I was pleased today to reach No.6 in the top 100 free downloads (thanks to the 854 who have downloaded ‘A House Without Windows’ so far) when I logged in to AmazonUK. However, I thought I’d also write about what I saw when I checked my book’s progress on the top 50 free page – how many bare-chested muscly men are on the front covers!
Is this a new trend? Out of the top 50 I could spy 17 bare and hairless macho torsos (do these blokes shave their chests then, or what?), rippling with muscles. Another 4 muscle-bound hunks had a Bruce Willis-type white vest on. So that’s nearly half of the covers yesterday on the front page of the free downloads that all showed more or less the same thing.
Of the top 50 paid downloads there were three hunks whose torsos were clothed in either a shirt or a shirt or jacket. Two more were lifting up their vests to expose nipples and six-pack style rippling muscles, and one chap looked like he’d forgotten to do up his flies after having been greased in copious amounts of Vaseline (perhaps his fingers kept slipping on the zip?).
So… chaps… do these examples of male perfection cause you to look in the mirror and decide to visit the gym? It’s a question that needs to be answered I think. As far as I’m concerned, when I see young beautiful women on front covers dressed in impossibly high stilettos and not much else, all I can think of is how much trouble they’re going to have with their backs when they get to my age!
Another question…. Do you think I should I put a half-naked man on the front covers of my books?
Off to my grandson’s 4th birthday party now… I look forward to reading your answers later on.
Ashlynn Waterstone said:
Congrats on the ranking.
Personally, I don’t like it when any gender is put on a cover with barely any clothing on. Especially brawny males who look like they are about to strip all the way off. Yuck! Nothing to leave to the imagination. Aren’t books about the reader’s imagination?
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Stevie Turner said:
Supposed to be, yes. No I personally wouldn’t buy a book with a brawny male on the cover either…
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robertawrites235681907 said:
I really enjoyed A house without windows, Stevie. I don’t think I would have read it, even for free, if it had a half naked man on the cover. What would that have to do with your excellent story? If I am buying a romance book, that would be different, of course. I don’t read much romance.
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Stevie Turner said:
Neither do I, and I find the half naked men off-putting actually.
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Clive said:
Congratulations on making the charts! As to muscly men, there’s nothing new there: ‘romance’ books are aimed at an audience that likes to see them, just as erotica novels often feature the female variant (preferably without chest hair).
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tidalscribe said:
Personally I prefer hairy chests, but I like my book covers with non human scenery as I wouldn’t want men to think they were being objectified! Though I wouldn’t be averse to a fireman calendar.From Rome a few years back my daughter brought me a priest calendar and I thought it was a joke ( think Father Ted ), but it was serious, fully garbed handsome young preists.
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Stevie Turner said:
I prefer hairy chests too – more manly I think!
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Darlene said:
That is why I preferred the cover of Lily. I am so not into the bare-chested men on covers. So please don´t start putting them on your books. Have a great time at the party!
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Stevie Turner said:
No, don’t worry Darlene, I’ve no intention of doing that!
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franklparker said:
Like the stories under those covers, those men are not real
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Stevie Turner said:
Nope.
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jwebster2 said:
congrats indeed
As to the hairless male chests, I never work without a shirt on because if you’re working outside in the countryside, the flies will eat you alive.
So to me they’re just poseurs who jog from gym to tanning salon and back to the gym 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
You’re obviously a practical man, Jim! I find that the hairless tattooed male chest is really not for me.
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jwebster2 said:
Also anybody with tattoos who goes about without a shirt is just going to get the tattoos ruined. I remember the lads who came out of the war with tattoos and twenty years later they were pretty unreadable 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
And what happens to tattoos when the skin is old and wrinkled? Whatever happens, it ain’t going to be pretty…
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jwebster2 said:
It’s like the old lady said, ““My niece had doves tattooed on her breasts, when she gets to my age, they’ll be vultures.”
🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Lol!
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The Story Reading Ape said:
CONGRATS, Stevie 😀
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks Chris.
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