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[Salsa]

Maybe its most spanish editions (wich are the ones I come across), but im really tired of seeing covers that are basically the name of the author in a ridiculously big font followed by the title on a bit smaller one, leaving about one third of the whole thing for an actual ilustration

examples:

I mean I get it, authors basically become industries and marketers assume people will end up buying anything with their name in the cover, the sooner they see it the better, but at the same time I feel like the reading audience would get another treatment.. right? not trying to get all fancy about books, but given the time investment and possibly different crowd when compared to other types of media, you'd think a nice looking ilustration/cover would actually catch your eye or at least give you a more interesting idea of what the book is about. If I didnt knew who these people were I wouldnt give two looks at these books. The covers say nothing (oh shit im judging a book by its cover).

to make the thread more interesting, be inclined to post your favorite book covers that prove this trend wrong

 

[callmedave]

Also terrible, movie posters on books recently adapted.

 

[shanshan310]

Movie covers are the worst offenders.

This version of Norwegian Wood is also awful. The horrible colour choice and the derpy face really ruin everything.

 

[ClassyPenguin]

Also terrible, movie posters on books recently adapted.

This is the worst, the worst.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Having actors from the adaptations on the cover is usually a bad thing, but there are exceptions, this cover for Shogun is totally rad.

 

[Rodney McKay]

I just saw what I assume is a recent update to the orignal Dune. It looked fucking hideous compared to the old one.

The old one was a nice mostly black cover with a white stipe with the name of the book and a vertical rectangle of a photo of a desert. Looks great.
The new was was just a rainbow explosion of color made up of mostly reds and oranges. Awful.

 

[FStop7]

This is the version of the Hobbit that I read. Never liked the color choices.

I prefer this

 

[Reuenthal]

This is one of the book covers of the book I, Robot. Yeah it a negative example rather than an example of a favorite.

 

[jtb]

Books that were later adapted into movies have the worst covers. Almost always awful.

 

[Salsa]

This is one of the book covers of the book I, Robot. Yeah it a negative example rather than an example of a favorite.

I like how this looks like a movie poster and Isaac Asimov is Will Smith's name

 

[Cyan]

I actually like that style of cover. Seems classier without giant illustrations.

Also, avoids this problem.

 

[i_am_ben]

Every single cover of the American Wheel of Time books.

 

[Salsa]

I actually like that style of cover. Seems classier without giant illustrations.

Also, avoids this problem.

I think I give the Lee Child edition's a pass because the fonts arent awful and the books/colors are distinct, but those Patterson covers stink

 

[Jake.]

Movie covers are the worst offenders.

This version of Norwegian Wood is also awful. The horrible colour choice and the derpy face really ruin everything.

i actually love that pressing, but this one was better:

 

[SlowRevolution]

what the fuck is wrong with harry

 

[Kinyou]

Yeah, don't like when the author's name is bigger than the book's title

Oh look, it's Paul Auster written by Oracle Nig-

wait a minute...

 

[Bodacious]

I just saw what I assume is a recent update to the orignal Dune. It looked fucking hideous compared to the old one.

The old one was a nice mostly black cover with a white stipe with the name of the book and a vertical rectangle of a photo of a desert. Looks great.
The new was was just a rainbow explosion of color made up of mostly reds and oranges. Awful.

When I read Dune (around 1980) this was the cover on the edition I had:

A long time ago I read a pretty cool novel by Tim Powers called "The Anubis Gates." This was the cover, which I really liked. Whenever I came back to read more, the cover pic gave me a proper vibe for the story, before I even started reading again.

Compare to this atrocity:

 

[Aaron Strife]

what the fuck is wrong with harry

Mary GrandPre's style was pretty awful in the beginning. It vastly improved by the end of the series.

Gross.

Nice!

On a side note, the book's illustration for Snape is hilariously bad:

 

[Grenouille]

Part of the fun of going to a book store is just looking at the amazing book covers.

Vintage series has some nice ones:

And a (rare) example of a good movie poster used as a book cover:

(It looks better live because of the texture.)

 

[malfcn]

Goosebumps were great.

 

[LadyRiven]

You really have to see and touch these in person to appreciate how neat they are, but I love the covers that Jillian Tamaki hand-embroidered for the 'Penguin Threads' line:

I also really like this UK cover for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle:

 

[Devolution]

The best book covers and posters I've seen have been ones designers basically make in school as an assignment.

 

[Freshmaker]

This book cover always bugged me mainly because it gets every detail about the characters wrong while also being awful looking.

 

[Axiology]

"OH SHIT, IT'S JASON BOURNE BY ROBERT-FUCKING-LUDLUM. Wait... The Janus Repisal? What the fuck is that? Written by Jamie Freveletti? So what exactly did Ludlum have to do with this...? A covert-one novel?"

The worst shit.

 

[White Man]

The Oprah Book Club badge was far worse than a movie cover.

The WoT book covers have always puzzled me. The few fans I've spoken to seem to like em.

 

[Krogan]

Part of the fun of going to a book store is just looking at the amazing book covers.

Which book is this?

 

[Quick]

The Harry Potter UK covers are nice, Order of the Phoenix blows because of the lack of any of the characters, and it doesn't match up with the content of the book.

The US covers are nice, too. I also very much enjoy the chapter art.

Not a fan of the "adult" covers. Order of the Phoenix being, once again, the worst of the set. Makes me think that the golden Phoenix is a zord.

The Doctor Who books have mostly had bad covers:

Angels and Demons has a great first edition cover:

...with this being the worst re-release cover:

 

[Grenouille]

Which book is this?

Clash of Kings. French artist, Brazilian version.

 

[Casanova]

Awesome coverart:

 

[B.K.]

This is one of the book covers of the book I, Robot. Yeah it a negative example rather than an example of a favorite.

The worst part is that the movie has NOTHING to do with the book. Will Smith's character doesn't exist in the book and none of the stories in the book are even close to the movie.

 

[Cyan]

The WoT book covers have always puzzled me. The few fans I've spoken to seem to like em.

Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[Tapiozona]

I win

 

[Minus_Me]

That's the most retarded thing I've ever seen. You win sir by a large margin.

 

[SlowRevolution]

does that woman have sideburns?

 

[Buntabox]

This Dune cover is amazing. So much better than the generic one I've always seen in book stores.

 

[White Man]

I tried to read this thing like 4 times, but I always ended up just gazing at the cover at the end of my first session. Not in the good way--the abyss did indeed stare back eventually.

 

[strata8]

Where do the covers look like this? These are the books I've got at home:

 

[Neuromancer]

I love Michael Hague's illustrations.

 

[SmZA]

We were assigned this book in high school. Our teacher had to beg and plead the class to read it despite the cover:

I had already read it a couple of years before; great book. My copy looked like this:

 

[MorisUkunRasik]

Stockholm Syndrome.

I believe you mean Cockholm Syndrome.

 

[The Living Tribunal]

.

 

[Grenouille]

Somehow I forgot these. And many others which I'll eventually remember.

(looks better in person)

 

[Lissar]

This was one of my favorite book covers as a child (I still have the book though it's falling to pieces.)

But then they made new versions and this happened:

Also, totally awesome UK cover:

In comparison to:

I wouldn't even think that cover was particularly notable if I didn't have the UK versions.

 

[Nezumi]

I really love the newer Discworld Covers.

It is so frustrating that the German versions of a lot of those covers look like utter shit. I mean take a look at the last one. Vimes looks like a total badass here and the cover captures the action of the corresponding scene in the book perfectly...

Now here is what the German versions looks like...

Vimes looks as if he has either no idea what he is doing or like he is about to cry. There is no dynamic and the goblin at the top looks like something out of a bad children's show.

 

[golem]

Fantasy novels are hit especially bad with this it seems, which sucks because there are a ton of great illustrators out there that would do a great job. Just take a gander at ConceptArt.

Probably just the people at TOR and other publishers being cheap asses.

 

[bomma_man]

It's the opposite of gaming: the classic editions are always better than the originals

Eg:

 

[way more]

To the Op. You have described only mass market paperbacks. Books that never have a hard-back because they are intended to be sold in airports, 7-11's and grocery stores. The other option are Trade Books. Books that have different type, pages, and size.


Trade books are diverse. Mass are all the same. You are reading too many mass books.

 

[Lissar]

Fantasy novels are hit especially bad with this it seems, which sucks because there are a ton of great illustrators out there that would do a great job. Just take a gander at ConceptArt.

Probably just the people at TOR and other publishers being cheap asses.

There are a lot of older fantasy covers that I like (back when illustrations were more common. Now clip-art seems to rule the day.) But a quick look through the Amazon fantasy section shows that the majority of covers are terrible. Which is sad, because great covers can be good marketing. They say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but a good cover can certainly make me look twice.

I bought this book based on the cover alone:

And while I enjoyed the book, when they changed the marketing strategy for the second book and came out with this:

I was a little stunned. It's amazing how much a cover can completely change your perception of the book.

And while I don't read urban fantasy, this is a good example of marketing making generally terrible covers but at least making it easier for their target audience to identify the genre they're looking for (though seeing them at the bookstore offends all of my artistic sensibilities.)

 

[bomma_man]

To the Op. You have described only mass market paperbacks. Books that never have a hard-back because they are intended to be sold in airports, 7-11's and grocery stores. The other option are Trade Books. Books that have different type, pages, and size.


Trade books are diverse. Mass are all the same. You are reading too many mass books.

,

 

[Santerestil]

Fantasy novels are hit especially bad with this it seems

SF books are not better.

They have just more nudes.