Holly's Romance Column
Romance and the Face
Between the early seventies and the mid-eighties, romance novel covers were pretty tacky. Then the publishers discovered "The Face". They thought that women would buy novels if they were published with a pretty face on the cover. They were right...to a point.
The phenomenon of the face started with Fabio. He first appeared on some of the most popular authors' books. Didn't matter what the hero looked like Fabio appeared on the cover. If the book had a short red-haired hero, Fabio appeared on the front; if it had a lean, tall, dark-haired hero, Fabio appeared on the front. This became very annoying. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against a good looking guy, or for that matter Fabio (although he doesn't appeal to me personally) but variety is the spice of life, and it would have been nice if they could have used a model who matched the description of the author's hero.
For those of you who have never heard of Fabio, he is a very tall , blond body builder, with very strong facial features. The marketing departments did get clever at one point and started air-brushing Fabio's hair a different colour when it was called for. Still the same face and body though. Then the Fabio fad started to fade, which happens when you over-expose, and over-publicize. Our model then started to write his own romance books. I haven't read them, but apparently he has a co-author whose name only appears on the copyright page. Good for him, lose popularity as a model, go right out and write a romance novel.
Guess what? The powers that be found another to put in Fabio's place. I can't keep up with these models, and in all fairness they do the job they are paid for and do it well. It's not their fault that the marketing department plants their faces on every cover until the buying- public are sick of seeing them. I really wish that some of their models would look like regular guys. It gets kind of boring to see buffed up hard-bodies. Give me a Mel Gibson,, a Harrison Ford, or the distinguished charm of Sean Connery. They aren't buffed up but...WOW...are they sexy.
Then there is the other side of the coin… the fans of the models themselves. They buy the books because these guys are on them and the poor author is forgotten about. I ran into a person like this once. She absolute adored a particular model and bought every book he appeared on. Unfortunately, she could not remember the author and if he never appeared on her books again, she never bought them again. But I suppose everyone is happy: publisher sells book, author receives commission, woman gets face. Who cares if she never buys another book by that author? Except maybe the author...
The Boys of Romance don't seem to appear on contemporary covers. With those we seem to get scenic views. I guess contemporary men don't really look like these guys. I don't mind looking at a good looking guy, but after all, romance is about the story inside not the face on the outside.
Copyright © 1998 by Holly Bonhomme
Last update: July 11, 1998
Copyright © 1998 by Deanna Ramsay
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