Bare Naked Chest

I’m a fan of the male form. Sexy abs, large muscles, naked skin, I love it. However, there’s an awful lot of it when you look at the covers of most Romance books. Which is why when I first published my Twin Moons of Andove series I decide to show that my books were romances with a more feminine title font and went with an image of space instead of naked, male chest.

I quickly realized that I needed chests. Naked torsos were what everyone else had, and if I wanted to sell, which I did, I needed some abs on my cover.

I might have gone overboard.

Now here we are a couple years later and there are even more naked male chests than ever and I’m starting to wonder if it’s time for a change. Something simple, something that still shows that this is a Sci-Fi Romance, but that isn’t embarrassing to be caught reading.

Covers are difficult, if you’ve never had to deal with them before it might not be that obvious. You have to have something that clearly conveys your specific genre. Branding, both series and author, is very important as well. Covers can range from free if you do them yourself to well over a thousand dollars. I’ve paid a couple hundred for covers before and been happy, but I’ve also been just as happy with covers I’ve spent a couple dollars on that I’ve made myself.

Unfortunately, right now, I do not have the money to pay a professional, so I’ve been working on possibilities on my own. I’ve come up with one I really like, but before I go changing things I wanted to ask my readers, the people that have already paid for my books in all their naked male chest glory, what they think. Here is the current cover for Abducted and the one I’ve been working on. What do you think? Which one do you prefer?

 

Current Cover

Possible New Cover

 

 

 

4 comments

  1. I like the new one better, but I’m tired of naked chests . . . I may be the only one that is, though. I used a different image for my G-rated romance. I don’t doubt that it would sell better with a different cover, but . . . I’m happy. 🙂

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    1. Thanks for replying, I was starting to wonder if I was the only one. My romances aren’t G-rated, which is another reason why I’ve hesitated on changing them. Oh well, I might just do it because, we’ll see.

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  2. I hate bare naked chests. I especially hate the fact that you used a Photoshopped image of MY bare naked chest.

    At least I think that’s mine. I am pretty sure that I look just like that in the bathroom mirror, without my glasses on, in the mornings, before I have opened my eyes all the way…

    🙂

    All kidding aside, I am bored with the abundance of bare naked chests – but it has become iconic. People looking for a hot romance, AREN’T looking for planets and such. They want to see Studly Do-Hard, in all of his shirtless splendor. By yielding to the bare naked chest you are simply giving your reader something to hang onto.

    Did that come out the right way?

    Still, I’d like to see SOMETHING on your shirtless cover that would give the impression of scifi. Maybe a subtitle, or some trace of a space suit showing up on the shirtless bod.

    I can’t think of anything more specific than that.

    I don’t think the heart image works at all.

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