Manly Men

I had a very exhausting weekend--most of it spent clicking on photo after photo of half-naked men. Yes, my weekend was brutal. But I did it all for you.

The sad part is, I never found the perfect guy for the cover of my next book. There was a deficit of manly men. 

There were plenty of boy-men, suitable for YA. There were also a lot of men that would've worked for gay fiction. But there was nothing (I liked) for heterosexual tastes, men with hair on their chest and a serious 'I can protect you' expression. Men who looked old enough to know how to make love to a woman.

Most of the guys had shaved chests, over-the-top abs, or else they were oiled up like man-hams in a greased pig contest. Some wore stupid grins. Others looked either bored or uncomfortable when paired up with women. 

I tried one model because he had some nice stubble on his chin and a melancholy expression that would've worked for this story line. He wasn't particularly buff, but neither was he boyish. I slapped him onto my background and IMMEDIATELY two manly men on my panel of judges declared: Too gay.

Oy.

I'm a little limited because I already paid for a month's subscription to this art database. I don't want to spend more money and time looking at men. (Strange as that may sound.)

I pulled some more model photos and one might make the cut. He looks familiar to me, or more to the point, his tattoo looks familiar. It's a set of wings tattooed on his back, which is rather apropos. 

I have to admit, I've always been hypercritical of male models on romance book covers. I like men to look like real men, masculine, filled-out, and athletic. Super muscles and abs just look dumb unless the main character is a bodybuilder.

And what is with all the shaved chests? I have never met a straight man with a shaved chest. Is that new? Do men shave their chests and grease their bodies nowadays?

I know I've been out of the market for a while, but surely it hasn't changed that much. 

How do you feel about men on cover art? Man-hams or guy-next-door?

For the record, I would've rather just used a prop as the focal point, but those sorts of covers aren't as easily remembered.