Being honest, a good cover will get me to pick up your book in the store. A good blurb will get me to give your book a try. Found many good series this way
It's really a reference to humans, as in don't judge people by their outward appearance. Except of course you totally can sometimes, but what it tells you about them doesn't often tell you much about their character. It'll tell you they're a police officer or officer worker though which is handy. As for book covers, yes, if people apply that to their idea of book covers they're doing it wrong. The whole point of a book cover is to judge the book and let you know it fits in the genre you're buying. It's whole existence is about selling the book.
@@genghisgalahad8465 Yes, but people aren't evil just because they look scruffy. If on the other hand, they present as someone covered in blood and wielding a bloody knife, there are some assumptions you should probably make about their character in the short term for survival ;) But the real point is that a) the phrase isn't really intended to be applied to books and b) would be wrong if you did apply it to books.
@@ThePreciseClimber yeah like on the assassins apprentice I thought it was a jrr Tolkien bc it said robbin Hobb and the guy looks like a hobbit with the sword and the hair
They should start putting “inspired by the bestselling novel” at the top of movie posters, and stop putting “now a major motion picture” at the top of novels.
It's not even like they change the wording based on how faithful they are to the movie. I mean the bourne trilogy is one of the most meticulously written spy thrillers and the movie is completely different yet they proclaim that this book is a "major motion picture"
I hate real persons on books. They make the cover look cheap and unprofessional. Just bash a young woman's face on the cover and a curly font underneath: done!
Oh God, every time I walk by the young adult/romance section I see a lot of books with covers like that, with some model posing, sometimes with a guy or with a flower (?) or idek, but you can't tell what the story is even about, it's cheesy and I will never pick up the book even it's good because it just turns me off
Totally agree! I hate that and I don’t even want to know, how many amazing books I have never read, because the cover was just way too terrible 😫 I kinda also feel like the cover is influencing my impression on the story. I tend to like the storys of books with amazing covers better
When I see these I can't imagine something of value could be covered in such an inattentive way. And I might be completely wrong (still doubt though), but that's just how it feels
One of my biggest pet peeves is when the covers in a series are not consistent in their design and style... like, c'mon people! It shouldn't be that hard to just keep the same font for your titles at least!
I definitely feel this! Im about to publish my first novel and the artist was amazing that Im tempted to just go ahead and have them design the last 2 books in the trilogy NOW incase I cant later and hence have that inconsistency issue lol
My pet peeve is covers that literally have a random person's photo on it, like the ones on (I dunno if your country's is a dumpfire, but) Wattpad. As Daniel also said, it just feels lazy and doesn't make me interested. It sometimes makes me pass up on the books. Makes me agitated.
Mr. Obunga • 20 years ago They’re talking about something on the cover that is intended to look like a sticker but is actually printed on the cover itself. I recently read 11/22/63 and there was a little “sticker” about the Hulu series adaptation that isn’t actually a sticker, but part of the cover itself, it’s horrible.
Tried explaining this to my coworkers and everybody else liked the fake stickers and thought it helped sell the book better. Felt like I was taking crazy pills.
@@jellevanbreugel325 I get the complaint about this cover but honestly i think the composition and color are really nice and everybody seems to ignore that aspect.
@@jellevanbreugel325 I don't disagree with the complaint about how Fitz looks, but I don't think this cover has enough wrong with it to be heralded as an example of a bad cover. but that's just my opinion (however it is an educated opinion since I am a graphic design student). btw I'm not trying to say that my opinion is better or anything, all I'm saying is that I understand the conventional rules behind GD and that's where my opinion comes from and if the way Fitz looks bothers you too much to enjoy the cover that is completely valid, I just feel like people focus too much on that and ignore the color scheme and composition (which I think are both really well done) and it bothers me that people seem to dislike this cover so much when there are plenty of worse examples of photorealism. sorry if I came across too rambly and aggressive btw.
@@cartsimpson4284 From someone who has not read those books. Seeing the one he said is poorly done. My opinion on that cover without knowing the story is that it looks cheesy. It looks like a generic bland assassin's story that is corny af. Due to that cover, I would pass that book up. Now that's just based on the cover art, granted I would read the back to make my final judgement, but that's my honest opinion as someone who has not read those books.
I’m an artist, providing my perspective on this: When Daniel spoke about trusting artists and giving them creative freedom, I could not agree more, I think my neck hurts after so much nodding throughout the entirety of the video. Yes, please, absolutely trust your artists. They probably know a lot more about what looks good than you do (assuming you’re a casual consumer of art) since they’ve studied this for a good portion of our lives. They will absolutely do their best to make your cover great, especially if you get them excited for it. I know that when I get to work on something I’m personally invested in, I will give it 110% and most artists will too. About the cover with the elf man battling some orcs, you expressed your appreciation yet you couldn’t tell what you liked about it specifically. Let me tell you then. First of all: contrast. Dark on light with the character’s face contoured by extremely bright blown-out rim lighting along with he entire character being atop of what I think is water(?) or snow is also a great highlight. The composition, too, contributes majorly to the piece: we start off looking at the character’s face, then following the flow of cape into a circular motion our eyes drift to the orc on the right and then make their way through the circle of enemies to the upper left corner where we follow the gaze of the orc back towards our main character. It’s masterfully done and I really do appreciate the subtleties. Absolutely fantastic video, I loved it. Thank you Daniel, hope I was able to be somewhat educational too :)
So true! From what I've heard, there's even a trend now where publishers *and* writers think they know more about composition, colour theory and design than their artists. You can usually point out those covers right off the hop.
it was also really clever how the artist used browns for the background and the orcs but then had the character have that pop of green in the cloak and had it be a similar green to the. text so it flowed together really well
I usually agree but honestly The Revenant’s movie cover isn’t too bad because it’s not Leo’s face splashed over the cover like The Fault in Our Stars is actually very atmospheric and minimal. That’s the version I actually own too.
@@cartsimpson4284 both of you are right. The composition of the art itself matters, but so does the composition of type, additional information on the cover et cetera, over which the painter/3d artist has usually little to no control.
You never ranted about the laziest/most generic modern fantasy cover of all: a mysterious dude in a black robe standing by himself looking 'cool' (i.e. Lightbringer or Name of the Wind). It's so lame!
DUDE, i always forget to mention it, i am from Brasil and the book covers here for patrick Rothfuss are breathtaking, they're distinguishable by it's colors, and have a nice consistent art style, i feel so bad because really often i see poor book covers in the US that in other places are redesigned perfectly
@@joaofarias9986 na verdade quando eu li o nome do vento teve uma cena que eu pensei "ah então é daqui que saiu a capa" e a arte com certeza transmite a atmosfera do livro
That Assassin's Apprentice cover isn't a drawing, it's a photobash, made by editing a bunch of stock photos together to form a new picture. That's why it doesn't seem to convey anything. It's cobbled together from scraps of other photos that weren't intended specifically for this purpose, leading to an image with muddled significance.
This. It's sad that that's what they chose for this series.I've seen some professional book cover artists who actually has a studio and costumes/props, takes pictures, and just photobash. Not my cup of tea. Reminds me of amateur YA covers. It is quite prevalent in game art, and it fits there, but it's just weird on book covers.
One thing I love is when the cover continues on the back of the book, so that when you open the book, its just one complete painting. Makes it feel even more special.
It's not the cover that's on my rather old copies, but I can't unsee that imagery now. Thank you? I think? :D Lol. Also see plenty of memes about how Paul Rudd doesn't age in a way that makes you think he's doing something supernatural :D
Jon Evans Lol you’re welcome I think. Paul Rudd graces the cover of my version, so when I saw this video by Daniel, I had to post lol. Rudd is ageless!
the reason the lord of the rings / hobbit covers are so instantly recognisable even between different editions is because they usually use tolkien’s own illustrations, designs, and handwriting. or at the very least, they draw heavily on tolkien’s personal style which was unique to him, so when you see the cover you don’t just think “that’s lord of the rings” you think “that’s tolkien”
In the very last seconds Daniel mentioned "The Priory of the Orange Tree" cover. It's gorgeous. The art is amazing and the dragon clearly stands out. The text doesn't cover up the art (or only some random houses do) and the font has the exact same colour as the dragon. I like how different colours are used (contrasts,...) and I think it represents the book so well.
Some behind the scenes publishing info. The typeface/font on THE FORGETTING MOON is called Heavy Metal. The art director and editor at SAGA were the first ever to use it. They wanted it to be HUGE and BOLD and took a chance/risk. It has received some criticism as you say for overpowering the great Richard Anderson art. They toned it down a bit on book #2. However, in the years since FORGETTING MOON came out, TONS of self-published authors started using the Heavy Metal font to the point of almost over-saturation. So it was trend-setting in a way. And you are correct. TRUST THE ARTIST!!!!!! That was all i asked my editor to do. Trust Anderson to give us a killer illustration. I know because i used to be an illustrator and worked for Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering etc. I quit, I mean QUIT!!! doing freelance illustration specifically because of the OVER BEARING ART DIRECTION of some Art Directors and publishers.
This makes me wonder if Richard Anderson did a taller picture in the expectation that the text would go above the characters head. I'm guessing he's an experienced cover artist but didn't do the typography on TFM and it's possible whoever did was asked to embiggen the character? Anyway, this is why you should talk to your artist/typographer/cover designer, and accept things they tell you such as 'This font isn't for your genre' or 'We don't need to zoom in more'. The human eye can spot a silhouette of a dragon in a thumbnail, provided the contrast between it and the landscape is sufficient so a figure doesn't have to be as big as the one on that cover. And all this is why listening to cover designers talk about how they create covers and why they do the things they do, is fascinating for outsiders. Like authors :)
This is really fascinating. I personally think there is almost no way to use a font with a gradient/color variation on it and make it work well with illustrated art, especially if the art wasn't designed around the text. I think if publishers want to work with large text, the best thing to do is go the hand-lettering route and then go simpler on the art. This works great for romance covers especially. It would be a hard sell in SFF (now I'm curious to see if anyone's done it) but I think treating the text like art is a much better way to approach it if large text is a priority.
@@jonevansauthor Yep, illustrators never do type and layout of the cover in traditional publishing. They are separate jobs that the publisher hires different people for.
I totally agree with you, but those Wheel of Time covers are so off-putting for new readers. I am planning on starting the series once I manage to collect the first one from a book sale, but the ones already on my shelf...eurgh. I kind of hate them.
I was reading the Eye of the World and I kept hiding the covers from people because I thought it looked way too cheesy, and didnt want people to stare.
I've always looked at Harry Potter's first US cover version of scholastic as an iconic book cover art. Mary Grandpre's style captured the essence of the world. Not to mention the color coding per book you know which is which just by the colors of the book.
Assassin's Apprentice has too much light in the cover picture. Promise of Blood has a very dark gritty feeling. Light placement is absolutely critical for the vibe to be right!
My biggest pet peeve is a great cover, but it says "now on Netflix", or "now a motion picture". I don't care. Even if I like the adaptation, it doesn't matter. I'm buying the book, I dont want the annoying annotation.
Personally, I get the feeling that when talking about book covers we tend to disregard the text, when (for me at least), it's just as important as the artwork. Sometimes the art is great but there's lots of text over it with a bad font choice that makes the overall look worse. They need to blend together, not feel like two entirely separate elements. But I'm a graphic designer, so I'm probably a little biased
I like the abstract style, like the new WoT covers or the Poppy war. My favorite covers of all time is my set of Lord of the Rings, which have the original covers that Tolkien drew.
@@lucaleone4331 I miss it, too. But then I realize I have something like 20 books on my TBR and if I see some series I have heard of, like Wheel of Time or Mistborn, I might just end up buying them and adding more to the list. And books are stupidly expensive sometimes. Sure, no cost too great, but still, I don't think I have to pay a seventh/eight of the minimum wage to buy the first Mistborn trilogy.
And i dont go into bookstores at all, since i prefer to read in english while living in Denmark. So i buy books from Amazon. And now because of the stupid corona bullshit, theres trouble with transportation and i have to read everything on Kindle
The biggest issue I have with some bookcovers is that they have nothing to do with what is happening in the book. When they have characters depicted, they don't look as described. Or, those covers that don't give you any feel for the story.
The original UK ones aren’t much better either, bland photo realism of a certain character. I like the new paper back covers but they are ruined by that stupid permanent Netflix sticker.
I actually like the old UK paperback covers but I tend to like photo-realism if it's done halfway decently. The new ones completely lack character for me. The North American covers with the game art are garbage though and when I can I hope to replace my collection of them.
Adam Mitchell yeah most of the polish Witcher covers (except those horrible Witcher 2 covers) are amazing. And both the UK and US editions are, average at best
I really like what The Expanse covers do actually; they are not supposed to be realistic depictions of ships; they are abstract images which evoke imagery associated with space travel
My thoughts exactly. I lump them in with stylistic covers rather than photorealistic. I can understand the clarity issue with the art, but it’s the book version of the “specific photo shoot” for the show/movie. It gives an impression of the events in the book without needing to depict anything specific. My issue is actually with the visual dissonance between the strokeless pink text and the largely blue and white background. The two clash pretty hard, though that was a clear stylistic choice, it does make it difficult for many to read.
I love the art style of the Expanse novels, but the art itself is pretty mediocre. Every cover is essentially "industrial junk floating in space". I just went and looked at my copies of the books, and honestly, I couldn't really tell you what any of those covers are supposed to represent specifically. You could rearrange the covers across the whole series and it would not make any difference really.
@@remigiodecastrojr.909 I just looked them up and all I can really say is WOW, those are some incredible covers! Makes me wish that those were the covers used everywhere
I would never pick up a Dresden Files book based on a cover. I know that’s not how one should judge a book but it is natural for the eye to glaze over a poor cover I think
In the new illustrated collection, LeGuin laments those covers and how they misrepresent her series. It legitimately makes me sad that her work was so poorly conveyed
@@shnifin @connection lost But given how poorly POC are represented in the fantasy genre, I think it's important she made that choice about the main character without making a big deal out of it. And I certainly understand her laments about the off hand "whithening" of its illustration.
Whoever works with Stephen King on his covers really needs to be replaced. It's shocking to me how awful most of them are. He's up there with some of the most popular authors ever and they practically just slap something together.
I made my point in another comment (the one with "don't judge a book by its cover") about book covers, and yeah, he might have bad book covers but people know the author well and won't care too much about the cover, it says Steven king on it and that's enough to sell.
I remember being pulled to Trudi Canavans books when going into the store when I was younger. The black white aesthetic was really striking and felt like minimal "before it was cool".
Not to be pedantic, but you keep crediting the authors with their books' cover art. Jim Butcher ain't doing shit. That's all Chris McGrath. Stephen King didn't personally photoshop the cover for The Long Walk.
@@Gabriela-hy1xs Most of the time it's not the artist's fault, they don't get to pick what goes up. Its the publishing house that sets the trend and picks what stays and what the limitations the artists have
I never really enjoy photorealistic book covers. Throughout my reading experience I than always struggle between the picture and aura of the character I create while reading and the picture on the cover, where there can be tremendous differences which just confuse me.
Kings of the Wyld was the first book that actually made me track down the cover artist. His name is Richard Anderson and he has also done art for Chronicles of the Unhewn Thrown and even Guild Wars 2! I absolutely love his style and will buy any book he ever does artwork for.
Their content aside, I've always loved the twilight saga's covers. They really pop on a shelf with their red, white and black color scheme and simple pictures relevant to something deeper in the story. I just think it's really pretty and intriguing.
I would love to see you review some of the older fantasy covers from back in the day when they commissioned real artists to recreate a scene from the book. Some of the artists who spring to mind are Luis Royo (my personal favourite), Geoff Taylor, Frank Franzetta, Josh Kirby, Michael Whelan, etc.
I absolutely love the Children of Hurin cover art, Alan Lee's work is so atmospheric and the cover is perfect. Howver it was not a Lord of the Rings cover.
Same here. I have a black cat and am drawn to books with black cats on the cover. A black cat should be at least mentioned somewhere in the book. No fair putting something on the cover that doesn't appear anywhere in the book.
I love the video, especially in concept because it’s an important discussion, but next time you should note the artists who illustrated and designed these covers. It really helps them out to have their amazing work credited, especially since authors seldom have major say in how their covers turn out
I love the first law parchment type look. The png you showed of the cover doesn't look fantastic but the texture and the gold popping on the physical cover look really cool to me.
Honestly, if I had been looking through a book store I never would have picked up Leviathan Wakes. Thank god for recommendations, almost missed out big time.
you missed a big genre of fantasy book covers! the filligree: those ones with just text and then intricate designs like vines and such all around it. surprisingly common imo
“The Emerald Circus” by Jane Yolen and the “Leviathan” series by Scott Westerfield are really good examples of artistically displaying prominent text. :)
I have just found this channel, and my nerdy brain feels stimulated and reverse vulcan nerve pinched, in a way that must have been crafted in a similar way to how the rings were created in the fires of mordor. Your knowledge is as powerful as isildur. Keep it up!
I've never heart of Promise of Blood and I am not someone who often enjoys the photorealistic art/actual photos but WOWIE the action, the posture, the details....stunning.
I was literally discussing the topic of book covers with my wife yesterday. In many instances, the publisher will try to shove a cover down the writer's throat, saying that "this is what sells." Don't ask me how I know... Tolkien stands out because the original work was very minimalist, and it was embraced by guys like Alan Lee. Lee is one of my favorite artists. I love his sketches. They have a sort of washed-out, dream-like characteristic to them.
I love the A darkser shade of magic covers, the red, white, grey and black colours scheme work so well with the story as well. When I met Schwab at a con, she said all the colours were intention to match the 4 London's in the books
As a WOT youtuber I CAN NOT believe you didn't mention the ebook covers (designed by various artists) that are a HUGE improvement. I love these covers because the first time I saw them my first thought was "oh! I know what scene that is! That's iconic!" I can't post pictures here or else I would show everyone but look them up, they're bomb
I really like it when the title and names are integrated in the art itself - for example painted where a starship's name and serial number would be (in case of a SF book), or a decrepit building's name standing above some characters etc etc unfortunately it seems it's a niche style
Totally agree with your comment about letting the artist do their thing and trusting them. I have a lot of tattoos and most of my favourites are when I have the artist a vague concept and let them run with it!
In Hindi we have a saying "Jo dikhta hai vo bikhta hai" which loosely translates to "Whatever looks good sells". A good interesting book cover will definitely get my attention and if its paired with a interesting synopsis, I am definitely buying the book. Also thank you Daniel for the skillshare premium!
Great topic! I enjoyed the video. Agree with most of the things you said about book covers. I don't judge a book by its cover but I find I have more enjoyment in a book and remember more about it when the cover art is good and reflects what the book was about.
Hey Guys, i think that from someone from outside US (not feelling special for it) i could tell about some redesigns in book covers, my favorite example are patrick rothfuss books, all of them are bright and colorful covers, not some random dark picture with a big font, and the art have connection with the story by, you can recognize some scenes and when reading the book you can think "oh so it's from here that the cover is translated". There are many other examples but this is the best one for me, for my love for the books and the enormous jump from cover quality
One of my favorite cover is for The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, which is the only augmented reality cover I have seen so far. Moving tentacles are awesome.
The name of the wind - UK cover (the one with the plants) Is one of my favorite ones. It catches the eye and creates mistery. Acompainted with the magnificent synopsis it really calls you to read the story ( cdn.ecommercedns.uk/files/4/211944/8/5186008/7316.jpg )
I got Memory, Sorrow and Thorn recently, all were done by him, but they must have been two different publications. The first to were minimalist covers depicting the swords, the third was two of the characters looking badass on a tower with a castle background. And both were great.
My favorite covers are the Avon paperback editions, issued in the 1960’s, of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. Somewhat abstract, but still representing the spirit of the stories, I find them much more appealing than the later paperbacks that tried to depict scenes from the stories.
Although I didn't live in that era what I really love, miss so much and wish would come back are those pulpy science fiction and fantasy cover arts from the 50s, 60s and 70s hand-painted with even a certain blurriness. They gave so much soul and beauty to their novels. Modern cover arts with photographs and CGI art look so soulless.
My Top 5 favourite covers: 1. 'The Sailor on the Seas of Fate' by Michael Moorcock. The cover I'm talking about is the beautiful, striking original edition by Michael Whelan. Everything that you need to know about Elric of Melniobone is on this cover 2. Tolkien's original cover for full version of 'The Lord of the Rings'. By the full version I mean the 3 books all together in one edition 3. The 'black' paperback editions of 'The Wheel of Time'. Minimalism done perfectly. 4. 'The Dark Tower book 1'. Not keen on the book, but the imposing image of the tower adds mystery and intrigue. 5. 'Beren and Luthien'. Any cover with Alan Lee's art is automatically great.
one of my favorite covers is the original the fault in our stars cover with the okay bubbles. its simple and has its main colors that resemble the colors in modern text messages which fits the scene that the whole 'okay.' 'okay.' thing is taken from. it also is a cover that has almost no meaning until after youve read that scene and it seems really cute and sweet, and then once youve read the entire book, it has a different feel to it as it resembles a memory of that time and you feel that almost sad bittersweet nostalgic feel when looking at it instead
I almost always go out of my way to buy the older editions of so many great novels because they seem to have so much more personality to me. The best example I can think of is Stephen King's The Stand; the older edition has this beautifully simple rendition of two figures clashing in the desert that really captures the underlying philosophy of the novel. But the modern cover is a picture of a road and people lying face down on it; it's hands down the biggest downgrade in cover quality I can think of.
The promise of bloods composition is just incredible. The arch directs you eye to the characters face, which is looking down to the left guiding your eye to the beginning of the title. The spear and the throne reenforce the eyes downward motion to the left side of the title which is then is brought up again though the arch. This composition allows your eye to circulate through the page in a way that allows you to slowly notice all of the minute details apparent in the title. Sorry if this was long I’m just a bit of an art nerd and just this composition is phenomenal.
