I spent three hours yesterday looking through a stock photo site to find images for a new historical series. (I know I’ll spend an equal time today on other sites.) The setting is 1870s Texas and the genre is clean romance. So far the heroes are ranchers or cowhands, so my idea was to have a man and a horse against a background.

Although the stories are centered around a specific holiday, I didn’t want to limit the appeal by including any symbol of that–maybe just a background depicting the season.

My quandary is the number of couples in authentic dress is limited and are used and re-used within the subgenre. And I always want my covers to be “different.” My question is, for a western historical, would you expect to see a couple? Or would a lone cowboy be enticing?

I’d love to hear any and all opinions.