when will the illustrated book cover trend end?

I’m sure you’ve seen them, the romance books with illustrated cartoon covers. Maybe a character on the cover is standing upside down or is performing some other defeat of gravity. There might be a second character looking on with a dog peeking out behind them as the title of the book is boldly proclaimed across the top of the cover in bright curvy lettering. I’m not sure who started this trend or how it became so popular but these illustrated covers are a publishing trend that I dislike.

My main problem with these illustrated romance covers is that I feel the covers are confusing and don’t match the substance of the book. In my opinion, book covers are supposed to show you what kind of book you are reading and give you an expectation of what to look for in a book. A lot of sci-fi book covers have spaceships and aliens on them. If I see a cover with a pair of Adirondack chairs sitting on a porch then I know I’m probably going to read a women’s fiction book set in a beach town. If a book has a pair of glowing yellow eyes on the cover, it’s likely a horror novel.

You look at a book cover and it tells you a little story about the plot of a book. But these illustrated romance covers throw that assumption out the window. When I see these covers I have no clue as to what romance sub-genre the book is about – is it historical, contemporary, fantasy, or erotic? Are there vampires? Is it funny? Is it sad? You used to be able to look at romance covers and know right away what type of romance it was.

But now, all the romance books look almost exactly the same. These covers seem very unoriginal to me and they seem to have no connection to the story. It feels like publishers are just looking for something eye-catching and don’t care about whether the cover is related to the plot. My main gripe is that, in my opinion, if I pick up a romance book with an illustrated cover, I think I’m going to be reading a rom-com. It can be very confusing when you are reading a book that you think is chick-lit or a rom-com and then all of a sudden the tone changes or it gets really dark. I’ve definitely been burned before, thinking I was reading one kind of book and then it turned out to be completely different.

I understand and agree that this illustrated cover works well for a rom-com but not all books are rom-coms. I think it would be fine if these covers were reserved for rom-coms and light-hearted books, but I feel that when you see a specific cover you are expecting to read a specific sub-genre of book.

I personally like the old romance covers and I always knew what I was getting when I would pick up a book. I knew that if there was a woman on the cover whose dress was falling off, then it was most likely a steamy historical romance. (Plus I love those ballgown prom dresses!) If there was a woman standing on a cliff, her skirts blowing in the wind with an old house in the background, then it was probably a gothic romance. If the man on the cover was shirtless with a cowboy hat, then I knew I was reading a book set on a farm or in the wild west. Now I have none of these clues. I pick up a romance book with an illustrated cover and it could be anything!

The one thing that I do like about the illustrated covers is that they are inclusive. They include people of all shapes and colors and it’s refreshing to see some diversity on the covers. That being said, I don’t see what’s keeping publishing from having diverse people on the covers of non-illustrated books.

Instead of this illustrated cover trend, I wish that publishers would have all kinds of covers. I wonder how long this trend will last and what will be the next book cover trend.