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Covers! commentary and samples

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Covers! commentary and samples

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Tue February 4th, 2014, 10:34 pm

It seemed that there is much to say on this topic above and beyond deja vu. So I'm starting a thread just for people to post and comment on covers. Think what a resource this could be for publishers, whether pro or indie! A place where the readers could give feedback on likes and dislikes!

So to start it off, why not post a favorite cover and say why it worked for you?
(runs off to hunt one up, having come up with this without adequate preparation)

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Tue February 4th, 2014, 11:44 pm

MLE, do you ever look at the Caustic Cover Critic? He posts some of the most remarkable covers (good and bad) and his commentary is very interesting.

I enjoy looking at the different covers used for a single book at different times, he's got some posts of this sort (the one on Lolita is remarkable). I've had books over time myself, which when I replace them I find a new cover - this is sometimes very interesting, but sometimes makes me miss the cover that "got" me the first time.
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

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Mythica
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Post by Mythica » Tue February 4th, 2014, 11:55 pm

[quote=""MLE (Emily Cotton)""]A place where the readers could give feedback on likes and dislikes!
[/quote]

Oh, don't tempt me, lol. I'm a photographer so I always have a lot to say about imagery.

User avatar
MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Wed February 5th, 2014, 1:51 am

I know there are cover blogs out there, but unfortunately they don't often talk about HF covers. Most tend to focus on the peculiar and/or the downright awful. I thought it might be fun to post examples of what we really liked. I mean, there are a lot of postings on writer blogs, where an author puts up a cover and everyone (perforce) compliments it. But as this forum focuses on readers and our experience of a book, I want to see what covers made a person pick up a book -- or leave it on the (virtual) shelf.

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Thu February 13th, 2014, 3:23 pm

So maybe we can discuss those we've found downright awful. One of the first books that leaps to my mind when it comes to cover design is "A Memory of Lions", of which I've had two copies. One had pretty mid-eighties models embracing on the cover, and the one I have now is a highly stylized 1970s vision of "medieval" style - in their way, both covers are actually pretty bad. However, I love the book so much I've come to love the covers. It's amazing how much good writing forgives!

I have to ask myself, though - what would have been a "good" cover for this novel? Nothing with lions (the title wasn't an indicator of the contents) - but how do you depict forbidden love and brutality and cultural warfare and loss graphically ... ?
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Thu February 13th, 2014, 3:48 pm

What a fun idea for a thread. I'll be back when specific covers come to mind. As for historicals go, I do have to say that the inspirational books do seem to get the nicest covers.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be

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Mythica
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Post by Mythica » Thu February 13th, 2014, 5:34 pm

I hate when covers are just text. It's so boring.

Image

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Lisa
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Favourite HF book: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Preferred HF: Any time period/location. Timeslip, usually prefer female POV. Also love Gothic melodrama.
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Post by Lisa » Thu February 13th, 2014, 7:01 pm

That is a really boring cover. Although it allows for imagination to take over, now I have an image in my mind of a ship full of women in white meringue dresses, and it's a much funnier image than would ever seriously gone on a book cover.

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Madeleine
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Currently reading: "Mania" by L J Ross
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Post by Madeleine » Thu February 13th, 2014, 7:34 pm

it is boring isn't it, hope it's not a new trend in covers.
Currently reading "Mania" by L J Ross

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Thu February 13th, 2014, 10:54 pm

Oh my yes, Mythica - that's drab!
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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