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]

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.