Episode 62; Classically Covering the Covers

[Elizabeth☮]

can you post a link to the cover? i've tried finding it here with little luck. thanks simon.

[Elizabeth☮]

o.k. seeing the image now, yes, that's a bit ridiculous. i will say that i still can be drawn in or repelled by a cover. a recent example is Beautiful Ruins whose cover doesn't appeal to me. but this book has received such raved reviews, that i will overcome my apprehension of the cover and read it. i like covers that reveal something about the content, but there are great books like The Catcher in the Rye which has nothing about the book and i picked this up as a teen and read it ravenously.

i do find that i prefer the paperback artwork to the artwork on a hardcover. but i wonder why the publishers choose a different cover in the first place? i'm not sure about this choice.

i haven't heard the episode by the way, i'm just responding to what is posted here.

[David]

Just on the difference between hardback and paperback covers: I think it is very much down to the fact that paperbacks are aimed at a mass audience, hardbacks at more dedicated bibliophiles who are more likely to buy books regardless of the cover (I know I do). Which oddly can work in two opposing ways: some publishers seem to think this means the cover for the hardback doesn't matter all that much and will go quite bland with it; others see it as a real opportunity to try something different without having to worry too much about the sales and marketing people.

As an example, a couple of years ago I illustrated the hardback cover for a children's novel and, whilst it wasn't exactly cutting edge, it was quirky and different, particularly for the 8-12 yrs market the book was aimed at. The cover looked like a black and white newspaper with a few colour objects sitting 'on' it, trompe-l'oeil fashion, and I think captured the feel and themes of the book. The author loved it and I know it was quite well received by reviewers and readers. But when it came to the paperback, where they were looking for much higher sales, suddenly they needed a cover that very much appealed to boys and looked like an exciting murder mystery (which is a very narrow view of what the book is about and also misleading, since nobody gets murdered). The publisher even provided me with the covers of similar 'competitor' novels that they wanted the new cover to look like. Of course, all this came from the people in sales. And unlike with the hardback cover, the author had no say in the paperback cover and she hated it (as she told me when we met at an event last year!).

Authors can be quite pivotal in what ends up on a cover sometimes too. Many of them of course take the view that their job is to write and someone else knows much better than them about design, but there are some that demand a say and can be quite picky, even when the art director and editor don't entirely agree with them. I had one author once (reasonably well known, domestic/literary fiction) who took five months to make her mind up about a cover. The publisher had to put the publication date back. Eventually she said 'yes' and I started painting in earnest. A couple of days later word came: she'd changed her mind. The book ended up being about a year late coming out, and what was on the cover? A photo of a headless woman!!

On your pet peeves: photos of women's laps/midriffs, particularly if they're holding something in their hands, are the ones that annoy me - there are so many of them about that it becomes meaningless. I'm not so bothered by the headless figures as from a design perspective I quite like things breaking out of the edge of the frame and figure/clothes/stance etc can give you a feel for the character and the period without having to show the face, which I was taught was always a big no-no except in children's books.

The 'Bell Jar' cover: I'm not a fan - it looks more 50s to me than 60s, and just reading the synopsis (I've never read the book) it doesn't seem to really fit. In and of itself it isn't a bad cover and is quite attractive, but I'm not sure it works as a cover for this book.

[Elizabeth☮]

thanks for all of the insight david.

the story of the bell jar doesn't really have anything to do with the cover of the new edition. maybe that's why people dislike it.