Author Topic: Book Covers  (Read 368 times)

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Offline Lacernella Rubra

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Book Covers
« on: March 04, 2013, 17:32:37 »
Book covers often contain some beautiful (or awful) artworks, so I decided to start this topic here. What kind of book covers do you like? Are there any covers you don't like? And, very important question, have you ever judged a book by its cover?  ;D

I used to judge books by their cover and thought the cover of Breaking Dawn was one of the prettiest I've ever seen, but while reading I realised covers can be deceiving. (Still like the Breaking Dawn cover, though, and the others in the Twilight series are nice as well. There's still a painting of the New Moon cover hanging on the wall  :D)

Nowadays I like the covers of Terry Pratchett's books, the ones drawn by Josh Kirby. It's a pitty the latest books don't have these beautiful, detailed and colourful covers anymore.  :-\

I'm not a fan of film editions I have to say, not even when the film edition has a beautiful cover. It just doesn't seem right to me, though I can't even say why.

Well, I'm sure there's a lot more I can say about book covers, but I would like to hear all your thoughts now.  ;D

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Offline Saphira

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2013, 18:58:52 »
Book covers can be very misleading indeed.

What do you think if you see this gorgeous cover?



I'm assuming you get high expectations, because who could not love such a cover? However, you get a brainless story that's just really, really bad.

But I love covers. An amazing cover alone can convince me to pick up a certain book. Sometimes it is utter brilliance, other times a huge disappointment.

It is also really interesting to take a look at the cover trends. I am mainly interested in YA books, and here are some really interesting posts on the recent cover trends:
Part 1: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/11/2013-cover-trends-part-one.html
Part 2: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/12/2013-cover-trends-part-two.html
Part 3: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/12/2013-cover-trends-part-three.html

I find it frustrating that so many covers look similar to one another. I get that it is marketing-related, but sometimes you're just looking for that one special book, not a 1000th paranormal romance that follows the Twilight-formula etc. But I guess it is getting better than dead-girls-floating-around covers?

It is startling though that most covers (at least in the YA genre) seem to portray white characters (sometimes even when the protagonist is not white). It is definitely one of the issues of the book industry (because apparently white readers won't like books with black or asian ethnicities on the cover?).
(More on this: http://www.katehart.net/2012/05/uncovering-ya-covers-2011.html)

To end on a high note, two covers that I think are amazing, with incredible stories attached to them:




Offline Lone Wanderer

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2013, 20:56:39 »
I like the Seraphina-cover! It has a realy nice atmosphere. The things you mention in your post are very interesting. It was never aware of the fact that there are mostly white people on covers. I think it's annoying when the cover doesn't correspondent with the story.
...and then comes the moment that I realize I don't like covers with (mainly) faces on them very much. They kind of spoil my imagination, I think. You have probably seen a couple of different covers of The Hunger Games (for example): well, I would never have picked that book if it was for that girl looking through a bunch of leaves. The Mocking Jay-cover was much more appealing to me.

I also agree with Lacernella Rubra. I don't like movie-covers either. They give me the feeling I'm reading a book that is based on a movie and that the way characters are portrayed in that movie is the one and only way to portray them... (that's a completely logical sentence.) The best movie-cover I've seen so far is A Game Of Thrones, which didn't remind me too much of the series.

Have I every judged a book by its cover? Yes. Lots of times. Recently I saw a book in the bookshop which had a cover that was nearly identical to the cover of Eclipse (Stephenie Meyer). I hated the book immediately, without having read even the description. (I did pick it up however - and dropped it as soon as I read that it was "even better than Fifty Shades of Grey")

Anyway, here are some of my favourites:
Spoiler (hover to show)

Offline Saphira

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2013, 21:31:54 »
I think covers with faces on them can work, but definitely not always.

Some covers with faces (or part of it) I think are stunning:







It was never aware of the fact that there are mostly white people on covers. I think it's annoying when the cover doesn't correspondent with the story.

I think that's another problem in the book industry: mostly white characters.

And I must agree with you guys, although film editions can be very pretty, usually I'll prefer the other version. I don't really know why, maybe because I don't want to see a possible interpretation of how the characters look? Although, in that case, film editions might be a smart idea. When I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the first time, I imagined charismatic and handsome Gilderoy Lockhart as this slimey monster with tentacles and his brains hanging out, so... :P

Offline Nienna

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2013, 21:39:22 »
I agree on Brisingr, nice colour combination!
And inaccuracy with the story annoys me too. I've got these books, The Black Magician Trilogy, and the characters on the covers don't even closely resemble the ones in the book!

In my opinion, actual human faces (photographs) don't have a place on the covers of fantasy books that are set in another (non-contemporary) world. For dystopian novels and paranormal contemporary novels, I don't care as much, but most fantasy books have this old atmosphere that I feel is ruined with photography. However, Saphira, I think in your examples the face works quite well :) I'm not that sure about Shadowfell, because I know Juliet Marillier's stories and they're almost always fairytale-like, in which case I don't think photographs work for me...

Terry Pratchett's covers are among my favourites as well, they're so chaotic and colourful and I think they really represent the way Pratchett writes (strange characters, lots of weird stuff happening... At the start of the book, you're looking at the cover and think: what does this all mean? But then, at the end, you look back and suddenly recognize the whole story on the cover!)
I think the Harry Potter children's edition covers (the original ones) are also very good. I remember thinking as a child: why write such a wonderful story and have such ugly drawn covers? But now, looking back, the childish drawings represents how it all began: as some sort of children's story :) So these covers are mainly my favourites for reasons of nostalgia.

Further favourites of mine:

I love it when the covers of books in a series go along well together. I think this is one nice example.


Big fan of less is more, which makes me like this covers. Two of three I haven't even read yet. (But An abundance of Katherines is on my to-read list: it's about a boy that only falls in love with girls named Katherine).

And last but not least:

I like this cover because it's so sketchy. Also, look at the others in this series: all sketchy, but the cloaked figure seems to get closer. Since I haven't read the books yet, such facts really make me curious.

As you might tell from my story above, yes, I do judge books by their cover. They are what makes a story stand out when you're browsing in a book store, so I think good covers are very important. However, most books have nice covers, so while the cover may not always grab your attention to just buy the book and read it straight away, the text on the backside may. But yes, sometimes I buy books solely for their nice covers. I even do this with cds.
Also, when there are multiple editions available, I always look for the one with the nicest cover.

Offline Lone Wanderer

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2013, 11:02:14 »
@Saphira: Haha, I like your interpretation of Lockheart  :D
Anyway, the examples you give of covers with faces are indeed quite good. I don't really like the first, but it's nice that it's at least quite different from most face-covers.  The cover of Wicked Lovely I don't really count as a face cover, since the attention goes to the hands and the flower, not to the face. The third I do like too, because it seems like a (digitally) painted face and therefore I can easily imagine it is specially made to fit the story.
I guess I agree with Nienna on that  point (no photographs on fantasy-books :P)

@Nienna: I agree with you on the serie-covers. It's one of the reasons I like the covers of the Inheritance books by Paolini. And it's the main reason that I don't like the newest book-covers of Terry Pratchett's book. I mean; they're quite nice, but they are very different of the first books!

As for The Hobbit, I prefer this version:

or, even better, the one that is illustrated by Alan Lee (a GREAT artist!)



Offline Lacernella Rubra

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2013, 20:08:17 »
@Saphira: that was an interesting read, about the Book Cover trends. I've seen it so often and even though some covers look fantastic, it annoys me when they look like the cover of another best seller. Sometimes it isn't even fair towards te story, for a cover can be just as well bad advertisement as good advertisement.

About the faces on covers. I immediately had to think of this cover:

Apart from the fact that it's photoshopped rather bad, the girl in the front is just an useless addition. The main character of the story was dark haired (or maybe red, but certainly not blonde) and eleven. As far as I can remember there wasn't one girl in the whole story that had some similarities with the girl on the cover.
It's a pity, because the book was a nice read (for a ten year old at least). It deserves a nicer cover. :)

edit: Talking about real people on book covers, I just came across this book. I think it looks beautiful. No idea what the book is about thought.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2013, 09:57:22 by Lacernella Rubra »

Offline Nienna

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2013, 21:20:49 »
So today, I did something I never consciously did before: I bought a book solely judged by its cover (and the fact that it was placed on the English fantasy/S.F. shelf, which means the book's genre should be right for me).

The book's called Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick and its cover looks like this:


Don't ask me what the books about, because I don't know yet (except that it's supposed to be about two people who love each other and keep encountering each other in different lifetimes in different ages and there's something with bloody sacrifices somewhere...) But the cover's pretty, right? It's actually better in real life.

Offline Lone Wanderer

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Re: Book Covers
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2013, 17:06:33 »
Somehow the cover reminds me of Christmas  :D It's a nice cover, but I think it's the title of the book that makes me interested... hm... (I like wintertales, that's why xD)

Fun thing is: the more I look at it, the creepier it seems to get :P