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LDS Publisher announced last Friday that she would be choosing the best ten covers from those posted at her LDS Fiction site during 2009. I liked the idea and went through them myself. I'm attempting to post this at the same time hers goes live. At any rate, I finished and scheduled it days ago. And I'm sure if mine goes early, it won't imply she copied me. Oh ho ho.
Now, many of the book covers had good concepts but were lacking something in the execution --- usually the type treatment. There are some people out there treating type very badly indeed.
(And yes, I did include The Fob Bible. Because its cover is awesome.)
I will say that overall the covers weren't as bad as I had assumed they would be. But, as you can tell by looking over my ten, we've still got plenty of room to improve. Plenty. (Lady Steed probably won't endorse this list.)
It's also notable that a much higher percentage of these books are from national publishers than the original pool I had to choose from.
Anyway, in no particular order:
That was my favorite cover of Moore's yet.
ReplyDeleteI like the FOB cover too-is it new made to look like an old woodcut or is it really old?
Weylands cover is very very good at letting me know this is not something I want to read.
All this time I never realized what the cover of the Mazerunner was because I was only looking at tiny thumbs-yours is the biggest pic I had seen yet.
Good stuff. And I agree -- based on this sample covers in the Mormon/LDS fiction world have improved greatly.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking of doing a post on the Zarahemla Books covers so far -- a slideshow with commentary.
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ReplyDeleteZarahemla's improved in a hurry, for sure.
So my picks only overlapped twice with LDSP's, but her list included a couple I had somehow overlooked previously.
The Fob cover is the original cover to the Gustave Dore oversized edition of Poe's The Raven.
Late comment here, but thanks so much for including my minimalist pink cover on your list. I'm envious of some of these other covers but have to agree with Mr. West on the Weyland one.
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ReplyDeleteYours was one of the most striking books I've held in a while.
And I guess I'm the only one to just plain love whitespace.
It's not the white space. It's the feeling of "awwww-you're pretty-No you're pretty" back and forth.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the cover and title, makes me think I know exactly what is going to happen in this book and that's why I said it was very good at letting me know it was not something I wanted to read.
And I have read Weyland in the past. He may be an honorable man but it would take a Frazetta to get me to pick up one of his books now.
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ReplyDeleteYeah....one was enough for me.
Totally apropos of nothing, Th., I went to your 1001 Options blog (followed the Mr link).
ReplyDeleteThe Mist by Stephen King was a story that significantly changed my worldview and I was young enough that the shift was like an earthquake.
AND The Tragedie of Dr. Faustus was also game-changing for me. I realized I like Marlowe a helluva lot more than I like Shakespeare.
So in other words, why weren't you my English teacher? All mine ever did was pound grammar and spelling into me.
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ReplyDeleteYeah, grammar and spelling are nice, but they don't change many lives.
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ReplyDeleteJust read a clip from the Weyland book and although it gives every signal for disappointing me, I was delighted by it and would be happy to read more.