I want to say something up front lest anyone think I am picking on John Green: I like his books very much, including Paper Towns (whose cover I trashed earlier), which I think may be my favorite. Also, I met him briefly at BEA once and he was very nice and personable. Thirdly, his new book (with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle) is very good, and I am going to say just that when I get around to writing it up.
Okay, all that said: what is going on with the new covers of his books? Why is his name so huge? It makes me crazy when publishers try to make brands out of authors. John Green is not a brand. Stephenie Meyer sells about ninety bazillion more books than he does and her name isn’t sixteen times as big as the title of her books. Heck, Nora Roberts’ name is barely bigger than the titles of her books, and if anyone’s a brand, she is. The new trades of Green’s books make it look like they’re all called JOHN GREEN.
Generally I like what Penguin does with their covers. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here.
(I should say that while I’m generally disapproving of hardcovers that change to picture covers when they are pubbed in paperback, these are at least pretty picture covers. Again: not hating on John Green, just the art director or whoever decided this was a good idea.)
July 21st, 2008 - 5:44 am
(clearly, I google myself. It was nice to meet you at whichever-BEA-that-was!)
I think the argument is–I’m not saying that I agree with the argument, just presenting it–that I am in fact more of a brand than either Ms. Meyer or Ms. Roberts. Stephanie Meyer and Nora Roberts are both best-known as authors of books (in fact, if they do anything else, I am unaware of it).
I, on the other hand, am much better known as a videoblogger than I am as an author. The reason to make the name big is to draw attention to the fact that the guy who makes those videos you like also wrote some books. This may or may not work, but if it does work, I have no problem with it. Readers will quickly discover that the book is not titled John Green, after all.
There are rare occasions when a cover tries to make a literary argument about the novel itself–the initial dual cover treatment of PT is one of those occasions, I think. But most covers exist to sell books. The cover is not part of the novel, is what I’m saying.
Thanks for reading my books, and i’m glad you liked PT!
John