I Hate YA Covers
Honestly. But what really prompted this post is this: http://inkstone.dreamwidth.org/105450.html (Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix re-covered)
Click on it, read it, but note the covers (old and new). Somewhere, as far as I can figure, there are publishers thinking that YA readers aren't very smart. Because whenever I walk into a bookstore YA section, the Twilight wannabe-covers have me walking straight out again, gagging.
By the looks of things, YA books are frequently about girls who like hanging out in shadows, and who are missing their heads above their chin or their lips, or have very nice backs. I get it. Because YA readers are dumb and can't empathise with the protagonist if the cover shows her face and the readers don't like it or don't look like it. No, seriously. Scott McCloud has covered it (see Understanding Comics), and I don't doubt some people may be that shallow if the book's blurbs or back copy isn't enough to sell it. I wanted to say "I don't understand why YA publishers are catering to this shallow group of people when you could have readers that may not mind non-white characters shown on the covers" but I actually do. It's really the world of book covers' way of catering to the lowest common denominator widest possible audience. What I don't understand is why most YA publishers now think they all have to put out cookie-cutter covers:
So. I get that there's now a drive to bump up library requests and sales of Cindy Pon's books with the old cover, showing its not!white! protagonist, to protest the new, generic covers with their ambiguously!white! head-cut-off wimmen. I'm all for the protest but I'm also conflicted.
Yes, I want covers with Asian characters clearly Asian. But (and it's rather a relief to say this because I've kept this close to my chest till now) the old cover actually did have 3 out of 4 the bad design habits of book covers that I love to hate. Actually 4 out of 5, because my original list should have itemized photorealistic art (great for looking at, but I dislike them on book covers) because I want a little bit of the protagonist's look still left to my imagination. All that said, it's still nice art, but the result was just a cover that didn't work for me--and I'm writing this because I hate that the publisher might be jumping to the conclusion that "Asian character on cover = no sales!" when it could be the distribution issues or, heck, that (I'm sorry, Cindy Pon!) while the cover would stand out in the YA section, it did (to my eye) still have design/aesthetic issues that I thought could work against sales.
I don't completely buy that Asian settings/characters are just "bad" for fiction/fantasy fiction sales. It's possible, but doesn't strike me as universal when I see fantasy/adventure cartoons for kids, or see the books in the library's children's section. On adult books (mostly non-fantasy, I now realize) I don't see covers shying away from the "exoticism" of Asia... Asian locales/characters would almost seem to be a selling point (gasp), the way they're featured visually on the covers (even if the cliches come out in full force sometimes). I don't see this on the YA shelves, but then again, the YA shelves make me gag from their goth-esque uniformity. Who knows? Maybe YA readers do purchase books the way they want to fit in in school or something--you want to be "different" enough to be cool, but not so different you get ostracized.
It's late. I'm in a rush. I don't know if I'm coherent. But I'm just pondering, once again, if this isn't just one of the fantasy genre's boneheaded moments where it's got (or had) a cover that could have been better but they hadn't the faintest clue how.
So they just blamed it on the Asian-ness and whitewashed it.
Click on it, read it, but note the covers (old and new). Somewhere, as far as I can figure, there are publishers thinking that YA readers aren't very smart. Because whenever I walk into a bookstore YA section, the Twilight wannabe-covers have me walking straight out again, gagging.
By the looks of things, YA books are frequently about girls who like hanging out in shadows, and who are missing their heads above their chin or their lips, or have very nice backs. I get it. Because YA readers are dumb and can't empathise with the protagonist if the cover shows her face and the readers don't like it or don't look like it. No, seriously. Scott McCloud has covered it (see Understanding Comics), and I don't doubt some people may be that shallow if the book's blurbs or back copy isn't enough to sell it. I wanted to say "I don't understand why YA publishers are catering to this shallow group of people when you could have readers that may not mind non-white characters shown on the covers" but I actually do. It's really the world of book covers' way of catering to the lowest common denominator widest possible audience. What I don't understand is why most YA publishers now think they all have to put out cookie-cutter covers:
- Take photo of lithe white woman.
- DARKEN THE PHOTO, airbrushing black shadows everywhere. Tattoos optional.
- Crop out face.
- Add text and maybe prop from another photo that has completely different lighting.
- ????
- PROFIT!!!
So. I get that there's now a drive to bump up library requests and sales of Cindy Pon's books with the old cover, showing its not!white! protagonist, to protest the new, generic covers with their ambiguously!white! head-cut-off wimmen. I'm all for the protest but I'm also conflicted.
Yes, I want covers with Asian characters clearly Asian. But (and it's rather a relief to say this because I've kept this close to my chest till now) the old cover actually did have 3 out of 4 the bad design habits of book covers that I love to hate. Actually 4 out of 5, because my original list should have itemized photorealistic art (great for looking at, but I dislike them on book covers) because I want a little bit of the protagonist's look still left to my imagination. All that said, it's still nice art, but the result was just a cover that didn't work for me--and I'm writing this because I hate that the publisher might be jumping to the conclusion that "Asian character on cover = no sales!" when it could be the distribution issues or, heck, that (I'm sorry, Cindy Pon!) while the cover would stand out in the YA section, it did (to my eye) still have design/aesthetic issues that I thought could work against sales.
I don't completely buy that Asian settings/characters are just "bad" for fiction/fantasy fiction sales. It's possible, but doesn't strike me as universal when I see fantasy/adventure cartoons for kids, or see the books in the library's children's section. On adult books (mostly non-fantasy, I now realize) I don't see covers shying away from the "exoticism" of Asia... Asian locales/characters would almost seem to be a selling point (gasp), the way they're featured visually on the covers (even if the cliches come out in full force sometimes). I don't see this on the YA shelves, but then again, the YA shelves make me gag from their goth-esque uniformity. Who knows? Maybe YA readers do purchase books the way they want to fit in in school or something--you want to be "different" enough to be cool, but not so different you get ostracized.
It's late. I'm in a rush. I don't know if I'm coherent. But I'm just pondering, once again, if this isn't just one of the fantasy genre's boneheaded moments where it's got (or had) a cover that could have been better but they hadn't the faintest clue how.
So they just blamed it on the Asian-ness and whitewashed it.