And the results are in

We’ve been tabulating results and here’s what we found from last week’s survey about book covers.  

Overall 56 people took a moment to respond and I’m very grateful to those of you did.  Even though this was a super un-scientific poll, I did glean information from it. 

Question 1.  What is your first reaction to naked man chest?

 

Question 2.  When you see a book cover with naked man chest, you automatically assume…

Question 3. What’s your cover preference? (53 people responded to this question)

People with clothes on!
Naked man chest, low slung jeans but the jeans must fit-no baggy butt

whatever grabs my attention

varies

romantic with couples and scenery and also HOT men lol :o)

couple guy with no shirt and a few tatts but not so many as to be covered or distasteful. good body muscles I am seeing that most books coming out now just have the man on the cover. I miss seeing a pic of the woman as well somewhat close to her description in the story like on harlequins and such where they show both characters. love the ones with babies as well.

That it reflect what the story is about, and if the cover depicts the characters, let the picture resemble their book description.

Couple’s on the cover, dressed males in protective stance

clothes on, buttons don’t all have to be buttoned

More realistic, with colors that pop. I’m not so much into the artsy covers.

hot couple, hot guy, hot girl … no real preference …as long as it is sexy, that’s great. i love males … but a hot ladies is lovely too …for me it just has to be not distracting. like the font is normal and simple .. ever thought about giving your FB crew or newsletter crew the option to vote on your covers. that is always fun. or is that something u don’t wanna reveal to quick?

Love the image of the couple been presented with beautiful background scenery to catch the eye

sexy male , maybe a sexy woman

Naked, hot steamy tattoos

Couples

By genre, I like man chest for hot spicy romance. I like body parts like clasped hands or entwined legs for a sweet romance. I like a weapon in hand for suspense.

I personally like a little subtlety in covers. Of course half naked men are attractive, but it can get a little old, and I love it when covers tie in parts of the story.

I like it to have some sort of reflection of what the story is about – I don’t need naked people on the cover, that tells me nothing.

Anything teasing

Classy, elegant, romantic

I like images that pop.

tattoed man, bikers

Something pertains to the story

Subjective, with no faces

I have no complaints against a great looking guy:)

Couple

Colorful or lone objects as a focal point.

Less is more (dress), background scenery to indicate setting.

Couples. I like them clothed. The less clothing, the steamier the book should be.

Something that reflects the story. If the POV is male having a female only on the cover is somewhat misleading. Same if it was a male on the cover but POV is female.

Just male or couples.

A scene from the book.

I don’t like cartoons/drawings

Object covers

Scenery with a couple

The main chatacyers, or a scene that represents the story.

Something I don’t feel I have to hide from my kids

I read cozies mostly so most of them are drawings,somewhat cartoony.. I also read mysteries,so I usually don’t look for shirtless men lol. But if I see them,I think it’s about a controlling type of relationship if he’s alone on it.

One that matches the story inside. Rare, that.

Ones without people.

People with their clothes on, though suggestive poses are okay. I’ve seen so many naked chests on covers, I automatically scroll past to a more interesting cover. A little mystery is intriguing. Color is important. I like to see faces.

A cover with colors that stand out.. soft fields of flowers I will assume the book is boring as he’ll even with a half naked guy on it

Layers of creativity

A man on the cover

I can handle men or women on the cover as long as their parts are covered. Nudity is hard to read around children. I read all genres and levels of hotness from sweet to erotica. I also love military, MC, historical, paranormal, M/M and Reverse Harem.

Depends on the story. No real preference but I dislike when too much skin is shown.

None. It’s all about the writing. That being said a catchy pic, title, or font can draw me in.

No preference. I like original ideas and faces.

I like the main characters on the cover. And if the heroine is blonde don’t put a redhead on the cover!! They should look like their description!

Depends. Anything is liable to take my fancy.

Something that eludes to the story and not just sex

Bright colors if a light book, though, if it’s dark, then I don’t mind. Just no cheesy covers, please.

Steamy

Question 4.  When shopping for a new book, I look for…

 Question 5.  My favorite genre to read is.

Question 6.  My favorite subgenre to read is?

For this survey I polled my newsletter and Facebook followers.  Overall, a couple of things I found out that surprised me.

Of the number of people that follow me (at this writing more than 20,000), very few care to answer questions.  That in itself is a little disappointing because we get such good information from you all and I implore you to respond to surveys in the future.  It helps authors know what direction the market may be taking and, honestly, what readers like to see in covers, sub-genres, etc.

I’ve learned that if you see naked man chest on the cover you assume it’s a steamy romance and not erotic and that’s good to know. I think the same thing, but I also think there is a large section of the reader population that assume its erotic. 

And, I know that when searching for a new book, you look at your favorite genre first before going to friends and family for recommendations.  

Again, this was very un-scientific but certainly helpful to me moving forward and there will be more surveys coming to you in the future as my fellow authors and I continue to be intrigued by what you think.  Thank you again.

Shall we hop on over and see what my fellow bloggers have asked their readers and what the responses were?


4 thoughts on “And the results are in”

  1. Interesting survey results Patti! I agree with Steview…I think it’s much easier to get responses that relate to other topics instead of our books.

  2. I find the same thing as Stevie. If I’d asked something book related, I’m betting there wouldn’t have been a lot of answers (based on past experience). Since I broke out of the box, I got more responses, but still not a lot.

  3. I wonder if people are “surveyed out.” We’re always being asked questions by random websites, our banks, etc.

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