Earlier this week author Maureen Johnson tweeted:
I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says, “Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it. – signed, A Guy”
— maureenjohnson (@maureenjohnson) May 6, 2013
Then she challenged readers to redesign covers of books by male authors and make them more female-friendly. You can see some of the results (including some “female”-to-“male” switches) here.
The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri designed generic “female” and “male” book covers. Can you guess which is which?:
While I imagine a lot of men (and perhaps a few women) would not be caught dead in public with a “girly” book cover, few if any women would have a problem with a “manly” cover. Just as boys and men are a lot less likely to read books by and about women than girls and women are to read books by and about men.
