Hero Appeal

The last week or so we've been talking about heroes -- which ones are memorable, what you look for in a hero, what the traits of a hero are.

Margaret McDonagh, who writes for Mills & Boon medicals, pointed out a salient characteristic that seems to sell books even though we authors generally have no control over it -- the cover.

In particular, the hero on it.

If you read the comments the other day, Mags wrote to tell me how lucky I was to have a Nathan Kamp cover.

And because I am out of the loop these days with regard to the cover art (this wasn't always the case, as my editors can tell you), I said, "Who?" And then I said, "Did he paint it?"

Mags said he did not. She said he was the gorgeous guy masquerading as Flynn.

I think he did a pretty good job. He certainly can be Flynn any time he wants as far as I'm concerned. I didn't have him in mind for Flynn because I didn't know he existed, but I must admit he makes it a very pick-up-able cover and I owe the artist big-time for that one.

I used to send in pictures -- scrap, they call it in the art department. But the truth is that doing so actually get some of the heroes I wanted on my covers.

But recently, fixated by a certain man in a towel, I haven't seen the point. They'd never get him!

Still, like the people who buy books because of the cover (yes, I've done it, too!), I like to know what my hero looks like. I like to have a man in mind to envision in the scenes I'm writing.

And I very much appreciate it when the artist comes up with someone who looks remotely like I pictured him.

For a while there I got the same man on lots of my covers. Nineteen of them, I think, at last count. Maybe twenty-three counting reprints. I don't recall right now.

I didn't complain. In fact, as often as possible, I asked for him. He was, to my mind, in almost every case, the perfect "McAllister hero."

And when he wasn't, I had another hero in reserve who fit the bill for all the rest. Between the two of them, I could cast almost every book -- providing myself with a tycoon or a cowboy or a ballplayer or a fireman or a photographer or a woodworker or almost anything I could think of.

It made life simple. It made me like the looks of my heroes. And it saved oodles of time doing the art sheets.

And whenever I got either of those guys, I was pleased. Sometimes more pleased than others, I admit, but only because some artists' renderings appealed more than others. Some were better artists, some caught more clearly the essence of the story.

I loved my first Dream Chasers cover. One of the later ones I quite liked, too. I was fond of MacKenzie's Baby and Call Up The Wind and Finn's Twins! They all caught both the hero and the feel of the book.

But sometimes, they don't even have to do that. The last really terrific cover I had -- before Flynn -- was The Inconvenient Bride.

Once I got over the Alp in the Bahamas and the fact that the book mostly took place in New York City, I embraced it as my own. Who cared that in the book the heroine had purple hair and the hero was a straight-arrow tycoon (well, mostly), it is my very own From Here To Eternity cover, it has great people on it, and even though the story mostly takes place in New York City, I'm delighted by it.

It feels right. And that's Dominic. Period.

I care that the people are right on the covers, that they fit the book even if the setting doesn't always get there. I like the mood to work and reflect the tone of the story. The Inconvenient Bride reflected the emotion between Dominic and Sierra.

And I think One-Night Love Child's artist caught the emotion between the hero and heroine. Mostly I think he caught the hero. I can look at it and say, "Yep, that's Flynn."

What about you -- readers and writers? Do you pick up books by the cover? Do you care? Do you put books down if you hate the cover?

Does the portrayal of the hero matter?