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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.