Aphrodisia Authors :: Blog

One thing Kensington consistently excels at is extraordinary cover art. I’ve had some absolutely gorgeous, sensual covers for my Wolf Tales series, and there have been others–Elizabeth Amber’s Lords of Satyr series comes to mind–that have been just as beautiful, and every bit as sexy. I’ve never felt there was anything at all offensive about any of the covers, so imagine my surprise when I got a couple of author copies of my latest book, the anthology Sexy Beast V that I’m in with Vonna Harper and Crystal Jordan, and realized the bottom half of the cover had been whited out with some funky, foggy looking smears! It turns out that one of the major bookstore chains disapproved of the art because the model’s hip and thigh were exposed. Now, considering that I’ve had more than one past cover with entirely naked couples on the front, I’ll admit I was really surprised that this beautiful cover, out of all the others, was singled out as one that someone, somewhere thought offensive. I did an obviously skewed poll (I was asking my readers, after all) what they thought of the two covers. I have both of them posted side by side on my website (in case I can’t figure out how to post them here) if you’d like to take a look at them: http://www.katedouglas.com/eroticromance/id57.htm To my surprise, I’ve had almost three hundred responses! A few folks agreed with the bookseller and figured that the original art might be too racy for public display, but the bulk of the replies were in favor of the original. Many of them mentioned Elizabeth’s books, since there is even more nudity on those covers, but a lot of them wondered if the model had been a woman in the same state of undress, if anyone would have complained. In fact, that comment came up so often that it really made me wonder if the decision was, indeed, sexist? Would a naked woman have passed muster where my gorgeous naked guy got covered up? Do sexy covers catch your eye and make you pick up a book, or do you find yourself passing them by, embarrassed by the naked bodies on display? What do you think? Personally, I go for the sexy ones–they catch my eye AND my attention and definitely make me want to pick up the book and at least read the blurb on the back. A vast majority of the readers who responded to my question said exactly the same thing, but, like I said, they’re my readers and already openly admit to liking the sexy stuff! I’d love to hear your opinion…and I’d also like to know what your favorite book cover is by any author in the Aphrodisia line. I think they’re all posted here on the site. Thank you!