Discussion: Ever-changing Book Covers

COFFEE TALK
with Isalys and Jen

Welcome to our first segment of Coffee Talk! We created this feature to discuss stuff we had on our minds. Sometimes it might be a vent session. Sometimes it might be a squee session. Hell, sometimes it might even be a ramble session. Whatever it turns into we’ll try to make it one helluva good time.

Today’s topic is:
What’s up with publishers changing all these covers?!

Jen: Being the cover lover that I am, often times I buy a book solely on what the cover looks like. Most of the time I end up really loving the book (lucky for me) which causes me go into full on research mode. So if this book ends up belonging to a series you can bet your right butt cheek that I have combed the vast expanse of the interwebs for the cover to the next book(s). After seconds, minutes or hours I finally manage to lay eyes on what more often than not is an amazeballs cover. All shiny and pretty and stuff. And then something really bizarre happens. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, someone decides that the cover needs to be changed. Not just minor changes to say the font or something. Oh no. That would be crazy. I’m talking changes to the ENTIRE cover. This thing that was once so shiny and pretty and stuff has been morphed into something that defies logic. Why?!?! Why, why why?!?! *shakes fists at the heavens*

Isa: What about the left butt cheek? I assume you don’t want to bet that one ‘cuz then you’d be left with no butt cheeks and what kind of life would that be? Am I right?

Anyhooizzle! I present to you, Exhibit A: Belladonna by Fiona Paul. On the left, I give you the original cover. The colors. The font. The lighting. The lovely girl/woman on the cover in a sultry pose yet mysterious enough not to ruin your already established mental image of our heroine Cassandra. It’s all lovely, IMHO. And most importantly, IT MATCHES THE FIRST BOOK! *breathe* Now the image on the right *sneers* is the NEW cover with it’s rudimentary Photoshopping. Oh sure, let’s just take that tiny Venetian bridge hiding in the back of the original cover, blow that bitch up and start overlapping some romantical stock images. Voila!

 

I swear, it’s like I’m reliving the atrocity that was Nightshade and Wolfsbane all over again *headdesk*

*rolls up a newspaper* Bad publisher! Bad, bad publisher!

Jen: Oh, my dear Isa, it would be quite a miserable life indeed. *sigh* Oh, and when you’re done with that newspaper hand it over so I can get a couple of licks in. *gets in batting stance*

Anykerfuffle, all kidding aside I would like to meet the person in charge of these often times horrendous decisions, look him/her in the eye and slap the face off their heads. Okay, fine perhaps that’s a wee bit violent but an interrogation is going down and it ain’t going to be pretty. Don’t these pubs have people in charge of making sure their people don’t make BAD decisions? Because if they do they’re FAILING miserably. It’s a plot to rob us blind I tell ya. They have to know that I can’t possibly tolerate owning a series whose covers don’t match. Of course they do. Why else would they do such a silly thing?!

Isa: My theory is that this is all an evil marketing ploy into tricking us into...oh, I don’t know what because this accomplishes nothing but sticking in my craw (<-did I use that correctly?) (Just looked it up and yes you did.)

Now in the case of Belladonna, the lovely Ginger from GReads! came to my rescue by passing along her ARC. THANK YOU, G! YOU RULE! However, I have too many other books on my shelves that are part of a series and no longer match (eg: Shatter Me (1 vs 2), Delirium (1 vs 2 & 3), Shade ( 1 & 2 vs 3) and note that these changes follow absolutely no pattern whatsoever) and I am not happy about this!

"Dear Publishers,

This is just a friendly reminder that we bookworms are not just readers, but COLLECTORS as well! Our fully stocked shelves are a source of pride for us. These books are our babies and included in the list of “Top 3 things we’d save if our house caught fire” so on behalf of the Reading Community, I beseech you to STOP redesigning the covers and messing up our collections. I can deal with you changing the cover when going from HC to PB but it must end there. No mas changing the cover within the same print type!

Love,
An annoyed Isa who cannot afford in money or space to own multiple sets of one series because you guys cannot make up your minds about what covers you want to print!”

Jen: *golf clap* Well said my friend. Well said. So we’ve bashed on the pubs quite a bit and I definitely don’t want to end this on a negative note. Even though there are several series that have suffered the bad cover change up I’m sure there’s just as many that haven’t, right? Can you think of any books or series where the covers were changed for the better?

Isa: Actually, some of the titles I mentioned above weren’t “bad” changes. I really dig the new Shatter Me covers. The new Delirium covers aren’t too shabby either and make the original look plain by comparison. Oh, and I like the new Vincent Boys and Vincent Brothers covers because hot boys on covers is always a win! In these instances, it’s not that the changes were bad, it was that the changes were done MID-series to the same print version (hardcover vs hardcover) or (paperback vs paperback).
 
Jen: See. We can be nice.*wink wink*

Now it's your turn! We know that this topic has gotten on more than one nerve lately so feel free to RANT, VENT, BITCH, MOAN about this...or whatever comes to ya. We're here for you! You can let it all out.