Top Ten Cover Trends
09:00
It’s well known that you shouldn’t judge a book by its
cover. But, considering that the cover is often the first thing a reader sees
when they pick up a book, having a well-designed cover is certainly very
important. I’m linking up with The Broke
and the Bookish’s Top Ten Tuesday again, and this week we’re talking about
covers, either what we like to see on them, or what we don’t like. I’m going to
talk about both, listing five things I like to see, and then five that I’m not
so keen on. I’ve added examples of covers with the elements I mention, however I
certainly haven’t read all the books.
Five Cover Trends I Like:
1. Covers that look like Paintings
 |
| Image Credit |
Some of my favourite covers have pictures that look like they’re been
painted. I love the colours and the cracks in the paint, and the beautiful old
look you can get from this style of cover. River
Secret, and the other books in this series all have the most beautiful fake
painted covers.
2. Covers with Faces
 |
| Image Credit |
I have a
special fondness for covers with faces, especially when, as with Splintered, the face is enhanced by
other pretty things, like those butterflies. I think that what attracts me to
this kind of cover the most is the fact that I can see a picture of one of the
characters and that draws me in. Another series that has covers like these are
the Heist Society books by Ally Carter.
3. Epic Symbols
 |
| Image Credit |
Epic symbols to me carry the implication that this is going to be an
epic book, and also makes me want to read it and see what the symbol represents.
The symbol on the cover of Divergent
is so cool because it’s also on fire. Fire on covers is awesome. I like this trend
so much actually, that I asked my sister to design a cover for my Camp
NaNoWriMo novel that had its own epic symbol.
4. Dark Background with One Main Colour
 |
| Image Credit |
I think what draws me to these covers the most is the simplicity. I have
to say, busy covers do not attract me as much as the simple ones do. They have
a tendency to make my eyes tired with trying to look at everything at once. I
love how the colours stand out against the dark so well and make these covers
eye-catching with that sudden splash of brightness.
5. Covers with Objects as the Focus
 |
| Image Credit |
Like with the epic symbols, I have a soft spot for covers that focus on
objects. I generally expect the object to mean something to the story, so
having an object on the cover is like getting a tiny taste of the book. Not to
mention the fact that you can then have some beautiful and elaborately
decorated things gracing the front of your book.
Five Cover Trends I Don't Like So Much
1. Covers Underwater
 |
| Image Credit |
I’m going to start this by saying that I’m not against all covers that
are set underwater. In fact, I quite like a few of them. But there are such a
lot of them now that they’re all starting to look the same to me. The ones that
really bother me though, are the covers that are underwater when nothing
actually happens underwater. Like the cover for Captivate. True, there were people living underwater, but they were
in air, not water, and the underwater kissing never happened. They tricked us
precious!
2. The Title Covers the Picture
 |
| Image Credit |
I love this cover. I love the picture and the colours and composition.
But the words cover the picture! I can’t see it properly. Honestly, I can’t see
the point of having such an amazing, eye-catching cover picture and then
covering it up with the title. This is probably a petty quibble, considering
the example I posted, but I do love pretty pictures.
3. Unreadable Titles
 |
| Image Credit |
Have you ever been browsing titles in the library and had to reread a
title to see what it actually says? I love titles in fancy fonts, I really do.
I love all the flourishes and the curls. But some fonts make letters look like
other letters, while others seem to make letters vanish completely. It’s so
frustrating trying to work out what a book is actually called. (Pretty Little Liars isn’t the best
example of bad fonts, but I couldn’t remember the titles of the books that
annoy me most.)
4. Broken Titles
 |
| Image Credit |
If there’s
one thing I dislike more than unreadable fonts, it would be titles that are
split over the entire cover. The title of this book is a single word, but it’s been
split into three lines. I find that very difficult to read indeed. The only thing
worse than this is a cover with two words broken over several lines so I have
to work out which letters goes to which word. It’s frustrating to say the
least.
5. Shirtless Men
 |
| Image Credit |
This is one cover trend that really annoys me. Why do
we need a shot of the man’s bare chest? Is it that important? It’s worse when,
like on this cover, the focus is on the man’s chest, and not on his face. Is a
bare chest truly that fascinating that it has to be the focus of the cover? I am
truly baffled by this trend.
What cover trends do you like? What annoys you? Agree with me on any of these? Can you guess which of these books I've actually read?
11 comments
I agree with all your dislikes! As for the #5, it's even worse when the shirtless guy is also missing his head. How original!
ReplyDeleteI also love covers which look like paintings. A lot of time, effort, and care goes into making a hand-drawn cover, far more so than a lot of modern digital covers.
My TTT
I'm in complete agreement about the shirtless guy being without a head. Is it his chest that's so important? I just don't see the sense. I think you're right about the time and effort going into the cover. You can really tell how much care has been taken over getting it to look just right. And the effect it often breathtaking in my opinion. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI don't really like broken titles either. I don't know why it annoys me so much!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's something about the eyes having to move over more than one line to figure out what a word says. I really hate books with four letter titles that do this. I find my eyes spinning in circles as they run over the letters. It's funny, because inside the book, the formatters work hard to make sure that words don't get broken over two lines. I wonder if it's supposed to be artistic or something like that?
DeleteI always feel uncomfortable reading books with half naked people on the cover. Not that I'm fussy exactly...okay, lol, I'm fussy. I'm always judging books by their covers. I'm also SO not a fan of covers you can't read the font of! It's crazy! I don't even know what the title of the book I'm reading is??!
ReplyDeleteMy TTT!
Sometimes I pick books up at the library just to see what it actually says. I love pretty fonts. But oh, when they get too fancy. My sister and I come up with all sorts of alternative titles for the book before we find out what it actually means. At least it ends up being amusing. Thanks for commenting Cait!
DeleteI agree with you on using fonts that you can't even read. If I can't read the title of the book quickly, I am a lot less likely to buy the book if I am just browsing. I also dislike shirtless men on covers. I think that it comes off as cheesy.
ReplyDeleteIt gets so confusing when browsing shelves when you can't read the title, doesn't it? It's so distracting. I don't think I've ever been tempted to borrow a book whose title I couldn't read. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteHi Imogen,
ReplyDeleteI love covers with symbols on them, too! Also, simpler covers, that can still catch your eye.. they're awesome!
I also agree with all your dislikes. I don't mind 'water covers' if the story is based underwater, but if it has nothing to do with the story, then I dislike it.
And the bare-chested ones I've always disliked. I find that, even if the story seems good, I am very uncomfortable reading these kinds of books.
I don't mind fancy fonts at times, but I do really dislike broken up words and when the title covers the entire book!
The other kind of cover I dislike is when the author's name is really big, but the actual title of the book is really small, and sometimes hard to read!
I don't mind water covers too much either. There are some really pretty ones, but I do feel cheated when the book isn't really underwater. Way to raise my expectations! Oh, I totally forgot about the one where the author's name is bigger than the title. It's like, is the author more important than the actual book? It's worse when the book is named after a character and I can't work out which name is the author's and which is the characters. Very frustrating.
DeleteI totally agree on all of your Five Cover Trends I Don't Like So Much. I really love covers with faces on them too.
ReplyDelete