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Book Covers Sell Books |
In today's interview featured in Shelf Awareness, Felicia Sullivan describes a book she bought for the cover:
"Serious Girls by Maxine Swann. The image of two schoolgirls clutching hands, their legs submerged in a pond, their backs flat on anemic grass, their eyes gazing up at a bleached sky, a smattering of red on a uniform (blood?), haunted me. I remember browsing the New Releases section in my local bookstore, and I kept walking by Serious Girls, disturbed, curious. I didn't know anything about the book or the author, but on that particular day, I knew that I wanted to learn more about those two girls."
I can see why the image transfixes her. Are they dead? Just relaxing on a hot summer's day? You really can't tell by the cover.
An interesting use of negative space with a nearly blank white top half.
Would you want to read this book? Does the cover sell you?Labels: book covers, Felicia Sullivan, Maxine Swann, negative space, Serious Girls, Shelf Awareness |
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Books You've Bought for the Cover |
I love the Book Brahmins interviews in the Shelf Awareness ezine because one of the questions they ask every interviewee is what book they've bought for the cover. Well, today's cover of choice -- as chosen by Debra Ginsberg, author of the memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress -- is Jessica Cutler's The Washingtonienne.
Now, I understand why a man would be attracted to the cover. I found it inspirational. And I can also see how a woman would like the cover. It is very arresting.
Of course, I would have loved to see the title be bolder, but I guess they felt that, if they made it bolder, it would take away from the other attractions on the cover. Sometimes you have to make tough choices in designing a cover.Labels: book covers, book design, book marketing, Debra Ginsberg, Jessica Cutler, Shelf Awareness, The Washingtonienne, Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress |
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Book Covers: Another View |
Today's Shelf Awareness newsletter interviewed book critic John McFarland. One question they asked was the title of a book he had bought only for the cover. Here was his answer:
"Juno and Juliet by Julian Gough. How could anyone resist identical twins dressed for swimming and looking like two mysterious sleek seals?"
What's your take on the cover? Here it is:
 Labels: book covers, book critic, John McFarland, Shelf Awareness |
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