Faces on Fiction Covers

Author: Various

cover-faces_0

Oh my God!! What has happened?

Suddenly Fiction covers have lurched en masse away from ‘Headless Women” and now there are faces on the front of books (!)

This is a significant moment in design history — We must take a moment to work out what is going on:

First off — let’s remember the context: Publishers everywhere are panicking about the Women’s Fiction market. Sales are crashing and everyone is desperate for a new formula.

So this must be it.  The big idea to reinvent the genre is to put a face on the cover.

Now that might sound like a simple thing to do — but clearly a lot of thought has gone into this.

And when the boundaries are being pushed so far, we must be sure that we all understand the new rules if we are to avoid to making hideous mistakes.

THE NEW RULES:

1) Find a very fresh faced girl in her early twenties

2) Make sure she has very full, red lips

3) Show all of her face but make sure you still crop the very top part of her head (This little nuance has caught out lots of designers who are new this new approach  - Beware!)

4) You can place the type over the hair and body but keep the face free

5) Most important of all retouch the eyes so that they are a uniform, piercing blue (Again, this detail has caught out lots of people so to avoid embarrassment, please use Pantone reference 293 c / CMYK (%) C 100 — M 60 — Y 0 — K 0)

Phew — that should keep everyone on track.

We look forward to the tsunami of copycats.

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Posted by: Damian
Thursday, March 8th, 2012

J G Ballard

Author: J G Ballard
Publisher: Fourth Estate

ballard-spines_0There is something curiosly appealing about these spines.

In truth, they aren’t that extraordinary but the simple colour palates are very attractive. They give the spines a block presence on the shelf without getting in the way of either the titles or the author name.

It is a very elegant way to stand out on the shelf.

The only thing that annoys us is the way the imprint jumps between 4th Estate and Harper Perennial.

Of course there are sound internal reasons for doing this but from a consumer point of view it is messy and confusing — destroying all the beautiful consistency of the rest of the design.

Shame.


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Posted by: Damian
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

The Art of Fielding

Author: Chad Harbach
Publisher: Fourth Estate

art-of-fieldingSo here is the book that everyone is talking about…

And maybe that is the problem with this blurb: There is just too much talking.

There is one killer point that comes through in Jonathan Franzen’s quote — “First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom”.

In other words — this is a special book…

Rare, desirable and precious…

A one-off that needs to be seized upon…

This is the point that the publishers should have rammed home — but instead they got caught up in the breathless eloquence of long quotes and witty baseball metaphors.

(Hardly motivational for readers in a country that knows sod all about baseball and shows absolutely no interest in learning more about it either)

This blurb would have been much tighter if the publishers had showed more restraint and edited the quotes so that they all reinforced Franzen’s central message. After all, in among the baseball references, each of the quotes pick up on the same theme:

For example James Patterson exclaims: “The Art of Fielding is one of those rare novels that seems to appear out of nowhere, and then dazzles and bewitches and inspires until you nearly lose your breath from the enjoyment and satisfaction”

Seldom…Rare…these are big motivational words that are getting lost amongst all the others

The bottom line here is this — When putting together a blurb it is nearly always better to focus on one powerful message than to get distracted by lots of other themes (no matter how positive and tempting they might be).



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Posted by: Damian
Friday, January 20th, 2012

The Marriage Plot

Author: Jeffrey Eugenides
Publisher: Fourth Estate

the-marriage-plot-1Hardbacks are having a pretty rotten time at the moment, with rapidly diminishing sales and rising cover prices. Publishers have to work harder than ever to make their hardbacks covetable things of beauty that justify the price tag. They need to be stunning and tactile, with beautifully written, compelling text to draw the reader into their world.

How depressing, then, to see this lame excuse for a hardback — and particularly this utter waste of a back cover. Surely, SURELY, the days are gone when a couple of generic quotes were considered enough to make someone spend money on a premium book? Blurbs need to sell, to convince, to enchant. This text does none of those things… and it looks unbelievably boring as well.

Can you think of any other product category in which this sort of thing would be acceptable? This makes us want to weep.

Come ON, publishers — put some proper selling copy on the back of your hardbacks. Build the design around that copy to make it sing. Get us excited by what we see there. Show us that you believe in your book and we might believe in it enough to shell out £20.

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Posted by: Katie
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

It’s a Man’s World

Author: Polly Courtney
Publisher: Avon

its-a-mans-worldSo the author of this book has commented in the press that she doesn’t like the cover. To be specific she said that it is “ultimately degrading to women”.

Wow — there are lots of authors out there who don’t like their covers, but very few go public about it. It is part of the unspoken deal between publishers and writers. No one really knows which covers will work and which won’t, so they all shut up about it until the sales have gone way or another (Then they can say whatever they like, fully backed-up by the weight of hindsight).

Of course the press have had a field day with these criticisms. The combination of an unhappy author and accusations of sexism make for great copy. In fact, rarely has The Bookseller website had so many comments about an article on its website (21 and counting)

What is funny is that most people can’t see what the author is complaining about (How refreshingly un-PC).

That is because, ‘degrading to women’ are the words that the media have leapt upon. But it seems that this is not the point that the author was trying to make.

Her real issue seems to be that that she believes this is quite a serious and insightful book about life in the City but the cover has made it feel ‘fluffy’ and ‘frivolous’. In other words, the book is pitched completely wrong. The tone of voice does not represent the content.

Wrong tone of voice…attracts wrong readers…who get frustrated or let down by the content…and don’t recommend it to their friends…and so sales never grow.

All very logical, but the real problem with this cover is that it is just very, very dull.

There is nothing here to engage the reader, arouse interest or grab attention.

Unless of course the publishers knew that their greatest weapon was the author herself. After all, she is a self-published success story — If anyone knows how to generate attention and awareness it will be her.

Do you think they deliberately created a crap cover? (It does appear that way…)

Was this all part of a grand plan to generate a storm in a media tea cup and get us all to notice a book that otherwise would have slipped under the radar?

If so, Avon and Polly, we salute you..



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Posted by: Damian
Friday, September 16th, 2011

The Night Circus

Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publisher: Harvill Secker

night-circusThe Night Circus looks like it will be a lovely book — striking, clean and something you want to pick up and feel.

It’s great to see that this principle of simplicity has been applied to the blurb, too. Rather than trying to explain a complex story, Random have gone for three short yet intriguing statements that convey magic, uncertainty and a certain amount of threat.

It’s a shame, though, that this compelling blurb gets lost in a sea of reviews.

There’s already a great quote from Audrey Niffenegger on the front cover — “This is a marvellous book”. We don’t need to hear from her again. This quote is also intensely self-referencing and, as a result, gives the customer very little insight, particularly if he/she hasn’t actually read The Time Traveler’s Wife.

The Tea Obrecht quote offers far more to potential readers by giving them a real sense of how the book will make them feel, yet this is tucked away at the bottom of the cover.

The blurb also suffers by being in a font and colour that are more recessive than the review above it. It becomes the second thing the reader looks at and has less impact as a result. This copy should be what draws you to the book; the review should be the confirmation that you have made the right choice.

We would recommend losing the Niffenegger quote and replacing it with the Obrecht. The blurb could then be beefed up in size and given more weight, so it talks directly and immediately to its audience.

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Posted by: Katie
Thursday, September 8th, 2011

The Big Picture

Author: Douglas Kennedy
Publisher: Arrow

big-pictureThis post is at the request of a male Twitter follower who has contacted Fixabook and asked us to cxplain why on earth these covers are so downmarket and female in tone?

Readers of Douglas Kennedy will know that he is more than capable of exploring human relationships and emotional dynamics but these covers do him a diservice.

They limit expectations of his writing to girly, cliched, American schlock. (Try saying that quickly)

In reality, Kennedy is adept at delivering meaty, fast paced plots that feel more like thrillers. They have garnered a substantial male following, yet most men are embarrassed to be seen with covers like this one.

Just a little bit of reader research would demonstrate how much this author would benefit from a less ‘in-your-face’ female positioning.

At Fixabook, we are all for focusing on a single audience, but when it limits perceptions of a writer and actively alienates a core audience there is something wrong.

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Posted by: Damian
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Flipbacks

Author: Various
Publisher: Hodder

flipback-booksUnusually, we’re not entirely sure what to make of these.

They feel fantastic — light and portable with a very tactile finish and a nice touch of spot varnish on the back. The paper is lovely and they are absolutely perfect for slipping in a pocket or bag.

They’re a high-risk strategy in the current market, however. The Kindle is now the perfect format for carrying books around or taking them on holiday when space is tight. Kindle editions are also significantly cheaper than these. Three years ago, flipbacks would have had a much greater chance of taking a chunk of the market.

Of course, they are very cool, lovely things, and are much more desirable than a Kindle from a design perspective. But Hodder have chosen to launch the format with resized versions of existing books, even using the same cover designs and blurbs as the original paperbacks. We feel this is a missed opportunity to really make waves and to show the limitations of the Kindle.

It would have been far better to launch with a special collectors’ list of desirable titles, specially created or re-edited for the format, to appeal to consumers with their creativity of design or as a stylish gift. That would have shown the possibilities of the flipback as opposed to the Kindle, and would have really made it something that people talked about and shared.

Once that buzz had reached its peak, and the flipback had become a coveted object in itself, that would have been the time to launch the reformatted backlist — books that people buy for themselves to read rather than to collect or give away.

So a really neat idea, but we’re aching to see a bit more imagination applied to it. Come on, Hodder, show us what the flipback can really do.


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Posted by: Katie
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Made in Britain

Author: Evan Davis
Publisher: Little Brown

made-in-britain-1Oh dear.

We were so sure this must be a proof copy, we almost didn’t bother to review this blurb. But no, this — sadly — is the final version.

The idea must have seemed neat in theory: outline the first few minutes of an ordinary day from an economics perspective. But in practice, it’s proven impossible to communicate this elegantly in the limited framework of a blurb, and the result is a garbled mess.

Leaving aside the questionable punctuation in the shoutlines, this reads extraordinarily clumsily. Because of its tortuous nature, all the cleverness of the idea has been diluted until it’s non-existent.

There’s one other big problem. This book is a TV tie-in with an expert, respected presenter. Where’s his photo? His name? His biography? The major USP of this book has been relegated to the inside flap, and there is no visual link at all to the prime-time programme.

Here’s a neat way to solve both these dilemmas in one go. Use a full-bleed picture of Evan Davis getting out of bed. Annotate the picture to show how everything in the room is made in Britain. At once you have something visually arresting and intellectually intriguing, without having to tie yourself in knots explaining what you’re doing.

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Posted by: Katie
Monday, July 11th, 2011

The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Publisher: Penguin

great-gatsbyWith rumours of a Baz Luhrmann remake of The Great Gatsby due to go into production, we thought it would be interesting to revisit the way in which the story is presented within the publishing world.

This might be an older blurb but the manner in which it talks to readers is still widely used today.

And unfortunately, it is not that great.

You see, the whole blurb is dedicated to regaling us with what a significant book this is:

“…Fitzgerald brilliantly captures both the disillusion of post-war America and the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status…”

“…in chronicling Gatsby’s tragic pursuit of his dream, Fitzgerald recreates the universal conflict between illusion and reality…”

“…Gatsby is probably Fitzgerald’s best, and certainly his most finished book…”

This is all very well and after reading this blurb, one cannot help feeling that yes, it is a very important book.

But what this blurb fails to do in any shape or form, is persuade anyone to read it on the basis of the story.

One can read the whole of the back cover of this book and come away with no idea what it is about.

This happens time and time again with the ‘Classics’.

Publishers know them so well, they assume that everyone else does too.

They devote their back covers to selling the cultural and historical significance of the book but forget to tell people about the story itself.

(Another book that suffers from this constantly is our own favourite  - 1984)

If Publishers want to recycle novels and bring in new readers (beyond students who are forced to read them anyway) then they have to get out of their ivory towers and remember to sell the story just as much as they sell its ‘importance’.


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Posted by: Damian
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
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