Hey guys!
So I've been thinking about covers lately since I saw this post on The Story Siren this morning. It's about the cover of The Wide Awake Princess by E.D. Baker. It had a picture on the front of it, but then the publishing company changed it to a cartoon cover. (To see the actual picture just click on the link - it takes you right to Kristi's post about it.)
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not a big fan of cartoon covers. When I go book shopping, and this is going to sound horrible, but I look at the covers before I'll read the summaries. 9 times out of 10, if I don't like the cover, I won't read the summary of the book.
Now, books like the Simon Romantic Comedies, I don't mind the cartoons on those. I don't know what it is. I guess it's because I know I like them already, so I don't really mind their cartoon covers. But on any other book... cartoon covers = bad to me. (Even though I'm finding that Simon Pulse is changing the covers on the Simon Rom Coms to make them more marketable, also.)
I found it very surprising because I thought lots of people thought this way. I thought a majority of people preferred the "picture" covers instead of the cartoon ones.
So I guess what I'm getting at is: What is YOUR opinion? Do you like "picture" covers more than cartoon covers or vice versa? Why? Do you think that publishers have better luck selling books with the "picture" covers rather than the cartoon covers?
hope.
8 comments:
I don't like cartoon covers. If the book has amazing ratings and good reviews, I'll pick it up, but if it's a book I've never heard of with a cartoon cover, I'll probably avoid it. That's kind of bad, but for some reason, those kind of covers just repel me. Aside from the Simon Romantics, most of them just come across as kind of .. young and childish and not YA. In my opinion, it's mostly teenagers and younger people that read YA fiction, and the majority of them don't watch cartoons anymore, so seeing them on covers of books that are supposed to be fit for an older audience seems kind of weird.
Anyway, that's just my two cents. Sure, it sucks that I sometimes overlook cartoon covers, because the authors have nothing to do with that- but it happens. I definitely prefer the "picture" covers.
I generally don't like cartoon covers. If I book with one got good reviews and was recommended to me a lot, I might pick it up, but otherwise I wouldn't look twice at it.
Bad decision on the part of the publishers. They've probably alienated a large segment of the audience for this book. When I saw the new cover, I thought it looked like a picture book for 5-year-old kids... not a novel for young adults (which is the category Amazon has put it in).
I'm not a fan of cartoon covers, period (even the stylized ones that are a little more grown up).
I don't like cartoonish covers either. To me, it seems as though the book is going to be childish and for a younger crowd. I definitely prefer book covers with actual photos. It makes it seem like the book can come to life!
I kind of hate cartoon covers, I much prefer picture covers. The only time cartoon covers don't bother me is with books like Kaleb Nations, The Farfield Curse or the Harry Potter books.
Really, the only time I am likely to pick up a cartoon cover is if I already know the author or if it's one of the romcom ones (like The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols and stuff like that, because I like those kind of stories but I'd like the books even better with better covers).
how would you possibly look at the summary of a book without looking at the cover? it is literally the first thing you see. it would be physically impossible NOT to see the cover first.
sheesh.
i like cartoon covers, but it all depends on the genre of book. sometimes a actual photograph on the front, or some awesome design is better.
i think the only books that have a cartoon(ish) cover on them that i would actually take time to read would have to be the vladimir tod series. :)
It doesn't really matter too much to me the medium of the cover art (whether it's cartoon or photo or whatever). What matters to me is the content of the picture and how well it's presented. It just has to be ENGAGING. Catch my attention and make me curious what the pages between the cover hold for me. :)
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