Genre Cover of the Month - Hmmm…

Filed by: Darren Turpin on April 18, 2007 at 11:12
Filed under: Miscellania

Sorry folks, but I haven't quite managed to get my act together and post the second GCOTM poll just yet. As a result, I think I might need to have a bit of a re-think about the general concept...

Trophy image by 'fishing' via sxc.hu The first poll went well, with 97 votes registered before I closed it (which, I believe, means it was actually statistically relevant) and I got some very good email feedback in terms of how useful this sort of thing could be for publishers and booksellers alike. The trouble is, it obviously requires a timely commitment from me, in terms of performing the necessary post-writing and image-manipulation admin, in order to get the new item out for the beginning of a given month. And I obviously missed the boat for March (apologies to everyone who sent in suggestions, but please see yesterday's post on work scheduling for possible reasons why...)

So, what do you folks think? I could make it a quarterly thing rather than monthly to begin with, and then if interest really does take off I could increase the frequency. Or I could just post individual examples of what I - or anyone else who cares to nominate a cover - thinks is a great bit of effective cover design, and we could then discuss individual cases on their relative merits. Or should I focus on comparing and contrasting - editions prepared for different markets, similarly themed / targeted titles, that sort of thing - instead? Or do a bit of all of the above?

Lots of possibilities, and it is a subject area I'm definitely interested in exploring further. I'm just wondering what the most effective way forward might be and what you folks might be interested in reading about. Answers on a comment-shaped postcard would be most welcome...

Filed on: April 18, 2007
Filed under: Miscellania
Tagged With: Genre-Cover-of-the-Month

Comments

5 Responses to 'Genre Cover of the Month - Hmmm…'

Niall on April 18th, 2007 11:24 am

I don't know about all of the above, but certainly any of the above; I just like that someone is blogging about cover art. Quarterly might work better than monthly if you want to keep the poll going.
Ariel on April 18th, 2007 12:00 pm

Cheers Niall, that's very encouraging. Like I say, I definitely want to keep something going, it's just a question of not over-committing scarce time resources... ;)
M H Ayinde on April 18th, 2007 2:32 pm

Maybe you could do a quarterly (or bi-monthly) poll for a while - to gather some data - and then move to comparing and contrasting from the information youâ€™ve gathered. I really like the idea of analysing the intentions of cover art, and considering the tastes of different markets, but I suppose it might help to get even more opinions. Or perhaps you could do them in conjunction? Maybe after the quarterly nominations are in, or maybe even after the votes, you could look at the themes and target markets of the top titlesâ€¦

Not sure how useful my response was but those are my thoughts!!!
Lizzy on April 19th, 2007 8:58 pm

I'd go for quarterly for now too, and I'll endeavour to vote!
Ariel on April 20th, 2007 8:07 am

Cheers MH, good food for thought there. I think I'm distinctly leaning towards the idea of just talking about the covers that most catch my eye and then running a poll on a less frequent basis. Minimise the admin, maximise the content...

And thank you Lizzy, your participation is always most welcome! :)