New Poll: Genre Book Covers
I've posted a new poll, on the subject of genre book covers. This is by way of a spot of general head-count research for a piece (or more likely a series of pieces) I've been planning on writing for a long time now, on the general topic of genre book covers: the good, the bad and the ugly.
What I'm after is a feel as to whether your gut reaction to a 'bad' cover would be enough to put you off actually buying a book. I've tried to give a varied spread of responses, although obviously I might not have covered all possible bases, but it should be enough to give me a rough idea of whether a poorly-designed - or just too-obviously sci-fi, or too-horror, or too-fantasy, etc. - cover might have an immediate, negative impact on sales.
So if you've got a minute, please do visit the appropriate poll page and register your opinion, if you feel so inclined. Or scroll the screen until the poll-widget-thingy in the right-hand column appears, and the use that. Thank you in advance, very much appreciated.
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5 Responses to 'New Poll: Genre Book Covers'
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Glad you’ve brought this topic up!
Personally, I have books I read on the tube and books I read at home. I won’t baulk at buying a book with a naff cover, but chances are I’ll only read it at home. I suppose that makes me weak willed but I do sometimes think if the cover of my book features a muscle-bound, sword wielding Amazonian woman, or a laser beam shooting space ship, I’ll look a bit nerdy. But really, I think this shouldn’t matter. Where else did the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover†come from? And why the hell are these people looking at the cover of my book anyway?
Perhaps I should take a stand. There’s nothing wrong with reading books with covers like these, but I do think such covers don’t help to sell books – I think they’re a hindrance. The kind of covers we’ve come to expect from genre fiction - swords, space ships, futuristic cities, etc – often don’t reflect the contents of the books. Some of the best classic SF and fantasy has awful covers. I think new authors are more aware of this, but it’s still something genre suffers from. After all, a cover is one of the first things that sells a book, but I think this importance is frequently overlooked.
I’ve also found some cover artists take little interest at all in making their images reflect the story. I remember one fantasy book – I won’t name it – which depicted the heroine with the wrong hair colour (blonde instead of black) in a garden that did not exist in her world (this world was tropical but the picture had temperate, quasi-European look.) This is yet another example of speculative fiction being neglected by those who should be helping to promote it.
When I was 14, I did actually like covers with space ships on them. But too often such covers put new readers off.
(Wow, sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant…)
Hi M H - Good points all there, and thank you very much for the extensive feedback, exactly the sort of opinion I'm looking for... I'll hold onto my own (not entirely dissimilar I have to say) conclusions for the piece(s) I'm planning on jotting down at some point, but I reckon your comment about feeling nerdy on public transport has hit one pretty large nail right on its head...
Maybe it's just me but I reckon the US covers are still stuck in that cliched SF/fantasy cover style, whereas our UK ones tend to have a bit more thought applied.
Space Opera still tends to go for the big spaceship approach, especially when it's Pan or Orbit. Other SF does tend to be a bit less obvious.
Glancing along my "to read" shelf as it's in the same room as the PC throws up the different approaches.
Peter F Hamilton, Ken Macleod, some Philip K Dick - obvious from the cover that's it SF
Gary Gibson, Dan Simmons, James Lovegrove, Mike Carey, Scott Lynch - need to read the blurb on the back to get an idea what it might be
Personally, the covers don't bother me too much, but I can see how they put off people who might enjoy genre material but have that anti-genre stigma - you know, 'oh, but I'm not into Star Trek'. Which is why the more subtle covers are great things to see - I managed to foist Ryman's Air onto three middle-aged ladies, two of whom actually completed it and enjoyed it, thanks to the wonderfully minimal jacket of the hardback version.
And regarding the trans-Atlantic artwork divide, I think Ed has a point, but the rules aren't hard and fast. I'm currently reading Rucker's Mathematicians in Love, the (gorgeous, IMHO) cover of which has garnered many comments along the lines of 'ooh, doesn't look like that stuff you usually read!' Selah.
A good source for your article might be the Blindsight debacle, where for whatever reason Tor decided to 'play safe' by using a piece of artwork that looks thirty years out of date, when the very same artist had submitted some excellent work that was not only more modern but much closer to the story. Just Google for Watt's recent interviews, and check his website for details. He wasn't shy about sharing his opinions (or the rejected covers)!
Hi Ed - Good points, mate, both about the US and UK having differing approaches (for some reason some publishers still cling to the out-dated theory that they're writing for different markets so they'll probably tell you that's the reason...)
And Hi Paul - Again, another nail, another head - the 'I don't want to be lumped in with those Star- Trek / Wars / Gate etc. (delete as applicable) nerds' factor. Which is what I was angling for in the one response to the survey that no-one so far has owned up to. See what you mean about the Mathematicians in love cover - very elegant - and thank you for the tip on the Blindsight cover, I'll definitely follow that one up.
Time to jot down some notes for my intro, I reckon...