What makes a good romance book cover?

When I was in high school I started reading romance books around the time I was 14-15. My Mum got me into them. I used to LOVE THEM but I hated the front covers. I was so embarrassed by them. They were the cliche tacky ones with a bare chested man wearing tight leather pants fondling some woman with hair down to her ass and large, heaving boobs bursting against a tight bodice that looks about to burst. I used to try to hide the covers behind my hand when I read the books in school. I didn't mind the covers. I thought they were hilarious and corny looking, sure, very 1980's. What worried me was being teased by others for reading romance books. I was a shy, timid little thing in school. I got teased pretty bad in high school. Thankfully, no one ever noticed I was reading romance books. If they had I would've been teased for reading "porn" probably! Romance books are not porn but some people think they are. Eye roll!

With the invention of eBook readers people don't have to worry so much about being embarrassed by raunchy book covers because people can't see them! Ah, what a wonderful little invention! Women can now read their smut in peace. There is a God. If only there had been eBooks when I was in high school ten years ago!

What makes a good romance book cover? I was browsing Amazon when I came across this little gem!

There are so many things wrong with that cover I do not know where to begin. How about, firstly, the title? "An American Bull dog"? Really? The title is bad. It's almost as bad as "The Greek Seaman" Why, exactly? Because it conjures up all the wrong mental images. Just take a look at the front cover. Why is a bull dog center stage in the front cover? Why is there a half naked man with unbuttoned pants looking down at it lovingly? And why, why, is the woman in the book in the far right corner looking off to the side like that? Who exactly is the main character of this book? The dog? Or the woman? Who is the relationship about? The man and the dog? Or the man and the woman? Because the man looks more happy to see the dog. He is not paying any attention at all to the woman. The woman is the least important thing in the whole cover. Why, why, is the dog bigger than her? Shouldn't the dog be...I don't know...to the far right? Not center stage? And shouldn't the man look more happy to see the WOMAN instead of a dog?

The book is actually doing really well on Amazon despite it's horrible cover. It's probably an okay book...but I can't get past it's god awful cover.

On the other side of the coin is this cover! "Plucking the Pearl" has probably the raunchiest most pornographic book cover I have ever seen! It's a great cover though. It's high quality, a lot of effort has gone into it, and most importantly it looks PROFESSIONAL and makes sense which "An American Bull Dog" was lacking!

At the same time, though..."Plucking the Pearl" is hilarious to look at. It goes a little too far in raunchiness. If it was my book after I got done laughing hysterically from sheer embarrassment, I would be proud of it...but also afraid, a little bit, to show it to anyone I know. Like my Mum for example. I've never seen a romance book with so much nudity on the cover! I am not a prude (far from it) but this one does make me blush! The good thing about this cover is that it attracts a lot of attention (both good and bad) to it. I don't know if I would like one of my covers to ever been that rude looking though! There's always the chance that Facebook (or another website) would not let me post it because they might think it's much too sexxxxy.