Cartoon Covers on Romance Novels: Yay or Nay?
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but how do cartoon covers on romance novels stack up? Are they good or bad for the genre? And why does it matter if you don’t regularly read romance?
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Do you remember when nearly every romance novel cover had a woman in a flowing nightie or historical costume with exposed cleavage on it? And how there was always a muscular, bare-chested man gripping her torso or carrying her like she was a small child on it? And how they were always frozen in some dramatic pose, eyes closed, lips parted, in front of some hyper realistic natural landscape as their long, windswept hair (they both usually had long, windswept hair) flowed behind them? And how so many people made fun of them by mocking their poses?
Those older romance covers were highly sexualized and clearly marketed toward a specific audience: suburban, middle-class white women who fantasized about being whisked away by a romantic hero to some place far, far, far away (in time and space) from the drudgery of their everyday domestic lives. They were usually centered around the woman on the cover’s fantasy, which was newer at the time, though they were repetitive and often centered around the woman being ‘rescued’ by the ‘hero’ instead of rescuing herself. They also closed a lot of people off to buying and reading romance novels because, let’s face it, there was zero discretion. Wherever romance readers were, people knew exactly what they were reading when they saw these book covers and judged them for it. Not to mention that the covers usually only depicted white, hetero-normative couples and blatant, patriarchal stereotypes.
So in many ways, the move book marketers made from those highly erotic romance covers (‘clinch covers’) to the less raunchy, cuter cartoon covers in the 2010s makes sense. First, they no longer needed to pay for expensive photo shoots with high-profile models like Fabio (who was a big deal in the 90s) to grace their covers, especially once advances in digital imaging technology became more mainstream. Second, cartoon covers began to offer potential readers more discretion when buying and reading romance novels in public and began to appeal to a newer group of readers who were drawn to their brighter, more inclusive images that left more room for potential readers’ imaginations.
The bright, fun designs of cartoon covers on romance novels have proven time and time again (especially at the height of when the trend was taking off) to increase sales for romance novels, especially self-published romance novels, because potential readers find them less intimidating, more inclusive, easier to share across social media (hence the birth of BookTok and Bookstagram), and appreciate their discretion. However, many readers have also said they believe the cartoon covers further infantilize the romance genre, which is already looked down upon (probably because it’s primarily centered around women’s interests and fantasies, and exploring emotional depths— but that’s another post for another day because there’s a lot to unpack there). And some readers claim cartoon covers don’t always accurately convey the context of the story they’re marketing behind their covers, especially when those stories are full of explicit sexual scenes. Additionally, there is worry that more and more authors and publishers are going to use AI to make these cartoon covers in the future.
I was originally on the side of readers who found the cartoon covers to be infantilizing and wondered how readers would connect the cartoon images to potential swoon-worthy book boyfriends or plots centered around deeper, human connections. And I was downright shocked the first time I read a cartoon-covered romance novel a friend recommended to me in the early aughts that ended up having a ton of spice in it. It honestly confused me for a beat when I first saw its cover, as it didn’t seem to match her synopsis of the book, so much so that I was hesitant to read it, thinking it would be full of cheesy clichés and adolescent tropes. But I trusted her recommendation and read it anyway, inevitably becoming so immersed in its story and characters (who did have depth to them) that I was able to forget all about its cover by the time I was done reading it.
But now, if I’m honest, I still don’t know where I stand on these cartoon covers. On the one hand, I appreciate how they’re more discreet because it makes them less awkward to share with a friend or read by the pool as children wander around, which also ensures more people will read them. (I am not a diehard romance reader by any means but do believe everyone should read a romance novel every now and then, especially men— but again, that’s another post for another day because there’s a lot to unpack there). Yet on the other hand, I do think cartoon characters do make many romance books appear silly and childish on the outside when they are often anything but on the inside, even the funnier and more dramatic ones. And don’t even get me started on the cartoon people on these covers who don’t even have faces…
Though there is this part of me that knows exactly why we’re even having this conversation about the pros and cons of cartoon covers on romance novels in the first place: Fiction women can see themselves in and relate to on a personal level is never taken seriously, regardless of book covers— Even when romance novels gross the highest sales and revenue for publishers of all shapes and sizes, regularly outperforming other genres. Even when the fictional protagonists in these novels are doctors and spies and chemists and lawyers, and hold other traditionally prestigious professions, along with genuinely interesting perspectives and life concerns that include everything from getting promotions and professional recognition to living a more authentic life to innovating something new for humankind to dealing with a parent’s death or a toxic boss or lingering traumas. And even when women make up to around 80% of the total book-buying market. Still, even then, women’s nuanced perspectives and concerns and relationships in fiction are reduced to frivolous distractions that don’t mean anything… at least, when the general public encounters them via a romance novel cover first.
I guess what I’ve come to realize is that whether romance novels have contrived romantic poses full of sexual innuendos or cartoon characters with bright colors on them, people will judge them and misunderstand and misrepresent them in the general public… until they get to know more about what’s really inside their pages. Which may not happen until more of these books are recommended by friends to friends who actually read them, which is probably much easier to do when they’re made easier to recommend via less intimidating and explicit covers. And I am speaking from personal experience here.
Bottom line: Whatever gets more people buying and reading and talking about romance books, and books in general, is good in my book, because then maybe, just maybe, we’ll all be one step closer to understanding and accepting that women’s nuanced perspectives are nothing to laugh at, especially when they are the backbone of the entire book-buying market and represent one of the largest sectors of the human population.
We also can’t forget how cartoon-covered romance novels are opening doors for so many other nuanced and inclusive perspectives on romance and relationships in fiction too— Hello, Heated Rivalry, Get a Life, Chloe Brown, The Kiss Quotient, You Had Me at Hola, and many, many others— which is also a post topic worth writing about and or reading about another day…
Today’s Dialogue
Do you think cartoon covers on novels are a good or a bad thing?
Do you judge books by their covers?
What’s the last romance novel you read? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?
© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
Community Notes
THIS WEEK’S WRITING SHARE IS LIVE IN THE CHAT
What did you write this week? What felt most alive in your writing this week?
Share something you wrote this week—finished or unfinished. A paragraph, a fragment, a line, or even something you’re still shaping.
Or share some of your writing based on a writing prompt shared in a previous Daily Drafts & Dialogues post.
EGALITARIAN BOOK CLUB
The POLL for July’s selection is up in Storygraph and closes in 6 days.
The options are:
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Japanese Gothic by Sunyi Dean
[1] SOURCES
Illustrated Covers Aren’t A Conspiracy to Belittle Readers by Jessica Pryde. Book Riot. 11.11.2019
Why Does Every Romance Novel Have the Same Cartoon Cover Right Now? by Kayleigh Donaldson. Paste. 2.1.2024
Visualizing Romance Novel Covers by Morgan Stevens. Center for Data Innovation. 10. 27. 2023
Romance is the Leading Growth Category for US Print Books This Year, NPD Says by Circana. 9.13.2022
