As my regular readers already know, I am crazy for a good cover. To me a cover can totally sell a book, and sadly, a bad cover can keep people away. I also think a good cover can set the tone for a book, let you know what to expect and give you a feel for the story without words. So along with listing our favorite books this year, I decided to do a post featuring my favorite covers of 2012.
Many of you have seen our Favorite Covers of the Month posts. I generally choose my favorites, often with some feedback from my reviewers. But it occurred to me that I have never really explained what it is that makes a good cover to me. So before I share my favorites, here are some of the things that I love in a cover.
First of all, a cover needs to look professional. Sadly, there are wide variations in quality. I want attractive fonts that match the tone, stock photos that don’t look like my middle schooler photoshopped them on, cover images that look like they all fit together into the same picture. So for a cover to really work for me, there needs to be a basic standard of quality and it must look neat and professional.
Beyond that, I think what attracts me most about a good cover is originality. Let’s face it, about 75% of covers in m/m romance fall into one of three categories: 1) two headless torsos (frequently shirtless), 2) two stock photo guys, usually with one in the foreground and one in the background, often with one staring off into the distance, and 3) single guy, again usually shirtless, looking hot and buff. There is not anything wrong with these covers. There is a reason they are so popular. But to stand out from the crowd, they need to be really gorgeous and incredibly well done. (Or maybe just be insanely hot man candy) I also need to be able to tell which character these guys represent. Don’t give me a blond MC with two dark haired guys on the cover. If you are using cover models, they need to really look like the guys in the book.
What tends to catch my eye the most are the covers that really take a different approach. Maybe they capture a scene or setting from the book so perfectly that you are immediately transported back to the story. Or maybe they feature an assortment of images from the book that are integrated seamlessly and give you a perfect idea of what to expect from the book. Or maybe they have a perfect photo, a creative use of color, or totally evoke the time period. I want something gorgeous, that grabs me and makes me want to find out more about the story inside.
So with that in mind, here are my favorite covers from 2012. I sort of organized them into categories, but I realize they are a bit random. Mostly these are just covers that were so gorgeous I wanted to stare at them all day.
P.S. Sorry the formatting is so bad here. Getting these images to lay out took forever and still didn’t work so well. But if you click on any of the covers, you will see them in all their big, shiny glory. Oh, and just a reminder that as with all our 2102 favorites, these are favorite covers for books we READ this year, not that were necessarily released this year.
A great selection! And there’s such a variety of great covers this year, too! Not only are more cover artists emerging, but the quality of their work is so beautiful.
And you’re right. A cover can make or break a book. They (whoever they is) always say don’t judge a book by it’s cover, but the cover is the first thing we see, our first impression of the book.
Of course, we all know I love The One Who Saves Me cover. Mine is one of my favorites as well…And Something Like Summer, love it. I could go on forever, you know, but I won’t. Great choice of covers this year!
I love love love the Dark Soul covers. Gravediggers Brawl is another favorite.
Yes, LOVE the Dark Souls. The first is my favorite b/c it is so haunting once you have read the book and know the scene. And I really love the third one too with the cross dressing. They are all so well done. Jordan Taylor is amazing. And yes, love Gravedigger’s Brawl. Totally captures the feel of the book.
You’ve picked some real beauties there! All ones that caught my attention too. I have to admit, I might not have picked up The Gravedigger’s Brawl if it weren’t for that gorgeous cover, and I’m so glad I did.
A great cover artist can take the ingredients of a typical m/m cover (like those headless torsos) and make it really sing. I’ve seen those two guys in the cover Kanaxa designed on many other covers since, but never looking as good as that. Fonts are hugely important to me too. Lou Harper (who designed The Hot Floor cover) sends me mock-ups in lots of different fonts because she knows how fussy I am about them!
And you know what, I always said I’d never have a headless torso cover, but when Lou showed me her design for The Hot Floor, I said “hell yes!” That works perfectly with the story.
Thanks Jo! I agree with you on font. I think you most notice them when they are bad, but they can be so jarring if they don’t work with the tone, colors, etc of the cover.
One of the reasons I love the Handle with Care cover is because the artist really tailored the cover to your book despite using stock photo shots that appear on other covers. Just the small things like the way Ollie’s hair is colored to match the way he looks in the book, and that it uses a model with some facial hair to represent the bearish Ben. And even the sort of caregiver pose that they are in that represents their relationship in the book. It just shows that even with stock photos you can make a gorgeous cover that really works for the book.
Ah, I remember the Tattoos and Teacups one! It’s so gorgeous :))
I love alllll of Nathie’s covers… especially the ones she made for me, of course, but I’m veeery biased there ;)))
Yes, Tattoos and Teacups was such a striking cover. I think just a really unusual take on the design and it perfectly fit with the story. And yes, I agree that Nathie does beautiful work. Almost every month she makes our favorites list.
Oooh! Thanks for including one of mine.
I’m a sucker for good covers. More than once I bought books because the cover seduced me.