[ SECRET POST #3853 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3853 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 43 secrets from Secret Submission Post #551.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

06. http://i.imgur.com/z7qGtk6.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Are book covers another casualty of the digital age? Probably. Or maybe just cost cutting, since brick and mortar book stores are on the wane.

[(Anonymous)]

Probably partly cost-cutting, and partly aesthetic fashions changing over time.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, it's probably that digitally produced covers are faster and cheaper to make and that the reduction in quality hasn't been enough to negatively affect sales.

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of it is cost cutting, at least from what I've seen in my limited time in the industry. It's simply a lot cheaper to photoshop a cover together than paying an artist to paint or draw it. Then it became a trend. And now a lot of covers look exactly the same (looking at you turned around YA girl in a dress) lol.

[scatteredmuse]

My favourite book covers have been Patricia McKillip's. Kinuko Y. Craft's art is absolutely gorgeous and she always hides little pieces of the story in them.

[(Anonymous)]

I love her work, too. The level of detail was so neat, and you almost never see that anymore in cover art.

[(Anonymous)]

I picked up my first McKillip book because of Craft's art - and then fell in love with the writing. Bought every book I could get my hands on immediately after. Dreaming someone else's dream writing AND art that fits the dream feeling? Take my money (which the publishers happily did)

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, I've read that book! It was the gay one, right?

I do miss classic 80s covers. Some were really silly and had nothing to do with the story, but I like covers that are straight-up fantasy art rather than photographed models or like a close-up of a sword hilt or something. Boooring.

[(Anonymous)]

Haha, yes. Though gay characters aren't uncommon in Lackey's work in general.

[(Anonymous)]

I have books that I bought solely because Thomas Canty did the cover art, and I discovered Charles de Lint because one of his novels had a cover featuring Brian Froud's art.

In other words, I feel you, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

Brian Froud does gorgeous work.

[(Anonymous)]

Totally agree. Not sure why, but illustrated covers seem much more common in Asian publishing and I've always envied that.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know, I see a lot of pretty ones from Paul Richmond. (I read a lot of gay romance, OK? He also does some gay fantasy work.)

[bur]

I will go out of my way to find old versions of books without stock photo covers if I'm interested in it enough to buy it. It's plus/plus! Prettier cover, and the book's usually cheaper because it's second-hand.

[(Anonymous)]

I hate probably 99% of scifi/fantasy book cover art but it's still miles better than stock photos

[(Anonymous)]

I hate photographs on fantasy/sci fi novels, no matter how great the photoshop is (which it isn't very often lbr).
German fantasy is mostly doing okay as far as I can see in the bookshops, but the English ones are often meh. I love the old ones that look like paintings and will get those if I can.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you seen the covers for any of the Raksura series books? they're gorgeous. Here's the latest:

http://www.marthawells.com/compendium/HarborsoftheSun.jpg

in fact, I think all of Martha Wells' books have gorgeous covers...basically because she goes out of her way to beg the publishers and to enlist artists.

[(Anonymous)]

Neil Gaiman's books are being reissued with old fashioned painted covers!

[dinogrrl]

There still seems to be some demand for painted covers in self-publishing that I've seen? But yeah otherwise I agree. I'm not a fan of the photomanip covers. I understand WHY a publisher would prefer to do that over a painted cover but I just love the personal touch of the latter. Even if the details in it don't quite match up to what's in the book.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. Plus, cover art provided work for a lot of cool fantasy artists!

[(Anonymous)]

see, I've never liked the portrait/artwork covers because they are usually so ridiculously far off from what the author described the characters or the setting that getting those images in my face when I'm trying to sculpt a mental picture of the characters based on the description...it sucks. It sucks a lot.

I'd much rather covers be plain, as they are still underneath hardcover jackets, but that's not marketable. Clearly.

[(Anonymous)]

I definitely agree. Fantasy covers have this trend of making the cover just "single object on textured background".

As an artist, it's definitely to cut costs. Those covers are fast and cheap and easy. But I'm not gonna let myself do this.

[(Anonymous)]

I generally dislike stock photo covers. For my novels, the main ones have all been hand created by artists (photorealistic albeit, but definitely nothing stock about the things I ask for!) though I've used stock landscapes for smaller pieces. No models at all, as that just throws me right out. I like people to imagine what my characters look like themselves.

Stock photo covers just feel so cheap--and I've definitely paid more for my novels than I made back, but they're something I do for fun and not profit so I guess that's just a luxury item for me really. Still I would never buy a book (physical copy I mean) with a stock photo :/

[(Anonymous)]

That, and kickass album art.