Dear Artist: Favorite Styles

Dear Artist

Do you have a favourite style? I know you produce wonderful covers for BWL and I am sure that they are always the absolute best you can do based on the writer's requirements, but you must have favourites. What do you consider to be a five star design for a cover with regards to layout, colour, content, background etc?

UK Lady

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Dear UK Lady,

Thank you for taking the time to ask such a fun question.  Really, it all depends on the genre of the book. 

When it comes to anything from sweets to erotic romances, I like covers that actually clue in to heat level.  I don't like to see, or create, a cover that is sweet at best for a smoking hot story.  Flipside, when a cover is hot enough to melt my monitor, but the story is lukewarm at best.  

For softer historicals, I am a fan of the older Julie Garwood time period style covers - with a castle, a flower, etc.  I LIKE those covers for soft historical romances.  That said, for the hotter works, I HATE that style of cover.  For hotter historicals, I like the ones with a couple on them.

Paranormal and Suspense romances should most definitely be evocative of the genre.  If there is a wolf shifter who is the main love interest, then either the title or the cover should express that in some way.  Same for if the book is set in the year 3125 on a far-away planet.

I am not much into straight horror and suspense and all, because I never feel like I am pulling it off well.  I am a 'fluffy bunny' cover artist - I like creating light, fun, sexy, covers.  So I don't have much insight to offer there.

Young Adult should be FUN and to some degree flirty, even if there isn't a strong romance.  The cover should flirt with the reader ... so a person, or an object, is fine either way on those.

Fiction, just general fiction - either historical or modern chick lit, etc should also be fun or somber, sexy or spooky depending upon the sub-genre.  Again, either people or objects look good to me.

Non-fiction can also go either way.

As for what makes a 5-star cover (to me), well ...

* The font has to match the images, and the images needs to convey/fit the genre

* The images need to actually look good together!  I can't express that enough.  Poor quality photo morphs where images of different characters are just slapped together without blending them into each other in a cohesive fashion just don't work for me.  And let's be real, there are a ton of them out there like that.

* The cover should absolutly, without a doubt, clue the reader in to the truth of the story.  There should be nothing misleading about it (unless the point is misdirection).

* The color choice needs to fit - in all details.

Like always, this post is just my opinion, so mileage can and will vary from artist to artist (and reader to reader).

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If you have a question that you would like Dear Artist to answer, you can leave it in the comment section and it will be addressed (reasonably) soon.

A Study of Men's Facial Hair in Honor of Father's Day

By Michelle Lee
BWL Art Director

If you've been on facebook in the last year, then you have probably seen the results of a study that had been done on men's facial hair and what women find attractive.  Given that the results were only gathered in one country, the scientist in me questions a little bit the overall validity of it, since each culture (and sub-culture, as well as each country) has their own ideas of beauty and what is attractive.  Other "groups" since then have conducted their own "studies", but I am not going to go into all of the various different findings.

Instead ... let's take a look at some different images and see what we, as authors, readers, and cover artists from all over the world think is sexy (or attractive).

Exhibit A:

This is one of the images used in a study of men's facial hair.  Which option, 1-5, do you find the most attractive?

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Exhibit B:

How about in this image, between options 1 and 4?

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Exhibit C:

This is one of my favorite images for looking at a contrast between clean shaven, stubble, and a mustache.  Although the study didn't address mustaches, when looking at male facial hair, it needs to be considered (I think).

Well?  Which one?

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Ok, so let's consider a few different examples, shall we?

How about Ben Afleck?

Bradley Cooper?

Ryan Gosling?

George Clooney?

Liam Hemsworth?

Well?

Some articles on the study:   Article 1   *   Article 2   *   Article 3

If you are interested in reading the actual study article, here is the citation information.
The role of facial hair in women's perceptions of men's attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities, Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 34, Issue 3, May 2013, Pages 236–241.

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One final thought ...

Have Lipstick, will travel!

Choosing a blog topic is complicated. At one time I used to promote fellow authors on my blog. It kept it live and made the featured writer happy but it ate into my writing time in a big way, so now I mainly tweet their book links instead.

I sometimes blog about my own books of course but there is only so much I can say about them before self-aggrandizement sets in, so for a while I’ve been stuck for a topic. Then, yesterday, I had an inspiration.  My website strapline is ‘A ticket to Romance’ because so many of my books are loosely based on the  countries and places I’ve visited. For example Cabin Fever is set on the cruise ship that took me from Auckland in the North of New Zealand right down to Sydney in Australia, whereas Reluctant Date takes place in a small town in Florida where I had one of the best holidays of my life.

As well as being hugely enjoyable, travelling, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures has changed my perspective on life. To quote Mary Anne Radmacher, ‘I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.’

I’m not, however, going to turn my blog into a travelogue. Anyone who is interested in the places I write about in my books can find out about them on the Internet. Instead, I’m going to talk about the flip side of travellings - the many things that went wrong, or made me laugh, or cry, or both, because ‘Travel is glamorous only in retrospect’ ― Paul Theroux.

This means that I have no choice but to start with India and the two weeks I spent travelling between Delhi and Amritsar with no luggage, not even a change of underwear. It was New Year so the shops were closed - well the shops that sold western clothes were - and I would have looked ridiculous in a shalmar kameeze or a sari because I am so obviously from northern Europe. I worried too about offending the Indian families I was going to visit, some of whom lived in remote villages where many of the inhabitants had never seen a white face. I might upset them by choosing a wrong colour or an inappropriate style.

Fortunately, because it was winter I was travelling in layers, so my solution was to wash the sweater while I wore the blouse, and vice versa, while the jeans, boots, woollen jacket and cape were easy to dress up with scarves and cheap jewelry, things that I was able to acquire. At night I festooned our various hotel bathrooms with drying lingerie while I went to sleep in a pair of my husband’s pajamas.  I also borrowed his socks.

The experience had a profound effect on me. Once I’d accepted that the airline really had lost my luggage I was able to enjoy the trip in a way I’ve never experienced before or since. While others were busy unpacking or repacking their suitcases, I went sightseeing or talked to strangers. While they prepared for each formal visit or outing, I could only brush down my jeans, shrug on my jacket and think about the day ahead. In those two weeks I saw more, heard more, learned more, and worried less. It was totally liberating and I also learned that in the wider scheme of things, a suitcase full of clothes, a hairdryer and a change of shoes is neither important nor necessary. I learned that it really is possible to travel light.

Oh, I forgot to say...my lipstick was in my handbag. Now if that had gone missing it might have been different story!

In the coming weeks there will be more traveller's tale from the flip side on my website at sheilaclaydon.com and next month there will be another one on the Books We Love blog.  In the meantime, what would keep you sane if your luggage went missing? I'd love to know.