Kidliterate » covers

Loved the Book, Hate the Finished Cover

Melissa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:05:12 +0000

I loved Whoopi Goldberg’s SUGAR PLUM BALLERINAS. I also thought the galley cover was quite nice:

And then the book came out, and this is the cover, and I hate it:

It’s kind of hard to see their faces, but man, I really don’t like them at all. I like the having-multicultural-color-on-the-cover part, which we definitely need more of, but I really, really wish the art was better.

More on John Green’s Covers

Melissa — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:41:51 +0000

Okay, so if you go down to the last post I wrote on the new covers of John Green’s books, you’ll see that he commented with an explanation for the branding: he is apparently better known as a videoblogger than he is as an author. I didn’t know that – I’ve watched a couple of the videos he traded back and forth with his brother Hank, but somehow missed the part where it became a Big Thing. So if having his name so huge on his books sells more of them to videobloggers – well, that’s a pretty damn good reason, and I appreciate that John took the time to stop by and explain that to me.

(That’s one pretty website he’s got there. I’ve never seen it before, because I read his blog syndicated on Livejournal.)

Cover annoyance

Melissa — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:58:57 +0000

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.)