I’ve mentioned before the preponderance of a certain type of fantasy cover. Now SciFiGuy has compiled the entire cover trend into a helpful educational video. (via Smart Bitches.)
blatant self-promotion
Epic Sword & Sorcery Game Release
On Thursday, September 12th, Choice of Games will release Sword of the Slayer, the epic sword & sorcery game I’ve been working on for the past year. Choice of Games creates choose-your-own-adventure text-based games. They’re Read more…
5 Comments
Michelle · October 22, 2008 at 9:31 pm
These are obviously targeting a male audience! Hey – Perhaps “Backs and corsets” would be a nice cover style for Lilly’s Song.
SciFiGuy · October 23, 2008 at 9:30 am
thanks for the mention 🙂
Elin Veronica P · October 29, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Actually, it’s a female audience. We like to believe our heroines are 1. like us and 2. really hot, cos then we are too.
Alex · November 3, 2008 at 10:14 am
Yeah, the Anita Blake customer base skews *heavily* female. The placement of random T&A in inappropriate milieus is certainly something that usually can be blamed on pandering to men, but I don’t think this qualifies. And criminy, what’s with all the tramp stamps? Or ass antlers, to be less explicitly misogynist. Do the marketing departments of these publishers still think it signals hip rebellion to their audiences…and are they right? From my perspective in San Francisco (one of those hip urban centers they’re selling), it’s like trying to appeal to goths by having the protagonist smoke cloves in a coffee shop while they read Camus (in French). Not only cliche, but *outdated* cliche; so far gone you can only assume it’s tongue-in-cheek.
Also, when did “urban fantasy” turn into romance-with-vampires? Not that I’m dismissive of other people’s choice of entertainment, given my own inclinations towards books *I’d* prefer not to have to justify, but urban fantasy to me means /Neverwhere/ or /Perdido Street Station/.
…by it’s cover : Unquiet Desperation · October 23, 2008 at 1:00 am
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