Books with obvious 'branding'?

[Darren]

Tim wrote: "All the "50 Shades" copycats that came out last year: What was the first thing you noticed about them? The Covers. They all had the same look and feel as the original books. Branding again. I'll be..."

Absolutely, but that that first book had to sell smith for the branding of later books to matter.

Having a good cover for that first outing is therefore also important, but it isn't the brand.

JK Rowling's series has any number of covers, but there is a reason why they're called 'Harry Potter and ...' rather than just the actual titles.

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Thus 'The Man from U.N.D.E.A.D.'

[Patti (baconater)]

Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "Thus 'The Man from U.N.D.E.A.D.'"

Catchy.

That would make a good title,

[A.L.]

I changed mine recently but I have made it clear it is the second edition.

I am expecting some returns though. Yes I have seen it a lot with a "brand" or worse changing the cover because someone famous is now in the film.

I don't like the cashing in on a famous cover... I dunno why just seems like "this book is the same as XYZ by this really famous author."

[Elle]

I hate movie covers for books!

[Jud]

Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "I hate movie covers for books!"

It's so lazy, and my image of the characters doesn't necessarily correlate to the actor/s so I don't want their ugly mugs all over the cover

[Patti (baconater)]

Yeah. Hate that too, Jud.

The only film I can think of off the top of my head where the casting was really fitting to my vision of the characters was The Outsiders. S E Hinton wrote the book.

Was a great book.

[Tim]

Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "I hate movie covers for books!"

What I really hate is, when you have the Kindle edition in your archive with the nice cover, and then a movie comes out and they change it. Next time you download, it suddenly has the wrong (and usually horrid) cover.

That happened to me recently with Dragon Tattoo, and now book 1 doesn't match books 2 and 3. (grrr...)

[Elle]

Oooooo yes. My Bell Jar cover changed recently. HATE

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

I couldn't actually tell you what any book covers look like. Particularly kindle books, I wasn't even sure that they HAD covers until recently, because I had never even seen them! But even in the days of PBs and HBs, I could maybe tell you sort of what general colour it was, but nothing more. (and I should add that I am very interested in design and art - it's me job - so tend to notice visual things generally). I think it is because to me books are about the words, and the story, and nothing else...

[Elle]

I remember things via their visual representation (like you lot with your display pictures) so the cover will stick in my head long after the book title and author has went out of it.

I only notice the book covers for Kindle as I always download them onto the app on my iPod and onto the PC app.

[P.A.]

The Christopher Brookmyre books are all similarly designed. Stephen King also has a kind of a branding technique: it involves plastering the name STEPHEN KING over as much of the cover as possible. I'm tempted to write a book and title it "Stephen King" to see if I can trick his readers into buying it.

Who else ... I struggle to think in terms of covers with all the e-reading. Ben Aaronovitch, Dan Rhodes, Scarlett Thomas, Christopher Moore, Neil Gaiman. Elmore Leonard has had a few different themes over the years, all re-done in bulk each time there's a style change.

I think the cover branding is very important, but I'm willing to ignore my instincts by having rubbish covers for my own books. But they are *consistently* rubbish. See? Branding.

[Tim]

Rosemary wrote: "I couldn't actually tell you what any book covers look like. Particularly kindle books, I wasn't even sure that they HAD covers until recently, because I had never even seen them! But even in the d..."

That's one reason why I like Kindle on my iPad - you get to see the covers in all their gloriousness (note, some covers are less glorious than others!). Of course you get that with the KF too, and to a lesser extent with the paperwhite.

[Katie]

I love looking at my own covers on my iPad. (Am I allowed to admit that, or is it narcissistic?) They're so beautiful and clear on there!

As a book cover designer, I get really frustrated with people who put absolutely gorgeous graphics on their ebook covers, but then use tiny or thin fonts for the title and author name. It might look pretty on a print cover, but for an ebook, it's imperative that they can be read when the cover is really small. The same thing goes for tonal values. Put a dark cover on an old type Kindle and the image will be really hard to see.

[Jud]

I don't mind branding when it's the same author for a series they right, but what bothers me is when you buy the first 3 and then suddenly when the 4th comes out the covers have been redesigned so you have a collection of books from the 1 series with different style covers. I have to go back and buy the earlier ones with the new cover when this happens.

Thanks to kindle this doesn't bother me so much anymore.

[Jim]

P.A. (U.L.) wrote: "The Christopher Brookmyre books are all similarly designed. Stephen King also has a kind of a branding technique: it involves plastering the name STEPHEN KING over as much of the cover as possible. I'm tempted to write a book and title it "Stephen King" to see if I can trick his readers into buying it...."

Well as long as it's a biography of him, you might even get away with it :-)

[Jim]

Katie wrote: "I love looking at my own covers on my iPad. (Am I allowed to admit that, or is it narcissistic?) They're so beautiful and clear on there!

As a book cover designer, I get really frustrated with peo..."

That's where I think Andrews got the cover of my two books right. (If you don't know them they're avaiable for inspection at http://jandbvwebster.wordpress.com/ab...
Note by linking to my blog rather than the Amazon page I'm being a good boy and Patti might not put me in the sin bin)

Personally I think that the only 'issue' is that they might be a bit dark, they probably are for icons on goodreads but someone said they looked nice on a kindle, so I don't know

[Tim]

On the iPad they are viewed against a black background, whereas on GR and Amazon, they are viewed against white. That'll make quite a big difference to how they appear.

[Patti (baconater)]

Am I really such an ogre???

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Well you dont look very like Shrek. . .

[Jay-me (Janet)]

Patti (Bowl of Cherries) wrote: "Am I really such an ogre???"

Gingerlily (or Cyberlily..) wrote: "Well you dont look very like Shrek. . ."


Shreks the green thing? - is it an ogre - never watched the films (& don't want to) so can't comment as to whether you are like it or not in looks (never seen you either though)

[Jim]

Patti (Bowl of Cherries) wrote: "Am I really such an ogre???"

A terrible fierce lady, that's our Patti

[Patti (baconater)]

Oh the Shrek films are LOVELY Janet!

If I get to burp n fart, I'll gladly be Fiona.

[Jud]

I love the Shrek films too. The first is the best and whatever the most recent one was. "Do the roar"

[Elle]

I used to love them but there was one over Christmas on and I was having none of it. We also put the original on over the holidays and I was kinda bored. I own the first 3 on DVD

[Jud]

Aye, there's a funny Christmas Shrek. I don't like it much either.

[Jud]

when I say funny I mean odd

[Elle]

The one over Christmas wasn't the Christmas version I don't think. You are talking about the one with kids? That one is vaguely adorable.

This is the one he wishes he was a proper ogre again for the day and then some annoying guy with giant red hair takes away the day he was born

[Jud]

Oh, that's the most recent one. Rumplestiltskin is the red haired guy.

[Sara]

My daughter's name is Fiona. But she was born before the first Shrek. She hates it because they used to call her 'Princess Fiona' at school. Not anymore, though.

[D.D. Chant]

Sara wrote: "My daughter's name is Fiona. But she was born before the first Shrek. She hates it because they used to call her 'Princess Fiona' at school. Not anymore, though."

I sense a story!!!

Do tell!!!

[Sara]

No, no story. Just that when the first Shrek came out they started calling her that. That's why we only saw the first Shrek. She didn't turn green or anything like that. The funny thing I think was that people meant it as a compliment, and she took it as an insult.

Now they call her 'Fizz'.