Women on Book Covers - Can we talk about this?

July 11, 2022

Have you noticed most fiction books nowadays have either bare chested men on the covers, illustrations, and couples? It's hard to miss, right? What about women on covers?

While I understand the appeal of men covers, come on, who doesn't want to look at a hot guy, I can't get myself to follow this trend. I want my covers to have a little edge of their own and not be a copy-paste of every other cover in their genre. Am I right or am I wrong? I love, love, love women and covers. Let me explain why.

In our society, even after all the fight women have gone through to be seen as equal, I often have the feeling males still dominate the world. Taylor Swift's The Man song played on loop in my head while I write these lines. If you have no idea what song I'm talking about, take 4:14 minutes of your time to listen to the lyrics. Do they ring true? If you're a woman, I'm pretty sure they are.

As many authors of our generation, I'm always portraying strong and independent women who keep their men on their toes and are not afraid to banter or give them a piece of their mind. I'm all for the equality of the genre. Inside and outside work, the bedroom, or any other part of our lives.

As a mother of three girls, I want my daughters to be fierce and reach for their dreams. To not be scared to do what they wanna do and don't take no for an answer just because of the sex they were born with. And I want my son to thrill as much. But I want him to respect people and never treat women differently or judge them because of the sex they were born with.

Since the moment I published my first book, Heart Song (note: it was titled Pink and Country back then), in June 2021, I had used couples on my covers. Because I love love as I say often and I love how it's portrayed on book covers. But lately, I've changed them all for women on the ebook versions. And I only used women. With vibrant colors. Why? Because book covers shouldn't only be about males. They should be about everybody. If I'm portraying strong and fierce women, why shouldn't I showcase them?

I read a post (which sadly it's online anymore) and it clicked. Yes, I should follow my instinct and do it. Many authors are following this trend and I really hope it will continue to grow And with Amazon Ads and Facebooks ads being difficult with couples of covers because they reject them for sexualized content even when they're just holding hands, I would like women authors to empower women instead of just focusing on sexy men.

What do you think? What type of cover do you prefer the most on fiction and romance novels?

Have a wonderful day!

Emmanuelle

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