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Book Reviews

The Complexity of Book Covers + A Poll

Book Covers

Book Covers

The Complexity of Book Covers

Book covers are fundamental to the success of books.

The more appealing the book cover the more often the book will be chosen. I’ve always thought designing book covers must be a really fun job, working with colours & font and reading the books to decide what works best. But it must be tricky to design an appealing cover while also pleasing both the author and publisher.

Books with ugly covers need much more work to ‘sell’

This applies to library and bookshop customers – including me. Shallow maybe, but I am sure I have passed over countless books simply because I didn’t like the cover. If you have a TBR (to be read) list as long and daunting as mine you’ll know what I mean. It takes a conscious decision (i.e. more effort) to pick a book with an unappealing cover.

Different publishers use different covers

The interesting thing is that in most cases the books published by different publishers have different covers. Do publishers and their teams know what they are doing?  While the appeal is subjective, what I like is not necessarily what you like, are we all so different? Please vote in the poll below

The And I Darken cover debate

Take the book And I Darken. I love the USA cover and if the UK cover had been on Netgalley I know I would have passed it over and missed a brilliant book. But is the USA cover more feminine and possibly less likely to be picked up by boys? What do you think?

In the interests of humanity (ok maybe not humanity but it is interesting!) please vote for the cover you prefer in the poll below.

With thanks to Miranda’s Book Blog & It Starts at Midnight for inspiration.

Poll closed on 27 September 2016

poll by opinion stage

9 Comments

  1. I fell in love with the US cover. It’s the first one I saw and one of the reasons I requested the title (beside the author). But as others have mentioned, it really doesn’t fit Lada’s character very well. I can’t say I was a fan of this book, to be honest, but in terms of fitting the character, I think the UK cover captures Lada much better. But the US one would make me pick it up over the UK one. It stands out with the bright purple contrasting against the black whereas the model on the UK cover kind of blends into the darkness (which works, but not as eye-catching to me). I think they’re both awesome but would pick the US for my initial interaction with both.

    • Comment by post author

      The US cover is so pretty I requested the book on NetGalley just because I liked the cover! I doubt I would have looked twice at the UK one, it’s a bit too Lord of the Flies for me 🙂 I liked the book but was frustrated with Lada’s character so after reading it I am still #TeamUScover. Thanks for the visit.

  2. So. It’s funny that you should mention THIS particular cover, because I have gone back and forth with it in my head many times. At first I liked the US cover because well, prettiness. But then the girl on the UK one reminded me of Octavia from The 100, so that made me feel like I would really love this character? So for awhile, I actually had the UK one on my wishlist. Then I ended up making a trade for the US one and it is VERY pretty in person so I am back to liking it.

    Ultimately, my beef with the UK cover was that it looked blurry to me! Why is her face so blurry? Do not like. If she were… sharper, she may have won. But in the end, pretty flowers, a nice font, and a spear have won me over 😀

    • Comment by post author

      I didn’t notice the blurriness until you pointed it out! The US cover is stunning, but I also prefer it because I didn’t like Lada. She was pretty confused about what she wanted and she kept getting side tracked. I loved Radu – maybe I would have liked the cover more if he was on it instead.

  3. Covers are so important and a lot of the time why I look into a book. I really prefer the US cover of the one above. Something about the colors but also the imagery.

  4. Gahhhh!!!! I love the US cover but when I saw the UK cover I couldn’t get over how much more it drew me in. I’d pick the UK cover EVERY TIME!!!!

    • Comment by post author

      LOL I am beginning to wonder if I’m the only person who doesn’t like the UK cover ?

      • I’m the only one so far to vote for it in the poll. But I felt as if the flower didn’t speak to Lada’s intensity. The look on the girl on the UK cover screams Lada to me. So while the US cover is no harm, no foul–the UK cover captures the essence of the story and Lada for me.

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