Every book has a cover of some sort that contrary to popular belief is meant to be judged, each fulfilling various purposes like projecting it's genre and tone, grabbing attention and differentiating itself from other books.
A cover I personally like is for Bloody Rose that shows various fantasy characters with the title characters red hair standing out amongst the blue and brown color pallet illustrated in a rough style that is kind of reminiscent of old pulps. It immediately gets your attention and let's the potential reader know that it is pulp like fantasy.
A cover I hate is the Smoke theif by shawnna abe because it is misleading. A dragon with a tail in its own mouth with green smoke in the background gives you the idea that it is some kind of fantasy adventure rather than a wierd dragon romance novel.
You also have genre cover stereotypes. Spy thrillers with either a national symbol defaced in someway or a schematic of a piece of technology. War nonfiction of a black and white photo a soldier with a gun. Fantasy that is just a line up of the adventuring party. How do you think these stereotypes developed and what marketing purposes do they serve.
You also have the dreaded movie tie in covers that this sub hates that serves a marketing purpose on its own that just pisses off those who liked the books before.
TLDR: what book covers do you like? What book covers do you hate? What book covers do you find misleading or the inverse stereotypical? What are some intresting marketing tricks that make book covers work? If you have other random thoughts please share.
by Vexonte
2 Comments
The dark blue Gatsby cover with the woman’s face in the sky is genius.
I’ve actually been reading Naomi Klein’s book “Doppelgänger” and in it, she talks about her own book “No Logo”— a book she wrote that argues against self-branding (in 2002), so the cover is pretty genius. Black with simple block letters in primary colors inside a simple white box. Looks 200% like a logo.
Also ironical, considering what happened later in Klein’s life with the Doppelgänger.