Confused about book cover criteria.

[Deleted member 167438]

Ok, maybe you guys can help me out here. My book covers keep getting rejected for showing too much skin, yet my latest book cover had the main character fully clothed and showing even less skin than the original.

It is frustrating because all of these covers are fine on amazon and there are lots of book covers more raunchy. I just need to know what the damn criteria is so I can stick to it, or there should at least be some kind of consistency. Beyond that I spend a decent chunk of time working on the covers, specifically for SH so they are less raunchy than the ones I use elsewhere.

I was even thinking of getting some artwork commissioned for some of my book covers here but what's the point of paying someone if they are just going to be rejected?

Someone tell me what I am missing here and how I can cover up more skin without putting a burka on both characters?

@Tony what am I missing here?

Here are two of the covers in question:

 

[Worthy39]

Well, I don't write the genre, so I've never had this exact issue before, but if a character had pale enough skin, at least for sites with automated reviews rather than a person reviewing it, white clothes can be flagged as skin. I've had that happen to me on a different site posting an image where someone's outfit got flagged for that reason.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Holy moly. The images are so huge. If you ever want to resize pictures, I use this here.

Other than that, I can immediately see why they'd be flagged. Their clothes look like liquid skin, especially the pale skin behind white clothes.
I can only imagine if they were wearing skin-colored cat-suits.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

It's impossible to know what the book cover bot sees as "wrong". I would suggest maybe not showing full bodies and focus on a cropped part of it, like so:

 

[Deleted member 167438]

It's impossible to know what the book cover bot sees as "wrong". I would suggest maybe not showing full bodies and focus on a cropped part of it, like so:
View attachment 43016

I'd be happy to do this if there weren't so many other examples of full bodied, less clothed women, on covers. Don't want to purposefully knee cap myself compared to others.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I'd be happy to do this if there weren't so many other examples of full bodied, less clothed women, on covers. Don't want to purposefully knee cap myself compared to others.

Sp what? Why should you be like them? *^^* Why is it so important to show skin? You make a better statement if you're not releasing a book cover that says, "LOOK AT MY BOOBS! LOOK!" ?

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Yeah, I see nothing wrong with either of those... I know the AI nanny has given me grief with some images before.


It might need to be something manually entered

 

[Deleted member 167438]

Sp what? Why should you be like them? *^^* Why is it so important to show skin? You make a better statement if you're not releasing a book cover that says, "LOOK AT MY BOOBS! LOOK!" ?

Yes. You need to follow genre conversations marketing wise. That is like book cover design 101.

I do other styles of covers (see the current one for mage's party in my signature).

I write smut. People expect a sexy cover. You might not like it but that is how the marketing game is played.

Yeah, I see nothing wrong with either of those... I know the AI nanny has given me grief with some images before.


It might need to be something manually entered

Any suggestions on getting a cover manually looked at? I'd be happy to do so I just don't know what mechanisms are in play for that to happen.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

I write smut. People expect a sexy cover. You might not like it but that is how the marketing game is played.

You both write smut lmao, no need to fight about it LMAO

 

[Deleted member 167438]

You both write smut lmao, no need to fight about it LMAO

Wasn't trying to fight, just trying to inform.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Yes. You need to follow genre conversations marketing wise. That is like book cover design 101.

I do other styles of covers (see the current one for mage's party in my signature).

I write smut. People expect a sexy cover. You might not like it but that is how the marketing game is played.

Well, no, wrong. I point to "Fifty Shades of Grey" as an example..

Just because you write smut, doesn't mean it has to be a smut cover. (And where do you get off saying I don't like smut covers??)

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Any suggestions on getting a cover manually looked at? I'd be happy to do so I just don't know what mechanisms are in play for that to happen.

put it in bug report maybe? Honestly, I just cropped the picture I wanted to use. You already gave Tony a @, so other than that, no idea

 

[Deleted member 167438]

Well, no, wrong. I point to "Fifty Shades of Grey" as an example..
View attachment 43017
Just because you write smut, doesn't mean it has to be a smut cover. (And where do you get off saying I don't like smut covers?)

Not planning to argue with you about this but if you don't know the difference in genre conventions between men and women focused smut literature covers I don't know how to help you.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Not planning to argue with you about this but if you don't know the difference in genre conventions between men and women focused smut literature covers I don't know how to help you.

I do know the genres quite well. But yes, probably wise not to argue about it - and you could let up on the insults, okay?

 

[Deleted member 167438]

I do know the genres quite well. But yes, probably wise not to argue about it - and you could let up on the insults, okay?

Sorry that you perceived any of that as an insult but you started it with saying I wasn't making a statement with my covers beyond "boobs" all the best and I hope your book view numbers do better in the future.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Sorry that you perceived any of that as an insult but you started it with saying I wasn't making a statement with my covers beyond "boobs" all the best and I hope your book view numbers do better in the future.

That wasn't meant to be insulting either, so I apologize as well. ?

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

So, yeah,

Put it in the bug report thread and hope for the best.

 

[MajorKerina]

They're kind of on the edge around the boob part I guess with the flesh tones but I've seen saucier on here I don't know what could be tripping it up

 

[Deleted member 167438]

Yeah, I see nothing wrong with either of those... I know the AI nanny has given me grief with some images before.


It might need to be something manually entered

Turns out it is NSFW according to Tony. I am tempted to go through the current covers and point out all of the covers on this site that are more NSFW than mine.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

View attachment 43054
Turns out it is NSFW according to Tony. I am tempted to go through the current covers and point out all of the covers on this site that are more NSFW than mine.

sad times.

They are provocative but not nudes...