Snowbooks Cover Design Competition • 6 September 2007 • The SnowBlog
Snowbooks Cover Design Competition
After careful strategic consideration (meaning I just thought of it in the cab on the way home) I am proud to announce a competition that the Snowblog will be hosting for the best - and worst - cover designs in publishing today.
It is a truth universally acknowledged by right-thinking people that you *can* sell a book by its cover. This means that cover design is important. I see some covers that gladden my heart - they make me pick the book up, they clearly indicate what sort of a book it is but mainly they just work: simultaneously beautiful and functional.
Others, however, fail. They send confusing signals about the book. They are ugly, formulaic, or jarring to the eye. They act as a barrier to sales - if you buy the book, it's despite the cover.
So: nominations first! Submit your nominations for the best and worst covers you've seen of late as a comment to this post, with a line describing why you like/dislike them. We'll collate them, and post the images up here, then have a vote.
Head off to your local Book Depository to get some inspiration! My first nominations?
The current Daphne Du Maurier collection receives my 'worst' nomination. To clad books of such rounded variety and passion with such thoughtless, bland covers baffles me.
My favourite cover of recent times is Cloud Atlas. At once adventurous and conforming (it screams 'commercial literary fiction') it made me buy the book. I also liked the way the hardback morphed into the paperback - subtle changes but enough to make the book more accessible.
On another cloud related note, I also adore The Cloudspotter's Guide. And who wouldn't?
Emma
After careful strategic consideration (meaning I just thought of it in the cab on the way home) I am proud to announce a competition that the Snowblog will be hosting for the best - and worst - cover designs in publishing today.
It is a truth universally acknowledged by right-thinking people that you *can* sell a book by its cover. This means that cover design is important. I see some covers that gladden my heart - they make me pick the book up, they clearly indicate what sort of a book it is but mainly they just work: simultaneously beautiful and functional.
Others, however, fail. They send confusing signals about the book. They are ugly, formulaic, or jarring to the eye. They act as a barrier to sales - if you buy the book, it's despite the cover.
So: nominations first! Submit your nominations for the best and worst covers you've seen of late as a comment to this post, with a line describing why you like/dislike them. We'll collate them, and post the images up here, then have a vote.
Head off to your local Book Depository to get some inspiration! My first nominations?
The current Daphne Du Maurier collection receives my 'worst' nomination. To clad books of such rounded variety and passion with such thoughtless, bland covers baffles me.
