Cover Art - Help or Hindrance?
This past week we had a lot of fun with the covers nominated for the 3rd Ugly Covers competition - many of them were horrible and your comments reflected amazement that they were published. The question most frequently asked was ” What were they thinking”?
As some of you know, I get very exercised about cover art (probably the only exercise I get):) because I believe it is an essential part of the marketing process in selling a book. Much has been written elsewhere about book covers and we poke fun on the site at cover art and a few publishers which one anonymous reviewer said “are almost re-defining the concept of
deliberate hideousness!” You will probably guess which publisher(s) she meant since you have seen many of their covers in the Ugly Covers competitions. It boggles my mind that some publishers release books with covers that, quite frankly, give new meaning to the word tasteless. One book cover that has been discussed on the site many times this past week is The Price of Temptation. I really don’t know what the publisher had in mind when this cover was published but it sure garnered lots of attention, which might have been the original intent.
Very few, if any, authors influence the selection of their book covers which is a pity, because covers seem to impact (positively or negatively) on book sales, and the authors are dependent on the income. Decisions re book covers are made by the Creative Directors, the marketing departments of individual publishers and, I suppose, the ultimate accountability rests with the publishers.
(for the rest of this post please go here)
As some of you know, I get very exercised about cover art (probably the only exercise I get):) because I believe it is an essential part of the marketing process in selling a book. Much has been written elsewhere about book covers and we poke fun on the site at cover art and a few publishers which one anonymous reviewer said “are almost re-defining the concept of
deliberate hideousness!” You will probably guess which publisher(s) she meant since you have seen many of their covers in the Ugly Covers competitions. It boggles my mind that some publishers release books with covers that, quite frankly, give new meaning to the word tasteless. One book cover that has been discussed on the site many times this past week is The Price of Temptation. I really don’t know what the publisher had in mind when this cover was published but it sure garnered lots of attention, which might have been the original intent.
Very few, if any, authors influence the selection of their book covers which is a pity, because covers seem to impact (positively or negatively) on book sales, and the authors are dependent on the income. Decisions re book covers are made by the Creative Directors, the marketing departments of individual publishers and, I suppose, the ultimate accountability rests with the publishers.
(for the rest of this post please go here)