Harlequin's Looking For a Few Good-Looking Men

Posted on March 27, 2007

Book publisher Harlequin is looking for a few good-looking men to grace the covers of its romance novels. So what, you might ask, is wrong with the male models that traditionally grace the covers? Apparently, they're too small in the pec department, for one thing.

In the past the publisher has used modeling agencies to supply it with the models for its book covers. Runway models don't always fit the bill for some romance novel characters who may be a decade or two older than the 20-something models.

Harlequin spokeswoman Marleah Stout tells Today, "We're looking for some guys that are not your usual models, but have that iconic look that women go for -- sexy, sensitive, beautiful and fit. We want real men ... exactly what you think in your mind when you're fantasizing or imagining that ideal man."

We went browsing through the romance titles on our to be read shelf, and we were struck by how many romance novels don't even have men on the covers at all. We're seeing more women on the covers and cartoon characters. Lots of cartoons. Oh, and lots of vampire covers. Those are super hot.

But back to Harlequin's troubles. We think they should chat with Christine Feehan, who writes a gazillion bestsellers for both Leisure Books and Berkley. She and her publishers' art department seems to have the macho cover thing down cold. And, of course, we read everything she writes.

In fact, we are getting quite grumpy waiting for the arrival of the next Carpathian book, Dark Possession, which is due out in August, 2007 from Berkley.