Book Design
Do discreet adult romance covers benefit or damage us?
As an avid reader and BookTok member, when I first saw the color-coded shelves of books lining the walls of the authors and readers that I trust for book recommendations, I was instantly envious.
Where did they get these novels?
What lies inside their mysterious covers?
Should I be reading them?
Once I discovered the novels were discreet romance books, I needed to know more.
Because I read adult romance or erotica novels mostly online, it hadn’t occurred to me that the sexy, six-pack man with his wind-blown maiden on the cover might be embarrassing to hold in your hands in public. A man like that belongs in the bedroom, not the local park on a warm afternoon where he can be exposed to innocent minds—children and adults alike.
But, if these discreet covers keep our fictional husbands hidden, what problems emerge in the men’s absence?
Naïve children and adults roaming the aisles of Barnes and Noble for their weekly enrichment might risk picking up the little pastel pink novel just because it “looks pretty.” They return home, peel back the cover that perhaps leaves too much to the imagination, and are left staring blankly at the art before them.
If you thought you felt the “rare, niche embarrassment” of reading romance novels in public (as described by the New Yorker in their short comic on respectable book covers) imagine the embarrassment felt by readers who were expecting a cute, romantic love story! Instead, they’re left speechless with a deep, erotic lust story.
The same New Yorker comic used the quote, “Reading ‘The Satanic Verses’ in church has never been easier!” when they referred to discreet covers in general, not just for romance novels. Sure, you can use discreet covers to hide your embarrassing readings. In this sense, these minimalistic covers are great. But on the other hand, “we have the problem of an undefined genre, which automatically implies undefined target audience—one of the biggest mistakes in book cover design,” as described by graphic designer Alexander von Ness. Visually, people associated certain cover designs with certain genres—outdated illustrations for science fiction or buff men in flowy outfits for adult romance. Take this stereotyping of genres away and too much is left to chance for who is going to pick the novel off the shelf.
While discreet romance covers typically come in pinks and purples, which might help give a little bit away about what lies behind their masks, at the end of the day, those are just colors. They mean absolutely nothing. Unless you already know what you’re looking for, the undefined genre of these adult-only novels poses too much risk. Even if these books were kept strictly in the adult romance section, it’s not like there is a bouncer at the end of the aisle turning away wandering kids and innocent minds. Their content is not intended for general audiences and we, as a community, need a better way of eradicating the embarrassment of reading these types of books that isn’t putting others in harm’s way.
Outside of the “Greek-god-of-a-man-in-the-Scottish-countryside” obvious covers and the pastel, girly, discreet ones, there is still one kind of adult romance cover working its way into circulation. Illustrated romance covers have made their appearance as an in-between, as seen in Casey McQuinston’s “Red, White & Royal Blue.”
They work to hide the dirtier bedroom scenes that lie inside while also not being so secretive that anyone could pick them up. No grade-school child is going to walk up to a book depicting love in any kind of way and decide that it’s the right choice for them. However, critics describe the illustrations as “a cheap cop-out to hide Romance between Women’s Fiction books…[the] images destroy the ‘cover language’ that tells Romance readers whether a book has explicit bedroom scenes or not.”
I can see how this argument would hold true. There are tons of novels in both women’s fiction and middle-grade fiction that have illustrated covers. Hiding erotica in them might be a solution to the embarrassment its readers feel, but it is not a long-term solution. When any book is picked up, its genre and audience should be clearly identified by the type of cover. When you have three different genres all existing under the same style of illustration with vastly different audiences, more problems are going to arise. Middle-grade readers picking up adult romance is one of the last things we need happening in our community.
The only direction for these adult romance novels to reasonably go seems to be a complete restart. Any new novels in the genre should receive a new style of design that is reserved specifically for adult romance and not used for any other genre. The old titles with their undefined-genre covers will eventually be phased out and the new design style will take over until everyone recognizes it. The genre of these explicit books will be known the second their cover is seen. While I don’t know what direction this rebranding of the genre should go in, I do know that it would be the right decision for everyone that reads books.
Rebranding these novels will not only protect more innocent minds, but also protect all readers. Adult romance readers will feel less embarrassed to be consuming their books in public and young readers will be less likely to be subjected to the material. No one disinterested in explicit romance scenes is going to accidentally stumble into the arms of our heroic fictional husband. But for his readers (me included), he’ll be waiting to sweep us off our feet. We won’t feel like society is going to exile us when they see us spending our days on the beach curled up with him. Sure, people will still see the material that we’re reading but at least it wouldn’t be as in-their-face.
The embarrassment when reading adult romance in public comes from our masculine hero staring down anyone who even dares a glance in his direction, but if those types of covers are phased out, the discomfort will be removed from those situations. And a redefined style will keep others from also being embarrassed.
These new adult-romance covers will provide just as much rescuing to their readers as each novel’s sensual hero does for his damsel. And in the end, the man’s removal from the cover will rescue more damsels in the real world than he ever could in his fictional one.
Heather Bamert (’23) was a double major in publishing & editing and graphic design. She aspires to work for a publishing house designing book covers and layouts. She believes strongly that a book is judged by its cover and wants to inspire as many as possible to pick up a new book so they can fall in love with the story inside. When not buried in a book herself, Heather can be found cuddled up with her cat, Charlie, or napping out in the sun by the shore near her home in Forked River, New Jersey. Some of her work, design and editorial, can be found on campus in the publications of Modern Language Studies, The Lanthorn Yearbook, and Flagship Magazine.