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

[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.