CONVERSATION: Cover Art and Title Trends
Conversationsbook titles / book-covers / chat / grammar / marketing / publishing trends18 Comments
Recently, Jayne, myself and a friend of ours (someone who writes grammar textbooks) had this conversation:
Jayne: I just started The Ex Hex and am hoping for a cutesy rom-com. We’ll see what I get.
Janine: Have you noticed how The [Adjective] [Noun] titles have become a trend in contemporary romances with illustrated covers? And the noun is generally not a person or place but a thing. The adjective is often, but not always, where the thing that’s related to romance comes in, i.e., “Love,” “Ex,” “Wedding,” “Kiss,” “Bride,” “Heart”. Probably it was the popularity of The Wedding Date and The Kiss Quotient that did it.
Jayne: Yep, you’re right. But if it’s British then the title usually has something like Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop or The Little Theatre on the Seafront or Christmas Wishes at Pudding Hall along with a cartoon cover.
Unless it’s a British WWII trilogy about 3 (sometimes 4) best friends (or found friends) all going off to work in the munitions factory or aircraft factory or as Land Girls, which [books] are usually described as a “totally heartbreaking saga” or “utterly heartbreaking saga” with the last being a “completely heartbreaking saga” that have covers of our 3-4 girls in their work uniforms, arms linked while they walk down the center of a street with Spitfires flying overhead.
Janine: LOL! If I were drinking something I’d be spitting it out.
Our Friend: The Love Hypothesis, The Wedding Date, The Kiss Quotient, and The Ex Hex are not pure adjective+noun; in each case the word being used as the adjective (love, wedding, kiss, ex meaning ex-spouse or lover) is ordinarily used as a noun. Such usages are sometimes called noun adjectives and are an interesting property of English–I could be wrong, but I don’t believe you could do the same in Spanish or French, for example; you would have to use a prepositional phrase.
Titles with real adjectives used as adjectives before nouns could be The Romantic Hypothesis, The Important Date, and so on.
Janine: Yes, what a perfect description! I have to say that those alternative titles aren’t nearly as catchy or cute. I think that distinctive grammatical structure is a big part of why the trend jumped out at me.
Unless it’s a British WWII trilogy about 3 (sometimes 4) best friends (or found friends) all going off to work in the munitions factory or aircraft factory or as Land Girls, which [books] are usually described as a “totally heartbreaking saga” or “utterly heartbreaking saga” with the last being a “completely heartbreaking saga” that have covers of our 3-4 girls in their work uniforms, arms linked while they walk down the center of a street with Spitfires flying overhead.
Is that what you meant–titles that are noun adjectives + nouns?What about you, readers? Which title and cover trends jump out at you? Do any of them tempt you enough that you’ve purchased more than one such book? Do any of them make you wince? And what are your favorite/least favorite covers, titles, and books within those trends?
Has the heavily tattooed hero had his moment and gone?
@Jayne: certainly not on the covers of dark romance!
What a fun post! Now I’m trying to think of covers and titles….
@DiscoDollyDeb: Ah, I guess that’s why I haven’t noticed them lately. What about the hero with six pack abs and his pants about to fall off his hips?
For me the combination of “The [Noun Adjective] [Noun]” titles and (often brightly colored) illustrated covers hasn’t gotten old, especially in a contemporary romance context. They say “fun” to me (which makes it disappointing when the books aren’t fun). They don’t have the same effect on me when it comes to historicals, and I doubt they would work well for me with an action-filled book or any paranormal other than one of those comedic ones with a witch or psychic heroine.
Other cover trends: I’ve noticed that inspirational romance covers are stuck in a rut. They used to be creative and interesting and I was envious of their readers for that reason. I remember when this cover came out and how attention-getting it was. The cover model’s face and expression conveys so much personality and I loved how the title and the name of the author were printed along the brim of her hat. This is the cover of the same book now. It’s alright—though I think the color scheme is garish—but it’s not nearly as engaging.
Can somebody clue me in on why “illustrated” applies to covers like these, and not (apparently) to, e.g., the Alan Kass covers that were on historical romance novels in the 70’s and 80’s? Or other covers that are plainly not photographs (or at least not photographs without very heavy photoshopping)? And just to get a plug in for K.J. Charles’s Will Darling Adventures, which I am obsessed with, what are those covers? Are they “illustrated” or something else?
@Jayne: at least in dark and MC romance, the pants continue to slip further and further down the hips. Not that I’ve been noticing that or anything.
@DiscoDollyDeb: Well, you keep not noticing and let us know if anything changes about them.
@Jayne: I will give the subject the close attention it requires! Here’s the first cover to require my detailed analysis:
https://www.amazon.com/Sullivan-Laurel-Springs-Emergency-Response-ebook/dp/B0894Y5NKG/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=laramie+briscoe+sullivan&qid=1633044678&sr=8-3
I generally like the illustrated covers and their titles, however they do lead me to believe I’m getting a certain type of book and more than once I have been very disappointed that it was not that type of book. So now I try to keep my expectations in check.
@etv13: You’re right, they’re all illustrated. For that matter, so are literary novel covers. I have a couple of theories on why the term is currently being applied to a particular kind of cover most of the time (within the romance community). One–probably because that style of cover is so predominant right now. Two, quite possibly because covers in that style used to be referred to as cartoon covers–I expect that adjective is considered pejorative these days.
I like the art deco look of the Will Darling book. It reminds me of some of the old book plates people used to put on the inside of covers of books in their personal libraries. Along similar lines, I also love the retro look of the covers on the books in Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner’s Fly Me to the Moon series:
https://authoremmabarry.com/books-2/fly-me-to-the-moon/
Pejorative or not, “cartoon” strikes me as simply inaccurate. These contemporary covers (which all seem a little bit retro to me) are stylistically distinct from Disney, Looney Tunes, or even Scooby Doo, let alone, say, Peanuts or Blondie. The lack of outlines distinguishes them from a lot of cartoons, while the lack of contouring and shading distinguishes them from more realistic styles. And they seem distinct from the Will Darling covers, which as you say have an Art Deco feel, are relatively flat, but have a lot of detail that the “illustrated” covers lack. For example, Will is holding his knife, the “Messer”, on all three covers.). When I first saw “illustrated” used, it was in direct connection with one of these 2020-21 covers, and I know, therefore, what people mean when they use it, but it just strikes me as a strange term, since pretty much all romance covers are illustrated in a literal sense.
The Will Darling covers are fantastic and capture the feel of the books and the relationship without being too obvious about it. This is not the case with many illustrated/cartoon covers, most of which I could really do without. I especially dislike the ones that have the hero in one quadrant and the heroine in another, separated by the cutesy title.
The original cover of Catching Katie reminds me a bit of Jennifer Donnelly’s The Tea Rose, though the model’s expression and the lettering are not at all alike.
@Misti: Yes, you’re so right. It’s frustrating. We actually had a post in the topic a few weeks ago:
https://dearauthor.com/features/conversations/conversation-misleading-cover-art/
@Etv13: I agree and I’ve had the same thought myself. But there’s a lot of romance terminology I don’t like.
@Rose: the only thing about the Will Darling covers I don’t like are Kim’s sideburns, which don’t seem right for the character or the period at all.
All the cartoon covers and similarly formatted titles tell me is that the publishers have found a formula that seems to work so they whack it onto as many books as possible, regardless of their style or tone. Maybe the first book like that I read was The Hating Game (technically speaking more of a verb – noun title), although maybe I just think it was because I borrowed the print copy from the library so I actually looked at the cover. Anyway, the cover art suited that book because of its lack of resemblance to real office life; it took place in a ‘cartoon’ workplace. But by now I don’t take any notice of the cover since the cartoon style can be slapped onto a book with much more serious themes. You have to know the author or read a few reviews to get an idea of what you’re actually about to read.
@oceanjasper: You’re right of course but those covers and titles get me to look at blurbs and reviews in the first place, in the same way that I’m more likely to eat bright colored hard candies than I would if they were all in different shades of gray and brown.
@Jayne: He’s still there and I for one and glad of it!