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The Good, the Bad and the Are-You-Kidding-Me?
Filed in Book Covers , The Geeky Lover , The HEA Lover Posted on December 6, 2010 @ 11:00 am
20 comments
This week we have a special topic to talk about. Covers that are just plain wrong, literally. We decided to make this post after seeing a tweet from Nicole Peeler about her new German cover. She pointed out the wrongness of it and we couldn’t resist. We noticed this in the past and thought we will show you our top 3 of just stupidly wrong covers.
Susi: Okay this cover is wrong in so many ways. I don’t know why German publishers does this so often but it’s rather common here to show something totally wrong and deceiving on the cover. So here we have a book about Selkies showing a mermaid. O_O And not even pretty one for that. I don’t really like blueish covers and this one is no exception but seriously I don’t get why they put a mermaid on it. Probably don’t know what a Selkie is. LOL And I have to say I don’t like the title either. Meeres Blitzen means something like Ocean Twinkle/Sparkle. It really isn’t fitting the book, it should be something more witty or at least funny. Not really happy about what Heyne did here. and the font sucks big time!
Caroline: I have to say if I didn’t know if was Tempest Rising and Tracking the Tempest I would NEVER have guessed O_O. Why??? Why a mermaid? O_o The heroine is nothing like a mermaid! She doesn’t even transform into something else O_o. This is the kind of ‘wrong’ that I just can’t understand. But hey, you gotta give it to the publishers…at least they are constant in their wrongness LOL. Both covers picture a mermaid lol. Mehhhh
Susi: These are the German covers for Taking Care of Business and No Reservations by Megan Hart and Lauren Dane and I hope you’re all having this face O_o right now too. So imagine yourself going through a German bookstore on your search for a wonderful lesbian erotica and you see this cover and think wow…gorgeous, and yes it is really pretty. You decide to get it and take it home and with huge disdain you realize that this book is kinky but not lesbian kinky. Kate and Leah never touch each in this way cuz they have their wonderful guys for that. It’s really wrong to put such a misleading cover on a book and okay the blurb reveals the truth but still it’s wrong. A pretty wrong cover but one that still nags me every time I see it in a store.
Caroline: So you mean it’s not a lesbian book? O_o This is soooo wrong. On both covers the girls are half-naked and touching each other… It screams lesbian erotica! Even the title is misleading…Kate and Leah. I just don’t get it. It’s frustrating and it makes me a bit angry too. Again MEH!
Caroline: While I really like the French covers for the whole Succubus series…there are things that are just too weird. The most disturbing? The wings. Well I admit I have only read the first 2 books, but I can’t remember Georgina having wings O_o. Weirder? Depending on the cover, her wings are either shredded, nearly whole, or no wings at all. O_o And no they are not even shredding more and more with each new cover (which could have been symbolic of her psyche or something *shrug*) I found it a bit weird.
Susi: I really like the comic style of these coves but as you said every time I wonder: how could I miss the wings in the books? And yeah these symbolic thing could be but still it is very misleading and as always WTF happened to hair on the Succubus Blues cover? Did she put her hand in a power-outlet or something? *shakes head*
Caroline: Lol nahh her wings are making winds and ruining her hairstyle LOL Damn you wings! *shakes fist angrily in the air*
Susi: That Will be it! LMAO…the evilness that is wings. ROFL
Thanks to Has, our internet researcher we also have the following dime:
It shows the heroine in the arms of the hero and he holds her waist with his left hand. The excerpt offered on eharlequin says he lost his hand and has a hook instead of it. Okay we admit a hook would ruin this cover but still. O_o
What do you think?
Does it rub you the wrong way when the cover gets it wrong?
Do you have other examples of covers that are out of it?
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We brought this up with both covers. Not that it made a bit of difference, but we did bring it up to the German publisher.
@Lauren The books are still great and I think most ppl read the blurb. =) Still so wrong that the publisher did it. Sometimes it seems like they just don't care.
…ok did not know she was a selkie, so then those covers are f:ed up.
And the hand, oh sigh
And the lesbian erotica, even showed that to bf and he said what I saw. yeesh
@Lauren This is pretty bad. At least now your name is on it too O_o.
@Blodeuedd I think the Mermaid is the worst because it's really not the case o_O. The girls kissing…well who knows maybe once drunk they experimented LOL And the hand…well ok it's supposed to be a hook ROFL
I think this is why I don’t care for covers much. They are so frequently wrong and when they are it distracts from the book.
At the bottom of this interview, one of the previous post spotlights is for Courtney Milan’s Trial by Desire. I just started this book yesterday. While the cover looks okay, it features a hero with green eyes. But in the first several pages of the book, the heroine notes how she melts over his chocolate brown eyes. Huh—This isn’t rocket science, folks!
@LSUReader I wish I wouldn't care for covers..ahhh but I can't help it. I love pretty covers.
Ok now you got me, I read the Trial by Desire book and I didn't even realize about the eye color. O_o wow maybe he had lenses? LMAO
@Blodeuedd Yep yeesh indeed. LOL
@LSUReader I hate when that happens. I love a nice cover but it should at least have a bit of resemblance.
I hate the covers for the Jane True series. I'm more and more convinced that nobody at Heyne reads the book before creating it's cover and title. Makes me really wonder about how they work.
It's the same for the covers of the books by Megan Hart & Lauren Dane.
I started reading series like Jane True and The Parasol Protectorate because their amazing and unique covers made me interested in the books. I think that publishers (especially Random House in Germany) underestimate the effect covers have on selling books.
@Sabrina Yep, i guess it's not important for every reader…but I know that the cover is what usually draw me to a new book, what makes me want to read the blurb. I would HATE to be mislead by a cover. *grumbles* We had the same problem with many french covers, but now they are starting to give a more important part to the covers.
Since the cover is initially what catches my eye, I do like for it to be representative of what's inside.
That said, I know from talking with author Patricia Briggs and her husband Mike, that author's typically have little say in the cover art or design, that the work is commissioned by the publisher, and the artist is given little, sometimes, no information about the book. SO, many artists are working in the dark when they design a cover. Add in the fact that marketign wants the cover to catch a reader's attention and they don't (usually) care how and accuracy and truth in advertising go out the window. 🙁
OMG… I can't stop laughing about the hook!
And that REALLY looks like lesbian erotica
@Bea
Yeah, I've heard that too….and it makes no sense! What would make sense is to get each author to pull together a paragraph describing the main character along with the actual book blurb for the artist to work from. How hard would it be to include some basic demographic stats for the artist to adhere too?
It's been awhile since I've read any of the Georgina Kincaid books but you are right, I'm pretty darn sure she does NOT have wings. Maybe they got her confused with her angel friend?
All of these covers are just plain awful.
@Sabrina Yep agree 1ßß& about that. But at least we have some good pubs like Lyx. They care much more about covers.
@Bea I know that authors can't do anything about it but I still think that someone at the publisher should care.
@crandileigh2003 You thinking Hook Hook Hook too? LOL
draconismoi Yes exactly. Things like that should be zhought of.
@JenM yep exactly. I really started to wonder when Caro showed me this covers.
I love the covers! even if they have no link with the actual books lol..
I usually don't have a list of what to read when I'm book shopping, so covers usually get me to pick them up.. sad to say I'm that shallow lol..
but, the two girls on the covers.. that's just hot!
I wish we could edit our comments.. my email is witchymama77@hotmail.com.. 🙂
@Sugar We know everything about being shallow so no need to worry. And you don't have to leave your email addy every time cuz it'S in your blogger profile too. But I agree about the editing. Would love that feature.
@Bea I know that most artists work in the dark, I understand that they have to get creative. But sometimes they comes up with very very weird things O_o lol :/ I hate that's it's all about catching the eye of reader more than being accurate .
@brandileigh2003 Well those would make really good lesbian erotica covers! =P
@draconismoi I agree completely. It would be the sensible thing to do..sadly we're not living in a sensible world 😉
@JenM it's very weird because Milady (the publisher) is often pretty close to the book. They don't often get it wrong. But now, they have the whole series with wings o_O I guess wings are IN.
@Sugar Welcome to the cover-whore club! lol Those girls are pretty smexy too bad it's not what the book is about. =P
oh my, those covers are awful!! I mean, basically they are gorgeous but they don't represent the book and I don't like that part…
I love beautiful covers and sometimes I buy a book because of the cover – it would be a huge disappointment to expect a story about a mermaid and then don't get one :/
@Ina Yes it would be…it's really sad that they do this.