New MB 1?

[Phaz]

As for B&N's card - someone spent $25 to get you that card.  Until you've spent $250 on books, youve lost money on that deal.  Thats why Borders/Waldens did away with the card.

Yea, the only reason I picked it up is because I got it when Brandon Came out here for a signing a few weeks ago, and I had a stack of books that set me back just around $200. I think after the calculations I'll just need to buy 1-2 more books there for it to pay for itself.

Thanks for the post, it's nice to have some insight from someone who obviously knows the business.

Because the cover does kind of have that impact, is that why (from what I understand) the cover choice is basically made 100% by the publisher without the author having much say?

[Bookstore Guy]

On that topic, I have very little info.  I'll defer to the mighty EUOL.

[Spriggan]

I would chime in and say publishers have more experence then authors when it comes to this.

They spend the money and time on market research, both of which authors really don't have.

Ya sure they struck out with MB1 paperback but how many homeruns have they hit in comparison?

[EUOL]

Sprig's got it.

The art directors at a company like Tor are, well, art directors.  They generally have schooling in both art and marketing--which means they know how to match a book to an artist and get that book to the audience.

Experience has shown that they hit far more often than authors trying the same thing might.  That doesn't mean they don't make mistakes--Tor publishes hundreds of titles a year.  A given art director may be in charge of finding art for a hundred different books for a given year, and will need to make them all look distinctive, target the right audience, and present the book accurately.

So, once in a while you end up with something like this--where the cover misfires.  But, the excellent covers for the hardcover Mistborn books (done by the same artist) proves that Jon Foster was a good choice.  This one cover just didn't work, and so that's why we're trying something new. 

[Fellfrosch]

In regard to the earlier question about online sales, yes, I think that knocking a book from $7 to $5 has a huge effect on online sales--possibly even more than on offline sales. Consider that most online booksellers offer free shipping once you hit a given threshold of items or total price. A $5 book that puts you just over that threshold is essentially free, since you'd be paying about that much in shipping anyway. Cheap little books like that always sell great online because many people go scrounging through the catalog for "free" books to top off their order.

[charity]

ooh, I agree... When I'm online buying books from... well, as I already said, the only place I EVER get to buy books anymore, SFBC I go for the deals... course they're all deals there.

I like the idea of a collector's edition or something of the like, this isn't exactly the same but we waited until the LOTR extended editions came out in a set before we bought them.

I also would add, and maybe this is just me, but I'm OCD about having a series in the same cover. Like I have one of the Bartimeaus trilogy in hardback and one in soft and it drives me nuts! *blushing* I don't usually buy a book in SB if I have another in HB... BUT I have also been known to buy a book cheap in SB and if I liked it go back and buy it again in HB (another reason why my husband tries to keep me as far away from bookstores as possible  )

Maybe I'm just agreeing with everyone, maybe there is no real rhyme or reason to why I buy books... I'm just an addict.

[Sigyn]

I'm a total sucker for covers, though I usually indulge this at the library and not the bookstore (I'm too cheap to buy books if I don't know the author).  This is why I read City of Bones by Martha Wells---I thought the cover was just so beautiful.   Now I own I picked up Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier for the same reason.  It had a Kinoko Craft cover and the only other person I had seen with Craft covers was Patricia McKillip, who I love.  I now own five books by each of these authors, but I never would have bought them if I hadn't liked that initial cover.

It's what makes me grumpy about Terry Pratchett.  His British editions have wonderful covers but his American editions have blah covers.  I want the British covers, but I'm not willing to spend the money to order them from England.  Why can't the American editions have good covers too?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

My very favorite classic SF book—for years I just called it my favorite book, period—is Slan. I have yet to buy a copy, though, because all the covers for it I have ever seen just plain suck.

[pengwenn]

If they do offer the cheaper book I hope they don't print the cheap price on the cover.  I bought a paperback like that once and I hated the fact that $4.99 was printed in big letter on the top corner of the book.  They also printed a line about a new book coming out by the same author (kind of like what you're going through).  I didn't like it because half the cover hwas covered but by all the writing and I couldn't see the beautiful art work beneath it.  A couple of years later the same book came out (same cover) at full price without all that writing and I bought it again.  I donated the other book to DI.  I wouldn't have minded if they put a sticker on the cover that I could take off but all that "special" pricing and writing was too much.

[charity]

Does anyone want to stick a picture of the cover on here so I can see it? You've got me curious now.

I don't much care for some of the Wheel of Time covers. And I will say that I bought the book 'Gideon, the cutpurse.' which was a mildly good book (course it's also considered young adult) but the cover is awesome! IMO so  I keep it in my bookshelf instead of somewhere hidden.

One of the reasons I didn't pick up a fantasy book, or SF (which I'm still working myself up to) is cause the covers are so odd. I saw Elantris in my catalog  and was slightly interested but didn't buy it. I kept coming back to it though cause the cover looked so good, and it sounded good, but I wasn't into reading new authors at that point cause I'd gotten burned a couple of times. So I debated, and finally my sister talked me into it. I'm really glad that cover was so nice.

So can I change my vote? I think if it had been me wondering whether to buy Elantris and I saw it for $4.99, I probably would have gone for it.

[EUOL]

The artist they're talking to about this:

http://www.christianmcgrath.com/mainpages/pages/page2.html

[Spriggan]

Bleh.

The guy draws/paints well but all those peices are so boring.  I hate book covers that are just people walking, standing or doing nothing dramatic.  The MB1 paperback cover is better then any of that stuff.

[42]

Wow, I have to agree with Sprig. The guy has great craftsmanship, but his pictures are not very dynamic. The only picture I really cared for was the one with the unicorn.

I really want my fantasy book covers to look like they belong to a fantasy book not a fashion magazine.

Still, it's a step up from the first PB cover.

[charity]

I actually like them. Although they would be a step away from what the HB covers. I'd say if you were gonna switch to that artist for the PB then you should stay with him for the PB's so that they go together... (did that just sound really girly... sorry)

I would be curious to see how he depicted Vin before I gave a solid opinion. Although all those girls look about the same don't they?

Hey they're better than the Wheel of Time covers! That last books cover was terrible, I had to read the book to figure out who was depicted on the front.

(BTW, I think my NaNoWriMo is breaking my brain, this post took me way to long to articulate)

edited for an annoying grammar mistake: see what I mean, I'm malfunctioning!

[Merzbow]

Interesting. I loved how Foster depicted Vin on the hardback covers - exactly how I pictured her from the text. If this new guy makes her look like Jennifer Garner like all the chicks do in the sample paintings linked above, that would be very disappointing.

I'm not sure how the MB1 PB cover ever got approved. I mean, didn't anybody at Tor actually see it before it went out? Couldn't they have asked Foster to touch it up?