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Date Posted: 19:52:47 10/21/12 Sun
Author: Araninda
Subject: Inside . . . . my answers are over the reply length
In reply to: Chris K 's message, "New Cover Question" on 13:18:41 10/21/12 Sun

I do think the cover should reflect the book. As I said below, a lot of Deanna Raybourn's fans were upset when her Lady Julia books were reprinted. The heroine is a feisty nonconventional Victorian lady, but the cover on the reprints made the book look like a Harlequin romance rather than a mystery-adventure.

I don't like abstract covers -- the kind where the art or the title looks cartoonish. A lot of modern stories have this kind of cover.

And yes, if the hero or heroine is described in a certain way in the book, then the cover should try to match that description, or at least make the cover look somewhat similar.

The location should depend I think on what the main focus of the story is and the title. If the story is a murder mystery, for example, I don't have a problem with the cover being the house where the murder took place even if the characters don't come back to that house much.

Anne George's books always had unusual titles "Murder Shoots the Bull" for example, and the cover art was a carnival shooting gallery, which had nothing to do with the book. There wasn't even a carnival in the book. I never liked that, although I did enjoy her books.

If the book is a series, then absolutely I like the covers to be tied in some way. Usually that's done by the same typeface font and its placement on the cover. Or with a tagline "A Murder She Wrote Mystery" for example. Yes, it does help to tie the books together in the series.

I think if an author is writing a series, then he or she does need a "hook" to let the reader know this is a series. Sue Grafton writes mysteries according to the alphabet "W is for Witness". Mary Daheim writes "The Alpine ____" series. Readers do get involved in the characters and wait expectantly for the next book, even to the point of trying to "guess" what the next name will be.

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[> [> Agree with Aranainda and Deemus but truly, the cover art isn't very important to me. I buy a LOT of books for airplane reading these days. No iPad or Nook etc. -- Jan, getting ready to go east again for work., 20:43:40 10/22/12 Mon [1]


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