Book Covers

West of Here

2012-02-23T02:40:00.000-08:00

Gah. What a horrible cover. The big block of orange with the oversized title tells the potential purchaser nothing. It belittles the background by making it superfluous.

Major fail here.

West of Here
by Jonathan Evison

The Iron Wyrm Affair

2012-02-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

Fabulous cover. This one has interesting characters to draw the eye. The costuming only heightens that interest as one tries to guess at the relationship between the man and woman.

Fabulous title. "Iron Wyrm"? Mysterious and sort of creepy. I suspect this one's initial sales will be good.

The Iron Wyrm Affair
by Lilith Saintcrow

Panther Baby

2012-02-15T06:49:00.000-08:00

Eddie Joseph became one when he was 15, living in a Harlem apartment "surrounded by chicken bones, a wounded TV, and a poster of Che." In Panther Baby, he tells the story of how a light-skinned son of Cuban revolutionaries was handed off by his unwed black Latina mother to an older black couple who raised him in a North Bronx home equally comfortable with Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois and their local Baptist church. Joseph seemingly was born to fight.

Great Cover. It's hard for me to look at this beautiful, intelligent and gentle looking face and not be drawn in wondering what this young man ave to do with with the sometimes violent Panther movement.

The description is perfectly written to further entice. Good job Algonquin!

A Movement Afoot

2012-02-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

Great minds obviously think alike.

And what could draw readers in better than a pattern that draws the eye to a shoe and a hat wearing cross!

Next I suppose they'll hypnotize me and make me cluck like a chicken.

Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson

2012-02-13T01:46:00.000-08:00

Wow. I hope Random House changes this cover or else I'm going to have to devise some special award for especially bad, bad covers.

Here's part of the book's description:

Yes, Chef chronicles Marcus Samuelsson’s remarkable journey from Helga’s humble kitchen to some of the most demanding and cutthroat restaurants in Switzerland and France, from his grueling stints on cruise ships to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a coveted New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four.

Now, what part of that description evokes the black cover and the hard to discern powdery stuff, which I first mistook for flames?

There is nothing here that grabs me.

Fail.

Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know

2012-02-12T04:16:00.000-08:00

Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know received a **STARRED** review from Publisher's Weekly, and I think the cover deserves kudos too. It's colorful and bright and gets 'the message' across. Not perfect but a good cover.

Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know: Eleven Courageous Canines Tell All

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks (April 1, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1402263287

Hitler's Silver Box

2012-02-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

I don't know that it's a good policy to count on swastikas to sell a book.

I looked this cover under high-res and found nothing to draw me in. The silver box looks like it might have held cigars.

The Swastika surrounded by a bunch of smaller swastikas is just sort of weird. The swastika inside the red circle... meh.

Sorry :( Cover fail.

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

2011-12-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

I guess if Dean Koontz name is on the cover you don't really need to do anything else.

I amazed at how bland this cover is. Why isn't the key sinister? And the house in the background?... well, it looks rather pleasant to me.

UPDATE... UPDATE... UPDATED COMMENT... 2/15/12

WELL, now we can sort of guess why Bantam didn't spend much time or thought on this cover. The book is apparently a dog that howls at the moon. Currently at Amazon there are 245 reviews, 1/3! (84) of which are one star. Another 58 are two stars. The good folks at GoodReads are somewhat more lenient with a 3.28 average rating from over a 1,000 people.

The good news is that if you are one of those people that need to own every book by Koontz, that there are plenty of book sellers dumping hardbacks on the market for cheap.

The Face Thief

2011-12-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

By itself this cover for Gottlieb's book might not be that interesting, but juxtaposed against this mysterious and creepy title I think it works.

I'd definitely read the backcover.

Darker Still

2011-12-07T07:46:00.001-08:00

Ummm. Anyone like this cover.

I have to say I don't like what they've done to the waistline. Sort of a ridiculous way to make her look thinner and it does nothing to make this cover sinister or mysterious.

And the dress is sort of meh too.

No cover appeal for moi.

(insert your thoughts here)

The Legacy of Eden

2011-12-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

I guess everyone who reviews books for any length of time develops bugaboos about book covers. They note similarities between the covers of different books as well as trends within the industry. And I'm no different. I'm attracted to covers like I'm attracted to ads. (At least ads about books.)

Some trends I think are wonderful, some less wonderful. I only wish I knew more about the business of tying in images, fonts, and blurbs to promote books because I think it would aid me to appreciate the work of the book promoters. However, like Supreme Court Justices, I know what I like and I'm opinionated enough at my advanced age to speak my mind.

Take for example, this blurb. The image is nice enough and interesting, the blurb enticing, BUT the Font!

It's not a font that says 'shocking family saga' to me. It's way too friendly.

So is this a case of cognitive dissonance and perhaps misleading pitch. Is the book really more cheerful than it is tragic? Or .... (insert your thoughts here)