New paperbacks, grading the covers:
The Stranger’s Child: A
I was worried that, for The Stranger’s Child (Hollinghurst’s first foray into the fantasy genre), the book’s designers would make the common mistake of depicting the novel’s fantasy world on the cover, thereby depriving readers of the opportunity to imagine it for themselves.
But wisely, they avoided that strategy, and instead gave us an image of the novel’s characters on their way to the magical land’s gateway. Enticing, yet understated. Well done.
The Marriage Plot: C-
Yes, that font is perfect, and those watercolor drawings are lovely.
The only problem? As we all know The Marriage Plot is (to quote the jacket copy) “the action-packed thriller about hotheaded C.I.A. agent Mitchell Grammaticus and his attempt to kill international warlord Leonard Bankhead. His plan: hire the beautiful yet deadly assassin Madeleine Hanna to pose as a wealthy oil heiress, make Leonard fall in love with her, and then assassinate him on their wedding night. Will Madeleine be successful? Or will her own unexpected feelings keep her from carrying out The Marriage Plot?”
Exciting stuff, but you’d never know it by looking at this cover! It makes it look the book’s about a bunch of liberal arts kids and their post-college-graduation problems, or something like that.
oh snap, mcnally jackson.
Ellen Oh (via necesitamosunarevolucion)
Found the original essay, and added the sources in. Check it out; it is really a wonderful read (and was even cross posted to Racialicious).
The best book covers are the ones without people on them, and the art leaves it up to your imagination.
Last year, Chad Harbach’s divisive baseball bildungsroman The Art of Fielding had its title curlicued across the front, like the franchise name on an old-style home-team jersey; meanwhile, Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot introduced itself to the world in a disarmingly dressed-down fashion, its name hurriedly jotted down over a comic-book graphic of a wedding band.
(via Book Cover Clones: Why Do So Many Recent Novels Look Alike? - Ashley Fetters - The Atlantic)
I find this headline hilarious, but applaud anything that means more people are reading. These are lovely and at least they have something to do with the actual contents of the books and are not this because I mean C’MON. YAY READING.
I’ve actually never read anything by the Brontës, I should fix that. I like this edition of Jane Eyre.
(via To Lure ‘Twilight’ Fans, Classic Books Get Bold Looks - NYTimes.com)
These covers are a lot prettier than those heinous Twilight-based covers they gave P&P, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre a few days ago. Black with bright red flowers and whatever.
On that last post, Wolitzer mentions that book jackets for women’s novels are much differently designed than ones written by men. It is so true! The same goes for YA lit geared towards girls; they tend to be flowery, featuring women’s legs/any body parts really, with soft tones.
I remember reading an article quite a while back about a female writer who switched publishers or to self-publishing, can’t remember, simply because they refused to listen to her about her book covers. They kept publishing her books with “chick lit” covers (like mentioned above) even though her books were not at all chick lit. I’m going to see if I can find it.
EDIT: Found it, that was fast. Novelist ditches publisher at book launch. Polly Courtney also wrote her own post with her reasons.
The Guardian has a BUNCH of articles on this topic. Battle of the Authors’ Sexes Continue, with Jennifer Weiner making the argument.
ϟ The Books of the Harry Potter Universe
15 Gorgeous Book Cover Redesigns.
Above, His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, in one volume.
Selling Books By Their Gilded Covers
Many new releases have design elements usually reserved for special occasions — deckle edges, colored endpapers, high-quality paper and exquisite jackets that push the creative boundaries of bookmaking. If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading.
