Dressing FOR success
Last month we looked at the different categories in the romance genre, and touched on how important it was that the cover makes the genre clear to its prospective reader. So how can we break down the main signifiers for the broadest categories of cover? If we work to a hierarchy of light to heavy, it might vaguely look something like this:-
• Light lit/rom com
* Cartoon-style illustrations and block primary colours.
* Title typeface: often a curly script or fun handwriting-style font – sometimes a mix of the two. ‘A man and a woman signifies the story is mainly going to centre around a romance,’ says book blogger Linda Hill (www.lindasbookbag.com).
• Contemporary romance
* May be illustrated or photographic in style. Illustrated covers are less light hearted in tone; often in a painted watercolour style. Sometimes film-poster. More likely to feature figures of the primary couple than general women’s fiction.
* Title typeface: usually serif.
[Note from romance author and cover designer Lisa Firth: ‘There’s a
