Are Book Covers a Dying Art?

[Steerpike]

Good story on NPR's Weekend Edition. The audio is at the site:

In The E-Book World, Are Book Covers A Dying Art? : NPR

 

[Wynnara]

I think book covers may be a transformed art, but hardly a dying one. The needs of a e-book cover are different than that of a print book cover but that kind of first visual impression is still very much needed regardless. Plus, every time you introduce a new technology, the old one influences it but eventually the new tech develops a visual language of its own.

It seems to me that whenever a new way of visually telling the story is invented, both the old way and the new way set off on their own paths. Like... when photography was invented, painters who had spent their whole lives trying to perfect what we would call today "photo-realistic realism" all threw up the their hands and went "gah!! you've just negated all my work with this-... this machine!!"... but then time passes and painting changes. It becomes about all the things you can't do with a camera... it becomes impressionism and abstract art... and photography wanders off and evolves as well with different lenses, light and shadow, etc. etc.

Oh and be sure to watch the TED talk that Chip Kidd did. It's pretty entertaining.

 

[Steerpike]

Yes. I suppose it is fair to say that the nicely detailed covers of the past are a dying art. With eBooks, where you have to rely on a thumbnail for attention, there is no need (and probably no desire) for an intricate Michael Whelan painting on your book cover. That's too bad, in a way.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

It would be nice if we had some data indicating what percentage of published books actually contain highly detailed cover art now, versus a few years ago. The article is woefully short on data, which makes this (at the moment, at least) nothing more than anecdotal.

 

[danr62]

Article? It reads a bit more like an ad to me.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

Yes. I suppose it is fair to say that the nicely detailed covers of the past are a dying art. With eBooks, where you have to rely on a thumbnail for attention, there is no need (and probably no desire) for an intricate Michael Whelan painting on your book cover. That's too bad, in a way.

For once I could not agree with you more.
Ebooks and their art or lack of it I should say will ruin the older form of book covers forever. It's a shame too just when we were finally getting good art work for sci fi and fantasy books to. Pity.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I treat the quality of an ebook's thumbnail as a sign of how much effort the author put in to make his or her story presentable and marketable, and I'm less likely to read an ebook with a badly-done cover. I don't think this makes me particularly unusual.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I treat the quality of an ebook's thumbnail as a sign of how much effort the author put in to make his or her story presentable and marketable, and I'm less likely to read an ebook with a badly-done cover. I don't think this makes me particularly unusual.

I agree 100% & that's one of the things self-pubbed authors skimp on a lot of the time. I look at the cover as a picture representation of the author's professionalism & effort in detail. If the cover is crap, chances are you're dealing with an amateur. That's just my opinion, but I'm quite certain the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" idea isn't what happens in reality.

 

[danr62]

Yes, but I think the argument being made here is that there is less room for "real" art on the thumbnail covers, so authors and publishers are opting towards more iconic imagery.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I treat the quality of an ebook's thumbnail as a sign of how much effort the author put in to make his or her story presentable and marketable, and I'm less likely to read an ebook with a badly-done cover. I don't think this makes me particularly unusual.

I think we probably underestimate how much impact the cover art makes. Good-looking cover art makes us unconsciously treat the book as professional, and vice versa. Now certainly you can get over that with a bit of concentration, but most readers aren't doing that. If person A recommends book Z to person B, and person B checks out the Amazon page, and the cover art looks amateurish, B might go, "Eh, maybe not" without even bothering to look into it. But if the cover art looks great, then B can move on to other things, like whether the description/reviews matter.

 

[Aosto]

ebooks still require cover art, it's the cover that lets me know if I'm going to at least read the first few pages. I've passed up many titles on Amazon simply because of poor cover art.

 

[icebladeaskante]

Cover art is a touchy subject of mine, but I think publishers appreciation for how it influences a new buyers decision is dying.

Since most of the books I read are American (and dead tree) I get to see some truly amazing covers, and yet I tend to notice that when they get a UK publishing the books lose that pretty feel and become plain and boring as though UK and Ireland will not read Fantasy books with beautiful covers. Now I know there is a lot of good pretty covers that are UK published, but in general that's what I've found. For example Mercy Thompson Book Covers The top images are the American version, under that is the first round of UK versions, and then I think its the German. Are cultures really so different that UK people wouldn't buy the American version?

And changing covers really bothers me, I understand that its an attempt at rebranding the book image, yet its still annoying and if it occurs too often I stop buying the books in my local bookshop and start buying through the various Amazons to purchase the American versions - which don't seem to change as much. When an author starts to write different worlds, its nice to be able to look a cover and know which series it belongs to. Mercedes Lackey for example, with her you know if a book she's releasing is part of the 500 Kingdoms or Valdemar series simply because she's kept the same style of cover for each series.

 

[Weaver]

Well, my friend Greg got absolutely amazing cover art for his ebook. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SX0U0-EYUoU/TzXGqd1L3qI/AAAAAAAAAFk/OGRoVqOx70k/s1600/InSiegeofDaylight_Dieavaul.jpg He also paid good money for it. So I don't think that cover art is becoming unpopular or whatever, only that some self-published authors are choosing to save money by not spending it on the cover art.

Truth be told, I'd rather see a book with a fairly plain cover (not the same as one having bad art) and a good story inside than one with a flashy cover illustration and a poorly written (and poorly edited) story. The same goes for ebooks.

 

[Motley]

Look at Kindle book listings and judge a book by its cover. People do it. If you want to offer a professional product, you can't get away with stock and a plain font title unreadable at thumbnail size. There are competitions for ebook cover art. They are excellent marketing tools as well.

I read a study recently about self-published books and what paid practices resulted in more sales for the author. Professional book cover design increased sales by 34% over those who made a plain cover themselves. The largest difference came from hiring a professional editor, however. I'll try to find the article again.

I only think quality book cover art is dying because too many writers fail to produce a quality product - the book - even if their story is strong.

 

[Graylorne]

Are cultures really so different that UK people wouldn't buy the American version?

There is a difference in taste, at least as fas as I'm concerned. I'm Dutch, not British, but in general I tend to buy the UK version, because they are (to me) more tasteful.
The American covers in your example are (again to me) rather flashy and I prefer the UK ones. The German covers aren't very interesting.
I don't pretend to speak for anyone else, of course. I haven't made a study of it, but I suppose it goes for other types of packing materials as well.

 

[Aravelle]

I don't know if it's dying, but it has certainly weakened. Cover art doesn't seem to be taken seriously by the author: they'll just slap on any "cool" picture they want, regardless of whether it's accurate or relevant to the story. I hate hate hate a majority of cover art. I feel it should be elegant, subtle, and/or meaningful. It needs to capture the essence of the story.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't think the suggestion is that you don't need covers. The idea is that given eBooks and the necessity for the cover to serve as a thumbnail, we're losing a lot of the nicely-detailed cover art of the part. A magnificent scene by Michael Whelan, rich with small details, simply isn't necessary or maybe even desirable when you're selling an eBook.

 

[Devor]

I was kind of struck by the difference in the covers between Michael Sullivan's self-published books and the ones published by Orbits. He posted those here.

Fantasy has always been a genre noteworthy for its visuals. It's hard for me to believe that such art will disappear. Even if it moves off of the cover, I think authors will build additional visuals in their websites and other promotional materials.

If fantasy book covers continue to trend towards seemingly generic symbols, authors will find other ways to help their books stand out.

 

[icebladeaskante]

There is a difference in taste, at least as fas as I'm concerned. I'm Dutch, not British, but in general I tend to buy the UK version, because they are (to me) more tasteful.
The American covers in your example are (again to me) rather flashy and I prefer the UK ones. The German covers aren't very interesting.

I suppose I enjoy that flash and I love that the tattoos change in the American covers to reflect the changing story, for example the first book focuses on werewolfs, as reflected by her tats, whereas the second book focuses on vampires, and again her tats are of a bat and its interesting. While the UK covers are simply a graveyard and you could be forgiven for thinking its another vampire based story. To me the UK covers are boring, and fantasy should not be boring. You can do tasteful without losing that interesting side to things.

I actually found this Ilona Andrews Blog an interesting discussion on the whole issue of covers overseas, she actually doesn't post the UK versions which is a pity because I think (and i'm more than a little biased cause I love her books to pieces) that they really really let down her series, they look terribly unprofessional and again a little boring.

 

[Aravelle]

There is a difference in taste, at least as fas as I'm concerned. I'm Dutch, not British, but in general I tend to buy the UK version, because they are (to me) more tasteful.
The American covers in your example are (again to me) rather flashy and I prefer the UK ones. The German covers aren't very interesting.
I don't pretend to speak for anyone else, of course. I haven't made a study of it, but I suppose it goes for other types of packing materials as well.

I agree. European covers are generally more artful to me.