geekySome of my books are pre-cover ARCs. (There are two kinds of ARC. Some, like the ones for Rosemary and Rue, are essentially mock-ups for the finished book; they have front covers, they have back covers, and they look like books, except for the big "NOT FOR SALE" printed all over them. Others are basically bound manuscripts, with plain heavy-paper covers, and look more like the spec scripts that sometimes show up in specialty bookstores. I don't know if there's a technical term for these, so I just call them "pre-cover ARCs" and have done.) These are always interesting, because it means I'm reading them based on nothing but the back cover blurb.
How much does a cover matter? We're always told not to judge a book by its cover, but how much does the cover really matter?
It matters a lot.
The book I just read (which will not be named, because dude, you do not slag on other people's cover art; it's simply not okay) was in a genre I'm fairly fond of; I have an ARC not because I was asked to do a pre-review, but because the book is already out, and so the ARC got shoved off on me. No objections here, as I always buy books that I enjoyed in ARC—I consider it my part of the social contract. "I liked your book when I saw it in an advance form, so here is some money." Much like buying a book I enjoyed when I got it from the library. Anyway:
I had actually seen this book on store shelves, and totally failed to notice it in any meaningful way, because the cover was so non-appealing. I glanced at it, shook my head, and glanced over it. I didn't even realize I'd seen it—when I finished the ARC, I went to the bookstore, hunted down the book, and was gobsmacked to realize that it was "oh, that one." I would never have given the book the credit it deserved, judging solely from the cover. Which would have sucked.
(I realize that giving a positive, if vague, review, and then failing to name the book, is really annoying. I promise to review the book later, when it no longer auto-associates with my kvetching about its cover art.)
Covers matter. Covers matter a lot. More and more, I'm coming to realize that a good cover can make all the difference in the world between a book getting snatched off a store shelf that same book only getting read when somebody shoves it into your hands.
What covers do you especially love, or hate?
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May 14 2009, 17:34:44 UTC 8 years ago
Okay, this one may be controverisal, but I love the covers to the Twilight saga. They honestly have very little to do with the books, but they are so bold and graphic that they are unforgettable. I actually picked the first one up and read it because I had seen so many teenagers toting it around the high school and the cover was so intriguing that I couldn't resist.
I've loved a lot of Stephen King's covers over the last few years...Cell and Duma Key come to mind immediately as colorful and eye catching. I disliked the cover of Just After Sunset, as I thought it bland and reminiscent of Christ-lit books.
May 14 2009, 18:15:22 UTC 8 years ago
I found them little more than a hack attempt to be pretentious, and had passed them up the first time I looked at them. And cheap. No artist got paid for those covers - stock photos and some CGI time, at best. (Artwork ALWAYS costs more than photographs. Ask anyone who worked at TV Guide.) Even the human being was omitted after the first cover!
Then I was told I needed to read them, and I did - the first book. Once.
The writing inside was worse than the covers, and I happily packed it up and mailed it away to someone who wanted it.
I have bookcovers for paperbacks that make me cringe to read them in public - it's an old habit. Should go look under a few them - it's almost a given I will 'meh' most cover art, just give me something I can stand to read!
Please to be doing away with the lavender foils script that cover the entire cover - that's a turnoff.
If your characters look at me from the cover of the book - WIN. Thousand yard stare without any good reason? Not so much.
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May 14 2009, 17:40:27 UTC 8 years ago
I think that since this book is now repackaged as half of "Cordelia's Honor," the cover is gone from bookstores. But we still own it, and I still can't stand it.
May 15 2009, 00:13:56 UTC 8 years ago
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May 14 2009, 18:30:00 UTC 8 years ago
The big difference, in this case, is that Toby is a) brunette—gasp! What a boring hair color! People don't really have that hair color, do they?!—and b) about as sexy as a stick. She's an Ace, not a Rose, and that's very rare on current store shelves. So for people who have a stake in the current genre, she's sort of "wait, is that girl...wearing clothes?", which becomes a selling point.
It's weird but true.
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May 14 2009, 17:47:30 UTC 8 years ago
Of course, I also get annoyed when I can't remember 3/4 of the names in the book because they're impossible to spell/pronounce in my head, so maybe I just dislike Salvatore's writing style to begin with? I have no idea. But the cover art does not help.
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May 14 2009, 17:55:49 UTC 8 years ago
Fortunately, the series had established itself well enough in my mind that I was buying for Honor Harrington, rather than looking at the cover to decide.
May 14 2009, 22:24:46 UTC 8 years ago
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May 14 2009, 17:59:48 UTC 8 years ago
More recently (a lot more recently), the packaging of the hardcover for Michael Chabon's nonfiction book Maps and Legends is astonishing. Three separate, nested, die-cut dust jackets. That may have made the difference in getting me to buy the hardcover, instead of waiting for the paperback.
May 14 2009, 20:48:09 UTC 8 years ago
For the most part, that worked for me. I got a lot of good SF because I bought good art.
On the reverse, the covers on many of the Tanya Huff novels were a big turnoff for me, and I never picked one up until one of my students raved about her, and I realized I knew her from the filk convention circuit. I had her sign a book for my student, and picked up a few for myself, and adored her writing.
I like the cover for _Rosemary and Rue_. The person on the cover needn't be beautiful to be interesting. If shelved in my bookstore in the correct genre, I'd pick it up based on the cover alone, even without the teasers I've gotten online.
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May 14 2009, 18:10:17 UTC 8 years ago
Oh, and Ravens in the Library. I've *never* seen cover art so *detailed*. Though I committed to buy that book sight unseen on the strength of three authors in it: The other two are Gaiman and the Bard herself.
But if anybody ever wins the lottery and just can't think of anything else to do, sending me a a Michael Whelan coffee table book would not go amiss. :)
May 18 2009, 14:29:24 UTC 8 years ago
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May 14 2009, 18:12:16 UTC 8 years ago
Synchronicity in that "Earthquake Weather" is playing on filk.com right now as well.
Offhand I can't recall any that turned me away from reading something by an author or genre that I enjoy, but I have encountered some where the cover has nothing to do with the story/plot/characters and sets my nerves jangling after I finish the book. OTOH, I have bought books based on really good cover art and been horribly disappointed in the contents between the front and back covers.
I like cover art that shows that the artist has at least read some of the story and has an idea of the contents.
May 18 2009, 14:30:26 UTC 8 years ago
Yay.
In cases where the art totally fails to mesh with the contents, that's often not the cover artist's fault; they may get a paragraph summary or less to work from, and just have to hope they hit the right combination of elements.
May 14 2009, 18:36:22 UTC 8 years ago
But when I am looking for a new author, the cover is what makes me turn the book around and look at the blurb.
I tried the Kitty books - werewolf DJ because of the cover, and the Kelley Armstrong series because of the cover to Dime Store Magic.
I look for women on the cover. Not in beefcake poses. If there is a women on the cover, there might be one as a main character inside the book.
I know I almost didn't read the Patricia Briggs series _because_ I disliked the cover. But I love coyotes and were that aren't wolves, so eventually, I tried it.
May 18 2009, 14:34:04 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 18:37:24 UTC 8 years ago
I also don't like most of the covers that have been done for Tamora Pierce's Alanna quartet. The exception to this has been the hardcover rerelease a few years back, where Alanna actually looks like she could pass as Alan. And I love those books beyond reason.
May 14 2009, 20:34:28 UTC 8 years ago
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May 14 2009, 19:03:34 UTC 8 years ago
The Bone Doll's Twin (and its sequels) I picked up because I loved the title. The cover art did NOTHING for me---ridiculous contrived or pointless composition, washed-out color, flat, and just stylized enough that it looked like a failed attempt at being realistic.
Cast in Shadow, on the other hand, I adored the cover---striking woman dressed in black gets me every time. The covers of its sequels have gotten progressively worse, however, to the point that I wouldn't have bothered had I not already known the series.
May 14 2009, 19:11:09 UTC 8 years ago
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May 14 2009, 19:09:39 UTC 8 years ago
Covers I don't like I'm not going to name... but one in particular made me not want to read the book, which then I ended up absolutely loving. It had what (to me) looked like a "stereotypical high fantasy cover" which doesn't appeal to me. And sometimes I'm not fond of the shift from a hardback's cover to the paperback- I like the original covers of Audrey, Wait! and Looking for JJ so much better than the paperback covers.
And then, of course, there's that great cover for that Rosemary and Rue book coming out in September... ;-)
May 18 2009, 14:45:52 UTC 8 years ago
Thank you for loving my cover. :)
May 14 2009, 19:36:39 UTC 8 years ago
May 18 2009, 14:46:33 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 20:20:13 UTC 8 years ago
Cover art does nothing for me one way or the other. It's the *title* that attracts or repells me.
May 18 2009, 16:54:24 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 20:28:25 UTC 8 years ago
Con-staffer to Jay, the protagonist: "We couldn't afford Michael Whelan for Artist Guest of Honor, but we did try to get Peter Seredy. He did your cover, you know. His style is unmistakable."
Sure is, thought Jay, but my advance doesn't cover the cost of a hit man.
May 19 2009, 00:01:04 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 20:28:26 UTC 8 years ago
OTOH, I would never have picked up the Jennifer Roberson Cheysuli books had someone not shoved them in my hands-- the original cover art, that is, the new books are pretty-- because the covers were odd and not nice looking at all.
Currently, the winners are
May 19 2009, 00:01:19 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 20:35:31 UTC 8 years ago Edited: May 14 2009, 20:36:24 UTC
At a Worldcon Coffeeklatch Lawrence Watt Evans told us that the DKS cover of The Misenchanted Sword was a huge boost to it's sales.
May 19 2009, 00:01:30 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 20:47:02 UTC 8 years ago
I also have not yet seen a cover featuring 3D models that I liked.
May 19 2009, 00:01:46 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 22:46:14 UTC 8 years ago
In general, a human or humanoid figure on the cover will catch my attention. I generally read based on knowing something about the author, and second on the back cover blurb. However, if I really hate the cover art, I may put the book back before reading the blurb. Also, if the cover art is really good, I'll give the blurb more of the benefit of the doubt.
Really good cover art, for me, is a picture that tells a story, or looks like an interesting scene out of the book. Every one of the Dresden novel covers looks like a pause in the action, where someone's managed to paint a portrait of Harry during that pause. Michael Whelan's cover on The Snow Queen was an amazing story, all told in symbols in the figure's mask and the items she was holding.
I think the cover of Rosemary and Rue captures that same pause in the action, portrait in the middle of the pause, as the Dresden covers. It's a really good draw for me as the reader, a "Hey, what's going on? I want to find out!" Which leads me to buy the book in question. :)
May 19 2009, 00:02:07 UTC 8 years ago
May 14 2009, 23:20:59 UTC 8 years ago
The most amusing cover oddities I found were the British Harry Potter covers, which came in several flavors, from the cartoon-y style of the main version to a stylized black-and-white photograph of a central element of the cartoon cover (a steam train for the first, and so on.) The funny part? For the privilege of the "adult" cover and not being embarrassed to read it in public...you paid an extra pound. 4.99 vs 5.99. I laughed so hard I was sitting on the floor of the bookshop gasping (which you don't really want to do in Victoria Station, but...)
May 19 2009, 00:02:25 UTC 8 years ago
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May 15 2009, 02:32:53 UTC 8 years ago
Comics and graphic novels have their whole own world of tropes and bonuses and issues too......
But honestly? I find that I can get really, really frusterated with books with fantastic covers - because they're the ones that catch my eye again and again (which, I know is what they're meant to do) but when I've already considered the book and decided it wasn't for me then, as unfair as it is, I resent the distraction. But hey. They got a job to do... ^^
May 19 2009, 00:03:06 UTC 8 years ago
May 15 2009, 07:40:24 UTC 8 years ago
Let's see, some other favourite covers are on Kristen Britain's Green Rider, Julie E. Czerneda's A Thousand Words For Stranger and Survival, Julie E. Czerneda & Genevieve Kierans' Mythspring, Stephen Hunt's The Court of the Air(UK Hardcover edition), Sally Gardner's I, Coriander(original, not the reprint), Rachel Caine's Gale Force and Undone, Jeffrey Moore's The Memory Artists(HC)
May 19 2009, 00:03:15 UTC 8 years ago
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