For a man to check out a book online or in a store, the cover must hold the promise of a story men would enjoy.
Historical novels where romance isn’t the most important plot focus are often enjoyed by both men and women. So, how can our choice of cover let men know our story is for them, too?
Many covers for top-selling Christian fiction feature a single woman in a lovely setting that represents the story’s world or a woman and man posed to suggest romantic possibilities. Both have eye-catching appeal for women readers.
But a male reader who loves my own Roman-era historicals described the problem with that approach for anyone who wants men to try their books. While he enjoys a good romance woven through a story that’s not focused only on that romance, he wouldn’t pick up a book that looked like a romance or like a story that only women would love.
So, for those of us writing books that both women and men enjoy, a cover deliberately designed to appeal to both is essential.
Easy to say, but how do we do that? I’ve done some research to figure that out for my own Roman-era stories that have dangerous situations, spiritual arcs, important friendships that have nothing to do with the romance, and a love story woven through. They are all multi-POV stories with at least half the time spent in a male POV. I’ll be sharing what I learned using my photographic covers to illustrate the guidelines, but some of the principles could apply to covers using illustrations as well.
I’m going to focus on historical covers because that’s what my own are, but the underlying principles should work for contemporary as well. Many conversations with fellow Christian fiction author Andrew Budek-Schmeisser helped refine and focus these guidelines from a man’s-eye-view. We’ve developed five guidelines for covers that say “historical” rather than “romance” when a man looks at them.
Here are five guidelines for designing covers that both men and women love.
I’ll be using some of my covers to illustrate their application. They’ve all been declared “attractive to men” by the men I ask during the design process. Those men range from mid-twenties to late sixties.
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A man is prominent on the cover and not in close contact with the woman.
The visual importance of the male figure suggests the man will be a major POV character. Many romance novels also include a prominent male figure, but they are usually touching the woman. Direct contact announces “romance,” while separation implies more to the relationship than that. If the man is more in the background, you need something that draws a viewer’s focus to him. The mystery that comes from placing the man in deep shadow on The Legacy provides that focus for male viewers.
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The woman isn’t dressed in revealing clothing or anything too feminine.
Clothing that’s too revealing isn’t usually a problem in Christian fiction, but the women’s clothes are usually feminine. With highly feminine clothing, the woman should have a body type that’s more athletic rather than full-figured to downplay the “romance” feeling. If the “romance” flavor is too strong, the cover can repel instead of attract male readers.
Small changes can make a big difference. One of my male readers said the original version (left) of The Legacy cover said “romance” while the final version (right) said “historical” to him.
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Direct eye contact between the man and woman shouldn’t be obvious.
Even when there’s no physical contact between male and female characters on a cover, it can still shout “romance.” The man and woman often gaze longingly into each other’s eyes. Avoiding direct eye contact by having at least one of them look at something besides the other person works well. That can be enough to make it feel like a historical with a romantic subplot, which appeals to men, rather than a historical romance, which does not.
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Some element of the design has to suggest action.
The man should look like he might do something other than talk. The first version of Second Chances said “romance” to my male consultants until the man was given a hand ax. As soon as he held that tool, the impression flipped from romance to historical.
The action doesn’t have to be shown on the cover for the promise of action to be made. While military images naturally imply action, the action doesn’t need to feel aggressive. Simply being in uniform is enough. Even a dagger hanging on a man’s belt or a sword in a scabbard that’s only partly visible, like on What Matters Most, signals potential conflict.
The promise of action can be even more subtle. The background scenery can make that connection. The ship on The Legacy’s cover promises a journey, and the amphitheater in the background of my Faithful cover hints at men in combat.
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If two men are on the cover, their position relative to the woman does not suggest they are competing for her affection.
This one surprised me most. The first layout for Honor Bound had the two men in the foreground, one on each side of the cover, with the female lead in the near distance, framed by the men’s bodies with Lake Geneva in the far distance. All of the women I shared it with loved it. None saw any problem.
But the moment my top male advisor saw it, he said, “Bad vibes here. The body language of both men is ‘challenging.’ The position of the girl between them makes her an implicit object of contention.” All of my other male consultants, ranging from early 20s through late 60s, said the implied competition over the woman was a big turn-off for them.
So, if you don’t want a male-repellent cover that suggests two men are in a contest for a woman, don’t position her between the two of them.
This has been a short summary of the main things I learned during my research. If you want a more complete discussion of these guidelines and several more insights my research uncovered, check out the full article at my author website. If you’re curious about the stories that inspired these covers, you can find them here for Australia and here for the US and others who shop there.
Did any of these guidelines surprise you?
Are there covers you think do a great job of appealing to a mixed group of readers? What do you think gives them such broad appeal?
That’s fascinating, Carol. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Carolyn. It was fun doing the research, and from the responses I get from my male test cases as Roseanna White designs each new cover, I think we found a pretty good set of guidelines, at least for historical novels. I’d love to see someone do some research for contemporary stories to find out if the same guidelines apply.
That’s so fascinating. I’m not trying to appeal to men in my books, but this was just very interesting.
I found the results fascinating, too, Dienece, and some things really surprised me. I asked 9 men and 21 women three questions about the first four covers (Forgiven, Blind Ambition, The Legacy, and Faithful). They ranged from mid twenties to early seventies, and all were people I knew well.
1) What do you see first?
2) What do you see second?
3) Was there anything else that strikes you?
It’s too small a sample size for drawing firm conclusions, but there was a difference between men and women for which person they saw first. Age didn’t seem to matter. Those results are in the full article linked in the final paragraph here.