Author Topic: A musing on current book covers  (Read 1261 times)

EC Sheedy

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A musing on current book covers
« on: October 13, 2018, 04:31:32 AM »
Is it just me, or does typography rule in the book cover world right now. I just went to this site (The Amazon most sold chart)  https://www.amazon.com/charts/mostsold/fiction/ And it seems to me, that people on covers have faded in importance.

Mostly, I've written romance, and even there it seems a few authors are choosing more art over beefcake. I'm cool either way, but does anyone else sense somewhat of change going on--the shift to typography as a more important element in book design?

 :ws
"I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again." Philip Pullman
 

Shoe

Re: A musing on current book covers
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2018, 05:41:07 AM »
I suspect typography has about the same importance it's always had. I peeked at New Adult Romance. It looks about as beefy as it always did.

That chart shows a fairly broad mix of books (obviously). Covers don't matter so much outside the genres. If I put a genre cover on any of my books, I'd lose all my readers.
Martin Luther King: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
 

Kyra Halland

Re: A musing on current book covers
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2018, 06:36:51 AM »
It looks like most of those are trad pub titles, or Amazon imprints, which position themselves alongside the big trad publishers. The covers for trad pub seem to follow different rules. One thing is, the books are more likely to sell just by virtue of the author's name; title and genre indicators are secondary. Personally, I don't like covers that depend mainly on the typography because they tell me nothing about the book itself.


Strong women, honorable men, worlds of magic

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Genres: Epic Romantic Fantasy; Western Fantasy