Cover me. I'm going in.

I've been thinking a lot about book covers recently. It started when I saw the concept art for the fifth October Daye book, One Salt Sea, which is a big departure, color-wise, from the rest of the series. (One reader actually commented on this, saying they couldn't decide whether they liked it or not, because it was so different.) This, oddly, made me really look at the series covers as a whole. Then I started looking at the covers of other urban fantasies that I've very much enjoyed, and finally realized what it was that made my covers seem so unusual to me. Aside from the part where they're, you know, mine, and hence I emotionally regard them as practically perfect in every way.

The Toby Daye books are getting gender neutral/male covers.

Picture a generic urban fantasy cover. The odds are good, unless you were thinking of the Dresden Files or the Simon Canderous books, that you pictured a woman in tight pants and a skimpy top, probably looking exotic and dangerous at the same time. She may or may not be holding a knife. If she is, it doesn't really look like it would do all that much damage when used to stab someone, although it might use all of its extra flourishes and points to get stuck on their clothing. Despite being in mortal peril, her hair is perfect, and her makeup is expertly applied. She may or may not bear any resemblance to the woman on the other side of that cover, but by the Great Pumpkin, she is Urban Fantasy Babe, and she will cut you with her richly saturated color palette.

(To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with these covers, and I'm sort of hoping to get one for Discount Armageddon, since Verity does wear impractical shoes, skimpy clothes, and makeup. Although she wouldn't be caught dead with a knife that couldn't be used to gut a rhino, should the need arise. She is a deeply practical impractical girl.)

Now picture an urban fantasy cover for a book with a male lead. Again, the odds are good that what you're seeing is a man dressed in dark clothing, against a moody, atmospheric background. There is no random lightning; nothing is inexplicably on fire; he's probably not wearing any makeup, and his hair may very well look like he forgot to brush it last Tuesday and hasn't remembered to catch up since. If he has weapons, they're practical ones. Ditto his shoes.

Now take a look at the five currently available Toby covers. In all five, she's wearing dark clothes, including a leather jacket that, while comfortable, doesn't exactly make her look like a bad-ass leather biker babe; more like a girl raiding her boyfriend's closet because it's cold outside. On three of the five, she's wearing jeans. On one, she's wearing a dress that leaves absolutely everything to the imagination, since it's basically full medieval formal gown. On another, she has no jeans because she has no legs, but does have a black top and, again, a leather jacket. In three of the five, she's visibly, and accurately, armed. There are no poses; there are no seductive looks; there's definitely no makeup. If you ignore the fact that Toby is female, they're the kind of covers that usually go on urban fantasies with male leads.

This could not delight me more.

Toby's covers are an accurate portrayal of what you're going to find between them. If she was posed more like our friend, Urban Fantasy Babe, people would be justified in getting annoyed when Toby didn't act like her. Instead, she's posed the way the men of urban fantasy are normally posed, and she acts a lot like them, too. There may be some people who don't pick up the books because they want something sexier, but I think the people who do pick them up get what they're expecting, and I think that helps, in the long run. Truth in advertising is fun!

Thoughts?

Tags: art, contemplation, toby daye

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Cover me. I'm going in.

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