He also manages the cohesive look of all 12 lines, managing how they will all look together when sitting on a shelf at your local store. For example, if a book takes place on a Greek island, Horvath says that the art director “finds that background before shooting … match camera angles and lighting as close as possible to the image you’re going to slide into.” You can see the magical process from start to finish on the Harlequin art department Instagram.īut creating beautiful, “saleable” covers for individual books is only one part of Horvath’s job. Since Harlequin books are known for glamorous settings around the world, a process called digital compositing marries the Toronto soundstage images to stock photography backgrounds. Horvath explains that the author writes an overview and includes details about characters, key locations, and “at least three scenes that are important for understanding the feeling of the book.” If the author has a certain look for characters, clothes, or hairstyles, they can include images or suggestions for the creative team.Īccording to Lisa Wray, Harlequin’s publicity manager, 70% of Harlequin covers use local Toronto models in original photo shoots. At Harlequin, the process starts when the author fills out the Art Fact Sheet, or AFS. I asked Horvath to describe the process that translates almost 800 manuscripts a year into finished covers. Here’s to my 13-year-old self who couldn’t even imagine this happening.” Last fall, author Jayci Lee tweeted the cover of her upcoming Harlequin Desire, Temporary Wife Temptation, saying, “#KoreanAmerican MCs on the cover of a Harlequin? Priceless.
Popular harlequin romance novels movie#
Horvath explains that a book cover does the “same thing as a movie poster-it tells a story with one image.” As mainstream publishers embrace inclusive stories with wider cultural and racial representation, these covers are even more thrilling. Outsiders to the genre might not appreciate the power of a romance cover, but readers do. The white front with a round window has been a staple of the Harlequin Presents line for decades, and seeing a good one catapults me right back to the feeling of furtively scanning the spinner racks at my local library, hoping my Mom wouldn’t catch me checking out romances. I cannot overstate the sheer power of a great Harlequin cover.
Popular harlequin romance novels series#
Harlequin is most famous for publishing “category” romances-specially branded series with names such as Intrigue, Desire, and Dare-that account for a whopping 66 books per month. If you’re a romance newbie, Harlequin, now part of HarperCollins, has been publishing romance since the 1950s. In order to learn more about the creation of romance covers, I called Tony Horvath, creative director at Harlequin, at his office in Toronto. The only thing we can all agree on is that you should stop talking about Fabio covers, because that was 25 years ago, and we just want to live. ( Ask me how I know.) Bright, cartoon-style illustrated covers are hot right now, especially on trade paperbacks while mass market paperbacks mostly stick to realistic covers. The anonymity of the e-book reader is the easiest way to avoid public judgment, while others make Pinterest boards that celebrate the clinch cover in all its glory. One thing outsiders frequently mention is how awful and tacky romance covers are, which makes us feel defensive or even embarrassed. Romance readers have a complicated relationship with covers.