Okay, so I know the old addage "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" doesn't quite fit this scenario, but it is what I think of when I see the thing this post IS about.
Sometimes there are books where the cover displays the author's name larger, bigger, and before the book title.
You have all seen them. It is common with books by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Dan Brown to name a few. It is not unheard of. But in the YA world it is very uncommon.
Now, authors and potential authors reading this: know I love you, I adore you, I herald the work and time and years and years of effort each book entails. I obviously know that you came before the egg, or novel as it may be. The novel would not exist without you.I guess my issue is just a matter of the cover look. I am not a fan of the author's name being more prominent than the title of the book I am buying, and I have seen it happen more and more often. It is a matter of opinion, but I wonder, what do you think about it?
4 comments:
I personally like when covers have the Author name big and visible because once I see the familiar authors name it draws me to the book and then I look at the Title and then I read the back or inside of the cover.
If I don't know the author then I look at the title and cover and if it is intriguing then I read the back and inside cover.
I think book designers and cover designers are very savvy, talented people who know what they're doing. When they have the writer's name first in big letters, it makes you notice it. Even if you think, "Ooh, that Stephen King has a swelled head, his name shouldn't be so big," if you like his stuff, you might buy it anyway. I don't think there's any writer in the YA world who has that kind of star power and I think that's why it's not so common there.
I want to clarify that I don't think it's because the author has some ego issues in any way.
I am well aware that covers have very little to do with the author themselves. I have just never been a fan of this type of cover. So when I received one in the mail as a YA ARC I was curious to know what my readers thought.
Stephen King's name bothers me less than "Esquire Fiction" for a YA book. C'mon--really? Since when has Esquire been a mag for YAs? NEVER in my house!
That being said, I do think that King's name is WAY.TOO.BIG. on the cover. Maybe the designer just needed something to fill the big horizon shot. LOL
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