Now, that's what I call cover art!

[Paul Whybrow]

I've previously ranted about cover art on the Colony, but I liked a cover design that just popped up on my Facebook feed from group Retromaniacs. Granted, it's from 1958, for a story in a magazine, and I recall a time when paperbacks had similar lurid covers...especially science-fiction, fantasy and crime stories.

The artist: Ed Emshwiller - Wikipedia
The writer: Rog Phillips - Wikipedia
The magazine: If (magazine) - Wikipedia

Rat In The Skull was nominated for the Hugo Award. As If magazine editors said: "Some people will be shocked by this story. Others will be deeply moved. Everyone who reads it will be talking about it. Read the first four pages: then put it down if you can."

I don't know how much a book's cover influences a reader's decision to read it, but for me, it's a bonus if the artwork is pleasant to look at. If the author is unknown to me, then an ugly, inappropriate or hackneyed cover puts me off.

Book cover design follows trends, which makes it look like artists are copying one another. I borrowed two novels from the library this week, whose covers make me think that someone tested their marker pen on them.

8 ingenious book cover design trends for 2018 - 99designs

Of all the books I've read in 2018, I most liked the cover of All That Remains: A Life In Death by Sue Black, in which the middle of a skeleton sprawls across the front face of the dust jacket, its shoulders on the spine and the skull on the back face, while the lower legs and feet bend onto the front flap.


Do you have any favourite book cover art?

Or designs that you loathe?

 

[Leonora]

One cover I thought was very weird recently was Francis Spufford's Golden Hill. I wouldn't have read it, if I hadn't heard good things.
I read a lot on Kindle, and every so often they update all the editions in my library. It really annoys me when favourite covers disappear, especially when they're replaced by t.v. pictures from some dramatisation.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've designed covers for most of my titles, though images for two of the Cornish Detective novels are elusive. I've searched a hundred times for a decent copyright free photo of a seagull standing by a naked human leg on a beach...if you chance upon one, please let me know. If I don't find a shot for Who Kills A Nudist? then I'm gonna have to take my kit off, posing my biddy bare bum on a beach to tempt a gull my way with a Cornish pastie—which they're renowned for stealing!

While looking for photographs, I came across a website called The Book Designer. Impressed by the layout and scope of subjects covered, I signed up for newsletters, which includes a brilliant weekly aggregator of posts from other blogs.

Well worth a look: The Book Designer - Practical advice to help build better books

 

[Leonora]

I've designed covers for most of my titles, though images for two of the Cornish Detective novels are elusive. I've searched a hundred times for a decent copyright free photo of a seagull standing by a naked human leg on a beach...if you chance upon one, please let me know. If I don't find a shot for Who Kills A Nudist? then I'm gonna have to take my kit off, posing my biddy bare bum on a beach to tempt a gull my way with a Cornish pastie—which they're renowned for stealing!

While looking for photographs, I came across a website called The Book Designer. Impressed by the layout and scope of subjects covered, I signed up for newsletters, which includes a brilliant weekly aggregator of posts from other blogs.

Well worth a look: The Book Designer - Practical advice to help build better books

St Ives is the place for that. I always enjoy watching them harrying the visitors, while the fishing boats are completely ignored. Clever birds.