Why do you have to choose such sweaty-sounding names?

I think Evelyn Waugh's books have some of the best covers ever. (I think some of Chuck Palahniuk's covers are good, too, especially Invisible Monsters, and it's even better after reading the whole thing.) Sure, you shouldn't judge it by its cover and all that, but it doesn't hurt to make it... presentable, you know?

Publishing houses have two faces.  In the case of [the publishing house Farrar, Straus and Giroux], Jekyll belongs to the distinguished company that has published such award-winning novels as Gilead, The Great Fire, and The Corrections.  Hyde is the side which seems to proclaim 'Don't read this, it's too smart for the likes of you.'

"Look at the covers.  Gilead's is a turquoise smear.  The Great Fire's is a red smear.  And Fieldwork's cover is a green smear (probably jungle) and a gray smear (probably sky).  It communicates nothing....

"Hey, guys, why not put the heroine on the jacket?  Martiya in the jungle at night, or embracing her lover, or dancing with the native tribe of which she almost becomes a member?  In other words, why not actually sell this baby a little?"
- Stephen King, EW #928

Even though King was discussing how great books go unnoticed, I think it still sort of applies.  Sometimes, covers are just really half-assed, as if they didn't put any consideration in it at all, and not just for books.  I love all his "smear" talk... there's abstract and then there's just lazy.  I find that what he often writes in the back of EW resonates with me (the last one I remember was about closure in TV shows)... GET OUT OF MY MIND, STEPHEN KING!!

So take a lesson from Waugh's book covers, all you other covers out there.  You're trying to sell a product.  How else are you gonna attract impulse buyers??

Comments

[Leslie]

[this is good] Ha, I was going to ask you about the influx of Waugh covers on your Vox. Lovely designs. But while I appreciate clever/pretty covers, Stephen King is not one who should talk. Look at the covers of his books, which communicate one thing: BUY ME so I can make another million dollars selling bad literature to America. There's not one cover that distinguishes his work from thousands of other drugstore fictions. It's not entirely King's fault; he's not the one doing the design, though he is probably involved in choosing the covers. I think The Great Fire's cover is pretty decent, though I still wouldn't read any of the books he mentions, nor are his suggestions anything but exploitative. (A white woman dancing with a "native tribe" for a cover? Maybe if we were living in the first half of the 20th century, and not the 21st.) It's not that they look boring; they sound boring. How many times do we have to read about "Westerners" in "Eastern" countries? Fuck, I hate those terms, and I hate that "genre" (if it can be called that).

Sorry for ranting about King. Hee, you know how I go off-topic like whoa.

[Leslie]

Oh, and I don't have an agenda against the Kingster... I'm just a bitch.

[Lily]

Heh, you're right, I've never noticed that I would never read his books
if based on his covers alone.  In fact... I don't really think of
him as an "author" anymore.  I know that I enjoy his articles in
the back of the magazine way more than any of his fiction. 
Probably because it's only a page?  Or that he's writing about
stuff I actually care about? (Or at least, care more for than a creepy
clown or mobiles that turn people into zombies.)

Yeah, I'd thought his cover suggestions weren't that great, but not for
the reason you mentioned (though it's much better than mine).  I
just thought they were really mundane and "been there, done that," but
at least the dude tried.  He really liked the book!  I know
firsthand how fans can get into an uproar when an underappreciated
title they love is, they believe, marketed badly.

I don't mind you going off-topic, I welcome and enjoy it because I love your writing.  Diction and syntax.  Have I ever mentioned that?  Well, I'm doing it now. ^^

[Leslie]

Stephen King is a mystery! His novels may be "bad" but they make for good movies. And the hilarious thing? The one time he wrote a good book was when he wrote a book about writing! I only read a chapter from it, but it was funny and absorbing. I think maybe he should dedicate his time to writing about pop culture because it's clearly what's he great at, and forget the horror stuff. More EW! EW!!