Tattoos, Black Leather and Big Guns: The Conundrum Surrounding Paranormal Fantasy Book Covers
In an emerging genre with almost limitless potential for jaw-droppingly creative and singularly unique storylines – essentially an amalgam of elements from fantasy, romance, mystery, horror, etc. – it continues to amaze me that as a whole, paranormal fantasy has some of the most formulaic and conventional book cover art in all of genre fiction. The following description perfectly describes a sadly large percentage of recent paranormal fantasy book covers: a scantily clad female protagonist (almost always wearing black leather and frequently tattooed), wielding some kind of weapon (sword, dagger, pistol, etc.), posed seductively in front of a full moon and/or urban nightscape.
Off the top of my head, here’s a list of a few recent and upcoming releases that fit this description perfectly: Jeaniene Frost’s stellar debut Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress Series #1); Adrian Phoenix’s A Rush of Wings and In the Blood; Karen Chance’s Midnight's Daughter; Kim Harrison’s White Witch, Black Curse; and the upcoming Huntress and Must Love Hellhounds anthologies, to name just a few. There are literally dozens if not hundreds more examples...
In a recent interview with Adrian Phoenix, she stated that the scantily clad, gun wielding female on the cover of both of her Maker’s Song novels, A Rush of Wings and In the Blood, wasn’t even the saga’s protagonist, FBI special agent Heather Wallace! “I don't think they were intended to [be],” she said, and added that the marketing department at Pocket Books “studied the covers of other paranormal fantasy/urban fantasy books that were selling well and had the cover art designed to draw the eye and the hand.”
I have a big problem with this kind of marketing philosophy, although I completely understand the rationale behind it. I grew up in the era of albums – do you remember when music was released on big vinyl LP records? As a kid, the thing that I absolutely loved about buying a new album – say Neil Young’s Decade, Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones, or Roxy Music’s first album – was experiencing the album cover: immersing myself in the artwork, the design, the liner notes….
Successful cover art – like Led Zep’s Houses of the Holy, for example – not only accentuated the music but gave it a kind of artistic dimensionality as well. And, in my mind, that’s what good book covers should ideally do...
It’s sad to think that in a genre with so many pioneering authors and groundbreaking storylines, the cover art that accompanies these stellar paranormal fantasy novels is so hackneyed and clichéd… Not that I have anything against scantily clad heroines packing heat and wearing black leather mini skirts and thigh high boots, but c’mon already! Like the albums from the ‘70s that I mentioned earlier, innovative works of art – be it psychedelic rock or paranormal fantasy – deserves equally innovative packaging…
I just wanted to name a few good Fantasy covers: Lamentation (Psalms of Isaak Series #1) and Canticle by Ken Scholes, Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - I Love these Covers! They're absolutey wonderful. I would pick these up in a heartbeat, no contest, even if I didn't know how Awesome they're going to be 
!
Krista
