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Book covers matching character descriptions
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Agreed, and it definitely isn't just you. The saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' is said for a reason, because nearly everybody does lol. But some authors don't realise that it can be a bad investment to support that one. I saw a book on Amazon yesterday with a black woman/white man on the front. It had several one-star reviews about false advertising because the woman in the story was described as pale-skinned with auburn hair. The author probably just liked the stock photo, but it left their readers feeling conned.
Yeah, I would be willing to bet really cheap or free stock photo. It's unfornate when authors don't invest in their own product.
The same thing happens with bigger publishers. The heroine in
should have short spiky hair and dress in comfortable clothes, but looks look a friggin dominatrix with hair down to her butt in the cover.Makes me wonder if someone down the line decided this cover would sell more books as opposed to a true representation of the character.
I don't know. It used to be, way back, and maybe bigger publishers are still doing this for romance novels, the cover would be a supposed enticing disguise and inside it was actually historical fiction with a romance subplot.So, maketing scheme is possible.
Yes, it's more forgivable with indie authors because mostly they're on their own, but the big fish? Na-uh! That's not on. If they don't like that the heroine has short hair (wth?) they need to talk to the author, not mislead the reader.Yeah, there is probably some stat out there where a person makes up their mind to buy a book within the first 8 seconds of seeing the cover. :)
Heh, yeah, and the 8 seconds people make up for a lot of sales. It's not something I personally agree with, but it is just business, to fool people to quickly by the books regardless if anyone would like it or not.Those 1-star authors still make money.
I love this topic.Yes, it totally irks me, too.
Cheap stock photos should be a last resort, b/c there's nothing quite so sad as seeing the same photo on multiple authors' covers. You really have to ask yourself if that one photo could fit so many diverse stories :0)
Hey, sorry I know I've been posting a lot. I just happen to be hanging out today doing more group clean up behind the scenes. So this is just Lily posting.Actually, Lily the graphic designer who can't resist clarifying stock photos.
For indies, many are fooled by the different licenses offered, named as mass distribution, distribution to one country, etc, etc.
It's misleading. If you buy stock photo, it's yours to manipulate and do what you want. If you buy stock photo just to plop on the cover, as is, then you're not buying stock photo at all. You're buying the original photography which does cost thousands of dollars.
I've seen too many indies get really confused about this. End result, the cheapest stock photo they could get, and a bad cover. It wouldn't surprise me to learn big publishers are doing the same to cut costs, because it really is misleading.
So, long story, er, longer, the problem is people not manipulating/changing the stock photo, using it as is. Stock photo is not a last resort, it's a useful resource, and I use it all the time. Windows Paint is a last restort.
Lily wrote: "Windows Paint is a last resort."LOL love it!
N.B. wrote: "Lily wrote: "Windows Paint is a last resort."LOL love it!"
It's funny because it's true ;)
Lily wrote: "It's funny because it's true ;)"So true. Saw one recently, so bad it was almost good... almost.
To tell the truth, the best indie covers I've seen don't have any stock photos of possible characters, so those are the ones that catch my eye the most. I don't really pay attention to Fabio look-a-likes and such.
It's not just Indies and romance novels either. One of my favorite series published by a one of the Fantasy BigDog publishers has gorgeous covers by Thomas Canty . . . that do not look like the characters they portray. Curling hair instead of straight for one part of it (and hair is a significant part of the character's identity), another section of the set portrays that heroine as another curly-haired auburn, as is the male MC, when she's expressly described as having pale skin with dark hair and blue eyes and he has dark hair and eyes "dark as peat."
Those weren't stock photos, those were commissioned covers. Thomas Canty is one of The fantasy illustrators. http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist...These were also books that were published at least a couple of decades ago.
I've found that on other books he's done covers for as well. They're beautiful, but it still bugs me. It's obvious that he at least partly reads the books because much of the illustration is great, but there's always a glaring detail that's not really a detail that's completely off.
Oh, well, paying an actual artist is a whole different kettle of fish. Why it was done that? We may never know...
Lily wrote: "I don't really pay attention to Fabio look-a-likes and such."Damn you, Lily! I’ve spent the last hour crying into my Fabio-shaped pillow :/
It must be difficult for some authors writing in certain genres – erotica, for example – to opt for something else over characters on the cover. The cliché Fabio look-a-likes seems to be the automatic choice, and I do understand because it tells the reader what they are going to get, and as much as I am sick of seeing headless-bronzed-eight-packs everywhere, I do respect that they are promising a certain thing ‘between the sheets’ (love a pun, me! – sorry!). But whether featuring characters or not, I do love a unique book cover that compliments the contents or even has a little puzzle of its own. It’s refreshing.
i try to find pictures that match and if not frankenedit. lolz, im a decent computer artist so i can transform pix into something useable. its a good skill to have. ive been doing custom art and frankenedits for bookcovers since paintshop pro 4. lolz
i have paid artists for bookcover work before and its not difficult to give them a character sheet. you dont have to give them the whole book. i tend to give artists some leeway instead of hampering on their creativity. just give them an idea and let them run with it. something cool should come out of it lolz
It irks me something chronic when the cover doesn't match up to the contents. Proper riles me. Same when books are made to films and the characters don't match up.If...when...I finish my WIP and am ready to publish, I have my
Lily, Paint is never an option. Just...no.I'd feel conned too if the description didn't match the cover. It's a waste of money to put some random cover on, just so that it has a cover. Thankfully I haven't ran into that problem, yet.
If I were that author and I had commissioned an artist, and they came up with something completely different from my description, I'd make them re-do it, or fire them and get a refund. Finding a good picture or artist is difficult, but it's worth the effort.
You'd be surprised, there' a lot I could do in Windows Paint. Though, that really is an absolute final resort. You know, right after hell freezes over.
Great topic and it bugs me to no end, too! Prime example is my guilty pleasure Patricia Briggs's Mercedes Thompson series. The books go out of their way to emphasize that Mercy is not a traditional beauty, that she works out at a dojo and is a mechanic who wears baggy, greasy clothes and has permanent grease embedded around her fingernails. She is tough, scrappy, and very low maintenance (almost never dresses up).Yet on every book cover we see a pouty lipped sex goddess with her shirt tied up just below her breasts and unbuttoned enough to give us plenty of cleavage, stomach all exposed, and butt threatening to spill out of her low rider jeans as she poses suggestively. I've nothing against sexy women, but that is not at all the Mercy the author has described to us.
This isn't a case of bad stock photography either, as the covers are done by Dan Dos Santos, a professional artist. Every time I see these covers I wonder if he didn't bother reading the books, which is insulting enough, or if he did read them and felt she needed to be sexed up regardless, which is worse.
It's a definite turn off to me, and I would have stopped reading the series entirely because of it except my mom loves the books and keeps lending me them as they are released.
My understanding, Patricia Briggs is published with Penguin Books, or one of the associated publishing houses.I mean, is everyone really so surprised that commerical marketing lies? It's been going on since day one.
And then, brand-new authors self-published, copy what they see on the bookshelves, well, seems more like a vicious cycle to me.
Anyway, my comments in regards to stock photo, was solely from the perspective of anyone wanting to cut corners for any reason for book coers. I didn't think this topic includes ALL covers from any book. Rather big topic, so, um, best of luck.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, I didn't think you meant all book covers use stock photos, I was just clarifying preemptively in case anyone thought that could explain the situation with the example I gave.Yes commercial marketing lies, but even though we know that's the case, it's still insulting when covers don't match character descriptions. It feels like there's such a disrespect for the reader that they think we either won't notice or won't care.
Jennifer wrote: "Great topic and it bugs me to no end, too! Prime example is my guilty pleasure Patricia Briggs's Mercedes Thompson series. The books go out of their way to emphasize that Mercy is not a traditional..."Just to clarify, professional artists never read the book that they're creating artwork for (I use the term "never" hesitantly because I'm sure there are occasional exceptions, but generally speaking it isn't done). They ask for a synopsis, character descriptions, a sample scene, or the actual scene that you would like them to depict in the cover, but they typically have lots of projects that they are working on at any given time and don't have time to read the entirety of all of the books that they work on. So, it's not surprising that things get lost between the story and the artist, and when an author publishes through a large publishing house they don't get a chance to even approve the cover. It is selected and approved by yet another person who may or may not have read the book. Hence covers that have nothing to do with book, interpret characters incorrectly, or otherwise aren't great.
Honestly, I think one of the greatest benefits of being an independent author is being able to completely control your cover. It always frustrates me when authors don't make the most of this.
Jennifer wrote: "Sorry if I wasn't clear, I didn't think you meant all book covers use stock photos, I was just clarifying preemptively in case anyone thought that could explain the situation with the example I gav..."It's not my topic, so I can't really say lol
Btw, Virginia's right, especially on a commercial level. Quick run down of process:Publisher accepts > author slaves away at edits ordered by publisher > cover artists create cover according to the publisher's order > Finished book goes to print.
If the publisher decides sexy chick with long hair, artists will have no way of knowing that's not how it's described in the book. Sometimes there's exceptions, but overall, it's rare. And I do know for a fact that the vast majority use stock photo.
But that's commercial fiction. Putting that aside, why indies are doing the same thing? I guess there could be a lot of reasons, but not really any justification, as far as I can see.
I tend to prefer covers that don't have faces on them. I can only think of two covers with faces on them that I've ever liked, and I read a lot of books. These covers were not clichés, but had other design elements that made them relate to the story and its mood and setting, and the faces were not typical models, but interesting faces, people who really looked like the book characters. Usually if I see a photograph of a face on a cover I'm already turned off to the book. Odd bias, but it makes it look like YA to me, and I don't like YA.
Virginia wrote: "Honestly, I think one of the greatest benefits of being an independent author is being able to completely control your cover. It always frustrates me when authors don't make the most of this. "*gives high-five*
I can't help but feel that if they haven't put much thought or effort into the cover, it might be a reflection on the contents. I still take a look, but tbh I usually find what I expected. However, I have seen some truly ghastly covers (in my opinion) that people have commented on to say 'what a beautiful cover!' so one persons garbage is certainly another's treasure.
I agree that covers that don't accurately represent the material are a turn off. That being said, no one is going to know that until the book is read. What drives me insane are covers that are waaaaay over crowded with images and text that is just dizzying. Add neon colors and bizzare fonts and I want to gouge out my eyes. I have three rules for my own covers: simple. powerful. legible.
N.B. wrote: "*gives high-five*"*returns high five*
For instance I could be reading a book with a female main character who is described as having brown hair and eyes but the cover has a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes are not found anywhere in the story.
This irks me and I find myself wondering why an author would have a cover with a person who does not match the main character's (or any character in their story for that matter) physical description.
I guess I'm wondering if anyone can answer that question and if this pet peeve of mine bothers anyone else?