Recent-ish Trade Published Book Cover — Thoughts?

[Stuart Dren]

Consider:

If the image doesn't load, it's the cover of The Secret which appears to be in the Jack Reacher series.


Am I crazy, or is this awful? This image isn't bad I suppose, if a bit raw (just a landscape shot of the Pentagon with a few filters on it?). But even for the genre, the text seems like a mess to me.

Ms. saw the cover and was confused about what the book title was. She also asked me if Jack Reacher was an author. She doesn't read contemporary thrillers much, so she's not the target audience, but I still think this is a design failure.

Maybe I don't have taste. Thoughts?

 

[Pending]

The authors' names are massive, which is not good and it breaks up the series title and the book title...which is extra confusing for anyone who would want to read it. Thank you for explaining who Jack Reacher was. I thought the book was written by three people.

I also don't read contemporary thrillers very often, but this is objectively a clarity issue.

 

[balgay]

I agree it is a mess. The most stupid aspect for me is the superfluous inclusion of "A Novel" as the last line. Think we might have guessed that. The idea is, of course, to sell the book to their target audience who know who Jack Reacher and Lee Child are. The majority will even know Lee Child has handed his protagonist to a relative - Andrew Child - to continue the series. Hence the title and the image are irrelevant. The main selling point is the author(s) and protagonist names. I think they could have achieved the same result with a more pleasing design but I am reminded of a podcast on cover design by a pro. "When designing a book cover you are not trying to win an art prize, you are trying to sell the book." I guess by "shouting" the names they are doing that?

 

[defaux]

Yeah, I always find it awkward when a title is not the most prominent text. Is the book called "Lee Child"? And if you didn't know the series character you might assume the author is Jack Reacher.

The monotone doesn't help. And the image is really lost, might as well not be there - actually had to look closely to recognise it as the Pentagon.

But as suggested, it's obviously targeted at existing fanbase who will buy anything with his name on it.

 

[JT Woody]

Ive handle so many of the books in this series. They all kind of look like this.
The branding is in the name.
People will see the name and automatically pick it up.
People will come into the library and ask for "the new Lee Childs" but they dont know the title.
Or "Jack Reacher" and ill showbthem the section.

 

[Stuart Dren]

Okay, exhibit B: similar situation, executed far better in my opinion.

This is Tom Clancy's Command and Control by Marc Cameron. A novel in the Jack Ryan series.

Even though the series name text is smaller, it seems easier to pick it out and identify it. It's not all trying to attack my face at once. It still prioritizes name recognition, which is fine and expected.

 

[JLT]

Okay, exhibit B: similar situation, executed far better in my opinion.

This is Tom Clancy's Command and Control by Marc Cameron. A novel in the Jack Ryan series.

Even though the series name text is smaller, it seems easier to pick it out and identify it. It's not all trying to attack my face at once. It still prioritizes name recognition, which is fine and expected.

Except that it really doesn't clearly state the author's name.... was it Tom Clancy* or Marc Cameron writing under the "Tom Clancy" franchise? If it wasn't Clancy, it seems like false advertising.

It seems like "Tom Clancy" has become a pseudonym for a whole genre of books, like Franklin W. Dixon, Arthur M. Winfield, Carolyn Keene were for the Stratemeyer syndicate. The difference is that the syndicate never gave the authors credit; you have to go to Wikipedia to find out who the ghost-writers were.

*Who's been dead for thirteen years, but that hasn't stopped many writers from publishing. Isaac Asimov might hold the record for posthumous releases.

 

[Stuart Dren]

Except that it really doesn't clearly state the author's name.... was it Tom Clancy* or Marc Cameron writing under the "Tom Clancy" franchise? If it wasn't Clancy, it seems like false advertising.

I would be willing to call Tom Clancy a brand at this point. Though I think authorship here (Marc Cameron) is still more clear than on the The Secret cover, distinct via the by. For the latter, it's hard to tell if it's a cowritten situation or a creator/brand + author as in the Tom Clancy book.

Edit: granted I could see a reader unfamiliar with the brand still being a bit confused.

For the Tom Clancy cover, it might be better if a possessive is used for Tom Clancy's name, which I think would hint further towards it being brand and not authorship.

All the flaws aside, the Tom Clancy cover seems much better to me.

It still prioritizes name recognition, which is fine and expected.

I was careful to say it prioritizes name recognition, evidently the most market-significant name, not necessarily author name. It's of course quite the amount of information to get across on a cover though.

 

[defaux]

This one is clearer, though I still prefer the Title to be the most prominent text, at least it is easily discernible.

I initially assumed Tom Clancy to be the author, but the byline does make that clear as well. And stating "A Jack Ryan Novel" is better than simply presenting the name.

Design-wise, the two tone colour creates greater contrast with the text and makes the whole thing easier on the eye.

I'd still question the "bestselling author" line, as it isn't apparent whether that applies to the actual author, or to the creator of the franchise. But I guess it's kind of like those medals on wine bottles, there for marketing rather than any real world descriptive purpose.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Wow, talk about a screaming cover: REACHER! CHILD! CHILD! The sickly yellow alone would be enough to make me pass the book by, but it's nice to be warned that THIS AUTHOR'S NAME COULD SELL TURNIP COOKIES.

JT has already said what I was going to say about branding, so I'll just point at her post.

 

[big soft moose]

I think that’s a place holder cover prepublication or something, if you look on Amazon the cover of the secret is completely different

 

[JT Woody]

I think that’s a place holder cover prepublication or something, if you look on Amazon the cover of the secret is completely different

The one in the post is Trade paperback.
The hardcovers *tend to* look different

 

[big soft moose]

 

[defaux]

That version is significantly better, in pretty much every aspect.

 

[JT Woody]

The hardcovers at my branch.
I have to go to the main branch to get pics of the trade ppb.

 

[big soft moose]

It’s not unusual for big publishers to have different covers for different territories depending on what sell better in each

So the one in the OP is the trade paperback in the US while the one I posted above is the trade paperback and hardback in the UK

It’s also not unusual for them to recover older books in a series to match a new theme which is why there are two different styles of Lee child depending on when they were bought. The original die trying cover was metallic with bullet holes in it, while the current one is similar to the one I posted above as that is the series style at least in UK and Europe

Sometimes they even change the title across territories which can get confusing, they didn’t do it with Lee child but Barry Eislers first six books had different names in the UK and the US. He’s since gone indie got the rights back and republished them with the names he originally wanted

 

[JT Woody]

It’s not unusual for big publishers to have different covers for different territories depending on what sell better in each

So the one in the OP is the trade paperback in the US while the one I posted above is the trade paperback and hardback in the UK

It’s also not unusual for them to recover older books in a series to match a new theme which is why there are two different styles of Lee child depending on when they were bought. The original die trying cover was metallic with bullet holes in it, while the current one is similar to the one I posted above as that is the series style at least in UK and Europe

Sometimes they even change the title across territories which can get confusing, they didn’t do it with Lee child but Barry Eislers first six books had different names in the UK and the US. He’s since gone indie got the rights back and republished them with the names he originally wanted

Yep.
Now I've been seeing the covers being republished with Alan Ritchson on them

 

[CatrionaGrace]

This is all sooooo interesting. Who thought book covers could be this complex?