what women want in lieu of, you know, asking.

"Beyond" is a good book for anyone who wants an intelligent book on the romance genre and why smart women read it. It puts to bed (heh) a lot of misconceptions and explains some standard themes and tropes.

 

[geoffthomas]

See I keep on saying that this forum keeps on providing information that I would NOT easily find on my own.
Just sayin.....

 

[MichelleR]

See I keep on saying that this forum keeps on providing information that I would easily find on my own.
Just sayin.....

I have no idea what that means.

Are you saying we're stating the obvious?

 

[BrassMan]

Thanks, MichelleR.

Actually that makes sense. It reminds me of the mother who asked her daughter why she always cut her roasts in half before cooking them. Her daughter said, "Because that's what you always did." And her mother replied, "Well, I did that because I didn't have a large enough roaster."

I feel better about having written a book (books, really) that are a little bit of this and a little bit of that, that cross multiple genres. Perhaps instead of stupidly not following convention, they're merely original. Surely that's it!

 

[LaraAmber]

I'm trying so hard not to laugh too loud at work, I just may choke.

Lara Amber

 

[geoffthomas]

I have no idea what that means.

Are you saying we're stating the obvious?

Thank you for asking.
I have gone back and fixed it.
I left out the word not. And that made it a sarcastic smarmy remark, when I meant it to be a compliment.
Bad fingers.

 

[MichelleR]

Ah, that's a Cairn (?) Terrier of a different color!

 

[sebat]

Thanks for sharing.  Those are great!

 

[Kathy]

The covers were great and so funny. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Leslie]

Thanks for the Beyond Heaving Bosoms link, Michelle. I've downloaded a sample.

L

 

[Forster]

Those are hilarious.  Now someone needs to mock up some vampire romances for the website.