Cover art

[serria]

There was a little bit of discussion on Fandom!Secrets about book cover art. I guess a lot of new authors have the misconception that their publisher will let them have some say in the cover art - but unfortunately, it seems that authors have next to no input. Cover artists are, if I understand correctly, usually given a short summary of the book or a scene, and told to go from there.

I admit, if I'm in a book store glancing around at thousands of books, it's going to be the cover art that makes me notice a certain book. I think that's normal - I don't have time to read the back of every book just to give them a fair chance. But I once heard a fantasy/sci-fi author speak, and he mentioned how horrified he was his first couple books at the atrocious art (and that was in the 80s, and there is nothing like 1980s cover art), and I wonder how many awesome books have been screwed over by a terrible cover. Or maybe a cover did successfully get a potential reader's attention, but the author feels like it doesn't represent his or her work.

Anyone have any experiences?

What's the worst cover art you've seen?

How about the best?

If your novel was published, what would you want to be the cover art?

Comments

[ljwrites]

Ooh, I love talking covers. My three favorite "terrible covers" articles are 20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Covers for Classic Novels, the one about gendered book covers, and one about whitewashing. Among other things these examples show that being a Big Name Author is no defense against facepalm-worthy cover art.

In some markets even non-authors seem to have some say. My husband is publishing his first translated work (the Korean translation of The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain) as an e-book, and the publisher asked him to submit several suggestions for the cover. My husband asked for the titular character holding the Earth between thumb and forefinger, examining it. We won't be too surprised if the cover ends up with a random half-naked lady on it, though.

[serria]

Ooh, I saw that second article - the gendered cover art one. I wonder how much truth there is to it. I've heard (but don't have sources offhand) that there is still a ton of sexism in the publishing world, and unless you write chick lit, male author names are more likely to get reviewed, etc. I've heard some people say they are annoyed when women use abbreviated names (such as J.K.Rowling) because it doesn't help give female authors exposure but I feel like if I got published, I might opt for an abbreviated name, too. Not only because I feel like it gives me a little more privacy, but in my genre, I feel like sexism is stronger than in other genres. Then again, looking back, most of the fantasy I read growing up was written by female authors (K.A. Applegate, if I recall the name correctly, wrote Animorphs, and I don't ever remember not knowing she was a woman, and those books were insanely popular in my elementary school for boys and girls alike), then as I got older, the Deverry series (beautiful covers, not remotely sexist imo), Marion Zimmer Bradley (very feminine covers, but then again, her writing focused very much on women and femininity), etc.

The race article was interesting, too. I'm not as familiar with this topic, but I recall some controversy with The Hunger Games. Several covers apparently portrayed Katniss, and as a white girl with medium brown colored hair. Though I have no strong opinion either way on Katniss's race, there seems to be a possibility that she might be biracial, as she is described as having olive skin and black hair. Her sister and mother seem to be white, but Katniss implies her father was darker - which could mean white, could mean a different race, who knows. But the cover using a white, lighter haired model seems a bit off, anyway. The article you posted is certainly a lot more blatant, though. My favorite was the cover that had a white girl who wasn't even a character in the story, and was just supposed to be symbolic of the book's themes or something. Wow.

I don't remember the book, but I recall reading about a controversy too, where the female protagonist and narrator is fat. I don't know if her weight was an important part of the story, I hadn't read the book, but the cover model was really thin.

I would be so grateful if the book I am writing was ever published, and a horrible cover might just be something you have to get over. But I would be really put down if my female warrior protagonist was half naked or wearing boob armor or something. That would kind of be a slap in the face. I'd rather my cover be blank except for the title than that. Hey, it worked for J.D. Salinger, right?

[ljwrites]

Haha, I was squirming at your comment about abbreviated names, because my LJ handle is also the name I plan to use if I get published. Though in my case it's more about racism than sexism--my name is gender-neutral, but it's also very "ethnic." A couple of my buddies had the same concerns about their own names, as seen in the post where I announced the name change.

Speaking of ethnicity, the heroine of the historical novel I'm working on is an East Asian woman (I hesitate to say "Korean" since we didn't have a single national identity back then, though she's definitely an admired and celebrated figure in Korea) who lived 2,000 years ago. She's also one of my personal heroes. For these reasons, if my story were published and the cover were whitewashed I would flip out. The only worse scenario would be if she were whitewashed in boob armor. Self-publication is a far better outcome than my work contributing to yet another erasure of women of color. I'd like to believe we're too enlightened for this crap now, but experience says otherwise.

So I agree there's a real case for blank and abstract covers. Character covers, while arresting if done well, rarely live up to the imagination anyway. Far better to capture an atmosphere or idea than inflict problematic character art on the world. And like you said, a white lady who wasn't in the story doesn't count as symbolism. *facepalm*

[serria]

I can definitely understand that, too. I'd be interested to see how "ethnic" author names affect sales, publication, etc. If I were to make a totally baseless guess, I'd imagine people would be more receptive of "ethnic" author names if the book in question relates to that ethnicity/country - for example, I don't know, a story about Japanese feudalism written by someone with a Japanese name, but branching outside of that specific setting gets more people, consciously or not, avoiding the book. I even wonder if people see ethnic names and assume the book has been translated into English or something, and if for some reason people don't like that idea? If you have any links about this topic, I'd really be interested in reading. I am sorry you have to deal with that.

Man, it'd be really cheeky if you write a book that's based on an actual Korean (East Asian) woman, and the cover used a white woman in boob armor. I wish I could say that's just not possible in today's publishing industry. Maybe you'll get a white woman who is just "symbolic" of the book's themes. lol Serious question, if you self published, would you design your own cover? Or get a friend to do it or something? I've never thought about how self published authors get their cover art.

I completely agree about abstract covers. I have seen cover art that does depict characters well - at least, I think so, as a reader. But, apparently, it's difficult to do it in a way that makes both the publishers and the author happy. I'd also be interested in any research that ranks the success of books due to cover art. I wonder if books with people on the cover get more attention than ones that don't? I personally have never liked covers with actual models standing center and posing. It looks cheap, artificial and very, err, YA genre to me. And the women in action stories always do butt poses, it's so obnoxious.

[ljwrites]

Thanks for empathizing! It might in fact be a boon for certain kinds of subject matter, since it might imply familiarity with certain groups' experiences. On the other hand Arthur Golden did just fine writing Memoirs of a Geisha (and also pissed off his protagonist's real-life model by casting her mentor as the villainous Hatsumomo, or so I heard).

Serious question, if you self published, would you design your own cover? Or get a friend to do it or something?

I can actually answer that non-hypothetically! My husband and I are self-publishing a crowdfunded Korean translation of the indie roleplaying game Polaris, now in the layout correction stage. We're lucky enough to have a very talented and dedicated designer working with us, so she pitched some cover art candidates and we kicked around ideas until we settled on a design. It's going to be an abstract cover with a white star on a black background, though ironically we have a ton of great character art in the book itself. (See the crowdfunding page for a couple of examples. I should warn you the second image is violent.) Part of the issue is cost, since a black cover with a glossy white design is cheaper to make than, say, a full-color illustration. Partly because it looks tasteful and restrained. Come to think of it I don't think we even considered having any characters on the cover, lol.

[inkdust]

I think people have picked up on the new author misconception, because there seems to be a team dedicated to relieving them of it. I think any page I recall seeing about publication hammers in the fact that you have no say and should just suck it up.

So I mean, that's what I'll have to do, if I'm ever fortunate enough to get that far. But I think it's a detail of the industry that should rightly change, and with the publishing world in as much flux as it is, from the rise of self publishing and whatever else, maybe eventually it will change a little.

[serria]

Yeah, for me, it seems a bit premature to complain about cover art when I don't even have a finished book, let alone one that is going to publication. But I think it's natural for aspiring novelists to imagine what their cover might be - and for those who have any experience in a book store to be horrified at what it could be.

I do think that covers, especially genre covers, are a lot better than they were thirty years ago. Maybe they don't reflect the story any better, but they are more, err, aesthetic and tasteful? Unless your story is a blatant bodice-ripper, but even books like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey have, imo, visually attractive covers.

[inkdust]

Agreed. It seems to me like the smartest thing to do is try not to get set on any certain type of cover image, and then given the improvements in general to cover art as you said, there's probably a better chance of being assigned something you don't object to. I really just don't want any cover art with a depiction of any character, because that has about a 1% chance of satisfaction for me. Something abstract, that would be a lot easier to accept and even like.

[sarillia]

I've heard horror stories about authors who hate the cover of their book but the one person I know who got a book published had a good experience. You can see it here (I swear I'm not just plugging my friend's book again :p).

If I was published I would probably want something like that. Something simple. Though I suppose it would depend on the story. I have some that might not be suited to something like that. I'm pretty easily pleased though so I would probably be fine with whatever the art department of a publisher came up with. Which is good since I probably wouldn't have much say anyway.

[serria]

That's a pretty cover your friend has!! I think I tend to like covers without people - especially not real models - better. Real models just make it look artificial to me. Close-ups of an items that represents the story is just easier, doesn't threaten to mess up a character or scene, and lets the reader imagine how everything actually looks.

[ljwrites]

Reading over this thread, I am amused that three separate lines of conversation basically converged into "Abstract covers, please!" Seriously, character covers are so hard to do right I don't know why anyone bothers. I guess it's supposed to be more compelling to have an actual person on the cover, especially if they're conventionally attractive--meaning, all too often, white, thin, young, and able-bodied, sexualized etc., hence the problematic nature of many of these covers. There are so many other ways to draw the gaze and excite the imagination, however, that there's really no excuse for relying on just one tool in the box.

[serria]

Definitely! Not only do character covers tend to alter or shove characters into boxes of very conventional attractiveness, and often disregard the author's own descriptions, but they also rob the reader of imagining what the character looks like for him or herself. I've seen cover art with characters that drew me to the book in the first place, so I can't judge completely, and I don't know what the author actually thought of such a cover, but if I were ever given a choice, I'd probably opt for an abstract cover.

[dharkapparition]

My BFF is being published this month and had a definite opinion regarding her cover art. Especially since she is a digital artist as well as writer. The first 2 submissions were horrid, her own art was better. Once the publisher saw her concept and showed it to the artist they'd commissioned, the next images were so much better.