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June 24: Ten Book Cover Trends (or just elements of covers) I Like/Dislike {can stick to one or the other or both!}
I went for both, because why not?
Like:
1. Artistic (like a drawing or painting). There’s nothing wrong with a photograph style cover, but this kind will always stand out to me.
2. Bright covers. Black and white is all well and good, but give me covers like a field of flowers, and I am happy.
3. Combination pictures. Any time you can stack covers next to each other, flat or spine up, to form a larger picture, I’m in.
4. Fancy fonts. Nothing unreadable, but fonts twined with vines, or forming clouds, or other such things always catch my eye.
5. Simple. Give me a nice, bold, simple design, and it nearly always works for me.
Dislike:
6. Dress focus. I know this will get some disagreement, but though the dress is often pretty, the book is not about a dress. (If it were, I’d be happy) No, it’s about the woman wearing it, who we can’t even see for all the fabric.
7. Headless/faceless people. (partial or complete decapitation) I get that this is a way to not put a face on a character, so readers can picture what they like, but it’s a little disturbing. Where have the heads gone?
8. Pink on everything. I get that I am a woman, and pink is supposed to be my designated color. But I vehemently disagree with this. I want all the colors!
9. Unnecessary focus on body parts. If the book is a Snow White tale, and has a hand holding a poisoned apple, that’s one thing. But if there’s some random cleavage on the cover, I have to ask why.
10. Weird Poses. It’s an old complaint of mine, but whenever someone is drawn twisted in an uncomfortable–or impossible–way, it bothers me.
I love your number 3!
Lynn 😀
So, pretty, right? I don’t need those particular books, but I want them…
I couldn’t find a good example of the front of the covers forming a picture–other than one I’ve used before, the Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold–but I know they’re out there.
Simple and minimalist design concepts are sometimes the most striking to look at. They’re also one’s which may cause people to gravitate towards the synopsis to read more into it (at least, I know that’s how it is for me!)
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
Definitely better than so busy a cover that you don’t know what to look at!
Ha ! Yep, I agree with all of these. Very happy about your ‘woman in a dress’ criticism as well 🙂
I would not want it said about any of my heroes: ‘what do you know about her?’
“Well, she wears a very pretty dress.”