Let’s do another round of hardcover to paperback makeovers, shall we? Every season, it’s fun to see what books are getting new looks, but it’s even more interesting to wonder whether the new covers nail the story better than the original. As usual, some of these are great changes and some definitely are not.

I picked up a copy of Steven Arntson’s The Wrap-Up List quite a while ago but never got around to reading it. I love the envelope cover, which is the initial hardcover look. It’s a really simplistic design, but it tells the reader quire a bit about the story. It’s gender-neutral, and it looks like the kind of book that could have good readership across age groups because there’s not a person on there nor is there an image that could be dated. But the argument here could be the exact opposite of what I’ve said: because it’s so simplistic a cover, it maybe doesn’t tell you anything about the story or about the intended audience of it. It’s possible that’s why I haven’t picked it up yet — I don’t know whether it’d fit whatever reading mood I’m in because I don’t know what it’s about. It’s not necessarily iconic nor memorable.

The paperback redesign on the right is also simplistic, but the addition of the tag line actually adds a lot to explaining what the story is about. This is a story about someone coming to terms with the end of their life! The wrap-up list then likely refers to the things they’re hoping to “wrap up” before they don’t have the time to do so any longer. The paperback also seems to “age” the book into a category a little bit more, too: it’s a torn piece of notebook paper, and the title itself is handwritten in pen. The note looks like it’s taped on the top of a student test. It’s a book meant for teen readers.

For me, this is a pretty even exchange. I think the paperback better targets the readership, but I don’t think either one is necessarily bad nor is either one outstanding. The Wrap-up List will be out in paperback from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in paperback on May 13, 2014.

One of the things that made Out of the Easy‘s hardcover stand out to me was the color. It’s a couple of shades of really stand-out green, and it’s easy to spot on shelves. The cover image itself isn’t necessarily the most memorable, though. The girl looking at the bird cage fits the story (in a metaphoric sense), but I don’t know if it’s an iconic cover overall. It does, however, say this is a YA book. What’s interesting to pay attention to on the hardcover is what’s pulled out. The author’s name is large and noticeable, as is the title. But what caught my eye was that it notes she’s a New York Times Bestselling author. Hold that for a minute.

The paperback redesign, available March 4, does nothing for me. It reminds me a lot of an adult fiction novel, perhaps something literary or perhaps something geared toward female readers — I don’t want to call it chick lit nor women’s fiction, but that’s the vibe of the cover I’m getting. It’s kind of boring and forgettable in a way that the hardcover edition isn’t. It’s faded out, and even the lone hanging shirt and suitcase to me say something about the forgettable quality of the image. Check out, though, how the title and author treatments are different on the paperback: Ruta’s name is much larger and more noticeable, as she takes up two lines and nearly 1/3 of the real estate on the cover. The title, in contrast, is very small and positioned in such a way it’s easy to overlook. Rather than having Ruta called out as a NYT Bestseller by her name, she’s noted instead as an internationally best selling author (though the NYT recognition comes, too, just later on on the cover). And then there’s a blurb from Entertainment Weekly, too. For me, this cover is angled specifically at adult readers, rather than teen readers. It has a big name publication giving it acclaim, two notes of the author’s sales capabilities, and a cover that looks somewhat generic and inoffensive.

For me, the hardcover is much stronger than the paperback here for YA readers. Though for adult readers, I suspect the paperback is more appealing.

Michael Grant’s Gone series is getting a new makeover in paperback. Right now, the paperback editions of the hardcover books have the same cover, but with the publication of the final book in the series, the paperbacks are going in a new direction. So on the left, the hardcover edition of Gone, the first in the series. It’s a fairly generic — and I’ll even say unattractive — cover. Two people looking in the distances. They don’t really have anything memorable about them. But I’d say if anything, the original cover is gender neutral, even if it doesn’t tell you anything about the book itself. There is a tagline on the hardcover, “This is the way the world ends,” but that tag line in the original paperback edition changes. It’s instead a pull quote from a Booklist review. Later books in the series don’t have a tag line, but a pull quote from Stephen King.

I note the Stephen King pull quote because in the new paperback edition, shown on the right, it’s there but easy to miss. The white font sort of fades into the bright coloring of the background. For the most part, I dig this makeover. It’s gender neutral in the same way that the original covers are, but it gets rid of the people who are on it. And while I think they’re gender neutral, part of me wonders if the makeover helps give these books even more boy appeal than they originally had: they look more like action novels than they do Serious Stories with people on the front. Also worth noting that Grant’s name is much bigger on the new paperbacks, as is his distinction as a New York Times Bestseller.

For me, the new paperbacks are winners here. I think they’re much more appealing and they stand out. The other covers look like any number of other series (think Kevin Emerson’s series, for one).

To a cover makeover I don’t get at all: Robin LaFevers’s Dark Triumph. On the left, the original cover. I know very little about the time setting and story here, aside from what Kimberly’s written, so I don’t know about accuracy or relevancy to the story. But I know so much that this cover fits very well with the cover for the first book in the series, Grave Mercy. I like the tag line “Vengeance is divine,” and I like that this series has done a really good job of noting that it’s part of the His Fair Assassin series. It’s a very small detail, but it’s something worth its weight in a library setting for readers, as well as for those who help readers but may not be familiar with YA books. Overall, the cover on the left just fits.

But the paperback is getting a different look — but it’s a very small different look. The title and author treatments are identical, as are the tag line and noting of the series at the top of the cover. What’s changed is that the girl in the image is no longer looking from the side out, but she’s instead looking straight on at the reader. She’s not wearing a head covering, but instead, her hair is hanging down and loose. She doesn’t necessarily look like she belongs in a period in history in this cover. She looks very modern. Even somewhat goth. Rather than have her dagger to her chest, she’s now got it pointed out. This is a very action-oriented cover in the way that the other image is not. What’s interesting, too, is how the background’s changed. There’s light behind her in the paperback, where there is nothing but a closed space in the hardcover.

This isn’t a bad makeover in the least. I like that the designers took care to keep the style so similar that it won’t look weird when paired with Grave Mercy, which has not received a makeover in paperback form. But I can’t help wondering why the change? Was there something in the text that makes the paperback more true to the story than the hardcover? If anyone has read this one and wants to weigh in — whether one is a better and more truer design than the other — I’d love to know. Perhaps it has to do with historical accuracy?

The paperback edition of Dark Triumph will be available April 1.

It feels like I read Without Tess by Marcella Pixley a long time ago, and when I go back into my reviews, it turns out that I read and reviewed this one in September 2011. The hardcover on the left is very quiet, and I think it reflects the story quite well. I really like the title treatment and the use of the words and font down the front. They stand in place of any kind of tag line or blurb. The author’s name is small and in the corner, but it’s not hard to see and it stands out in dark gray against the stark white of the rest of the cover.

Of course, the quiet cover means that it doesn’t stand out on a shelf, nor does it necessarily give the reader any insight into what the story is about. But there is something to be considered about how the cover conveys tone very well here.

The paperback of Without Tess will release May 13, 2014, which is quite a long time between the initial publication in hardcover in 2011. Like the original, the cover here is also quiet, but it seems to be a different kind of quiet. This cover reflects the content a little bit more, and it portrays the sense of loss in a way that the flower and handful of words do not in the original. There’s been an addition of a blurb from Francisco X. Stork on the cover, which I think is a really nice name to have giving Pixley’s book some props — readers who dig the kind of quiet story Stork writes will likely find this one to be a good read. What I don’t like about the paperback, though, is the title font treatment. The color is right but I think that the font itself looks very young, casting this much more as a middle grade novel than as a young adult. Maybe it’s my screen resolution, but it looks as though there are small white lines aiming up toward the font, too, which only furthers the juvenile feeling. I also note that Pixley’s name is done in a thin, white font that is easy to miss with the blue background.

I think the hardcover of this book is much stronger, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the paperback has more appeal to a wider range of readers.

Anna Collomore’s psychological thriller The Ruining came out earlier this year with the cover on the left. It’s an eye-catching one: there’s the girl half underwater with the massive mansion in the back. It’s a neat contrast and a nice metaphor. I feel like this is quite a memorable cover because it’s so different. There’s not a blurb nor is there a tag line on the original cover. The title and the author’s name are done in pretty standard fonts that don’t detract from the greater image.

The paperback edition of Collomore’s The Ruining will be available February 6, 2014. And it’s completely different than the original cover: there’s a closeup of a girl who looks way, way older than a teenager. She’s clearly upset about something, and she looks slightly off. It’s a memorable facial expression, for sure. There’s a girl in the background, too, though little could be said about her expression nor of her body language because she’s so far back. Is she turning a light switch on or off? Is she just holding the wall to stay standing up? I like the pop of yellow and white that the wall brings to the cover, and I think that the pink used for the author’s name stands out nicely, too. But the title itself seems to get lost in this image in a way that doesn’t make the image stand out. It’s just easy to overlook. There’s a pull quote from a Kirkus review, too: “gripping stuff.” I don’t know how much that tells anyone anything about the book, nor do I think it helps give the cover something new or different, either.

It feels like this cover isn’t aimed at teen readers. It looks like the kind of cover you’d find in the adult section, and it’s really possible the target is adult readers here. If the girl looked younger, perhaps I’d feel differently. But she doesn’t look like she’s a teen. She also looks heavily photoshopped (unless that’s just my computer’s screen resolution). Either way, the new paperback doesn’t stand out to me and it’s easily forgettable in a way that the hardcover isn’t. You wouldn’t know this is a psychological thriller.

Hardcover wins this one, hands down.

So of the covers above, what do you think? Which ones are winners and which ones could have stuck to the original and been better?

One of my favorite things to look at in publisher catalogs each season are the titles being released in paperback and the changes that the covers may have undergone in the process. Sometimes it’s a huge change. Other times, it’s really subtle. Sometimes, it nails the story better than the original or highlights a different aspect of the story than the hardcover image did. And other times, it’s way off the mark.

In this edition of hardcover to paperback, most of the titles I wanted to talk about didn’t have huge changes. Many maintained a look they’d had in hardcover with slight tweaks (though one of the covers below got an entirely new look). None of these are bad changes, but some of them make me wonder what the change intends to do for the book in terms of selling it. If it’s not that different from the original, it makes me wonder why the change happened at all.

Let’s start with the big change.

The hardcover edition of Tiffany Schmidt’s Send Me a Sign is graphic and text driven — it plays into the idea of superstitions, which is a big element of the book. Mia, the main character, believes in signs. To me, the cover has a small element of sadness to it. While it’s bright, when you know what the book is about, the cover may suggest that there’s not necessarily a happy ending to the story. It’s a book about a girl diagnosed with cancer, and the white dandelion with its petals floating away may suggest death more than it does life. In many ways, the cover doesn’t tell you a whole lot about the story, though I think it does look like a YA novel. The swirly font may play into that a little bit. Note that there is a blurb.

The paperback cover of Send Me a Sign is something completely different. While anchored by one image of a boy and a girl, rather than font and a non-person image, it doesn’t do away with the original design completely. The font for the title is still swirly, and there is an homage to the signs and superstitions element to the plot with the four-leaf clover as the dot in the “i” for sign. Although I think the image itself isn’t entirely memorable — the couple looks like a couple that graces many a YA cover — what I love is that this cover speaks a lot more to both the content of the book and the readership of the book. There is a big romantic element to the story, and this image drives that message much more than the hardcover does. Teen readers who see this cover will know much more readily whether this is a book they want to read or not because it looks like many other books featuring similarly appealing story lines.

I happen to like both of the covers for this one. The first because it’s different from a lot of YA covers out there, and the second because it speaks better to the story.

Send Me a Sign will be available in paperback on January 14, 2014.

Jennifer McGowan’s Maid of Secrets is getting one of those makeovers I’m not sure I completely understand. On the left is the original hardcover. It’s not necessarily the kind of cover that stands out, but it also speaks to the content of the book. The girl has a great look on her face, including a fierceness in her eyes with just enough of a smile that it’s not a scary look. I love the dagger in her hands, since it offers up a little bit of an idea of the time frame of the story and even a little bit about what may be at stake. The font for the title isn’t necessarily memorable, but it works with the image to allow that image to stand out. And note that there is a blurb on the cover — a simple “Winning,” from Robin LaFevers, who is probably the perfect name to have gracing the cover of a book like this with a blurb. In many ways, I’d say the look of this particular cover suggests it’s a worthwhile read alike to LeFevers’s own series. I’m a big fan of cover alikes, since it does a lot of service to readers who want a book like one they’ve read before but don’t necessarily want to ask for help. It’s passive and easy.

The paperback look of the cover isn’t bad, but it also doesn’t do anything different. Sure, there are now three girls instead of a single one. What’s weird is that this cover seems to remove a lot of the power that the hardcover had, making it almost more of a story about the three girls than about power or intrigue. The girl in the middle is having her hair brushed, and the focus of the image is no longer on the expression on one girl’s face — it’s instead on the dresses the three girls have. I think in many ways there is a removal of power in this cover. There is still a dagger in the girl on the right’s hand, but look at how it’s much more an accessory to her dress than it is a tool she plans on using. The new cover changes up the title font, and I quite like it, though I think there is a lot more artistry at play with it than there is necessarily power. There’s no longer a blurb on the cover, as it’s been replaced with a note that this book is the first in a series — I actually find that helpful to be on the cover, since it will help readers know there are other books to come.

That said, will readers think that the paperback version of Maid of Secrets may appeal to readers who liked Robin LaFevers’s series? I’m not entirely sure. I don’t think they’ll be turned off by it, but I think they may not make the connection as readily. While I like both covers, they convey much different things, and I think the hardcover edges out the paperback for me.

The paperback edition of McGowan’s book will be available June 24, 2014.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban fascinates me from a cover perspective. It’s not entirely memorable, but it’s also not entirely forgettable either. There are a lot of elements in the cover that make it both: it’s a guy running away from something in a wooded area. There’s snow on the ground and snow falling. I feel like this describes a ton of covers, but I also feel like it describes this cover. I find the font for the title distracting and hard to read because it’s been made to look blurry and jagged. Since it’s white, that only adds to the challenge of not feeling like my eyes struggle to focus on it (basic design principles suggest that white font on a dark background is simply harder to read, no matter what). Note that the blurb for this book comes from an adult fiction author — Jennifer Weiner. That says a lot to me, too, particularly that this book may be aiming to be a crossover hit, as well as a book that is trying to be on trend with blurbs from well-known, New York Times Bestselling adult authors (see John Green’s blurb of The Fault in Our Stars from Jodi Picoult). The cover is being packaged in such a way that it looks like the kind of book that will receive award consideration or recognition. It’s an iconic-like cover with a blurb from someone well-known in the business, even beyond the YA world. This is not a bad cover.

But that paperback. Let’s talk about a cover that is meant for adults and not teens.

The cover for the paperback looks like a movie poster, and not in a good way. There is far too much going on in terms of design, with the original boy running through the woods layered on top of a girl who is looking away with a sadness in her eyes. I have a hard time believing the model looks like a teenager, too — she looks like a twenty-something, if not even older than that. But back to the boy running through the woods layer. I’m curious why it is he’s suddenly blurry now, too? And why did they choose to make the title font even more blurry than they were in the original hardcover look? I think they did a service in not making the author font blurry and also by making it not white, though that might be the strongest aspect of this cover. Also note that the blurb from Weiner was relocated to a position that makes it more prominent — upper right-hand corner. The Tragedy Paper‘s paperback cover looks like an adult trade paperback much more than it does a YA paperback. It loses an iconic YA look to it with the layering and further blurring of font, though I think that this book looks like one more adults would pick up than the one on the left.

That said, I am not a fan. I prefer the hardcover look of this one without question. The Tragedy Paper will be available in paperback on February 11, 2014.

Here is a makeover I don’t necessarily understand but I really, really like. Phoebe North’s Starglass is getting a new look in paperback. On the left is the original hardcover, and I think it’s a pretty good cover. I love the way the girl looks; even though her back is to the reader, we know there’s something she wants and she’s determined to go after it. It’s entirely in her body language, her stance, and even the wind in her hair doesn’t make her look like she’s anything less than ready to conquer the challenge ahead of her (because what she wants is ahead of her there). I love that she is dressed like a teenager, too — she’s wearing a longer coat and pants. I think the font for the title is fun and fitting, and you really get a nice sense of the book’s genre from the cover as a while. It’s science fiction. Likewise, I think the violet coloring of the cover as a whole helps it stand out on the shelves. Few covers are that color, and fewer still within science fiction are that color. The Veronica Roth blurb running along the top only helps make a case for readers to pick up the book.

On the right is the newly designed paperback of Starglass, and I really like this one, too. I may even like it a little bit more than the hardcover. In many ways, it looks like Beth Revis’s series, and I think the redesign tells readers that if they liked Revis’s book, they’ll probably want to give North’s a shot. The new cover makes it even more obvious this book is science fiction, but it’s not off-putting in any way. This is a girl looking down on Earth, and it’s clear from her body language that she, too, is determined to take advantage of her future (but maybe in this case, without forgetting the place where she may have came from). Again, I love the choice in how the model is styled here, too: she’s wearing pants and a killer pair of boots. Where I really liked the font for the title and author name on the hardcover, I love it on the paperback. There’s something about the clear glass look that really ties this cover all together. Again, the Roth quote is included, though I do find it interesting that Roth’s name is larger and much more obvious than North’s name on the cover.

While both covers do it really well, I prefer the paperback just a tiny bit more.

What I really appreciate about this particular cover makeover, though, is that the second book in the series, Starbreak, fits with either the hardcover or the paperback look:

Readers and librarians who purchased the hardcover of Starglass don’t have to worry about the second book in the series not looking like the first one at all. That is a huge reader service in the face of a redesign and one that as a librarian, I appreciate so much. It makes it clearer that these books belong together.

The paperback of Phoebe North’s Starglass will be available July 15, 2014.

I’m going to put this redesign of Sarah Skilton’s Bruised into the category of not understanding the intentions behind the redesign. On the left is the original cover, which is pretty excellent. I love the broken trophy of a tae kwon do girl — it’s a perfect representation of the story inside the book. The title font is nicely done, and I feel like the little splatters of blood hovering above the “i” tie into the reason why the tae kwon do girl is broken so well. The cover is fairly gender neutral, aside from the pony tail on the trophy, and it conveys the entirety of the story with very little. There is a tag line which reads “She failed to save his life. How will she live her own?” Again, a nice way to tie the cover together and tie it all right back to the story. Note that the author’s name is large and across the bottom, and there are no blurbs on the front cover (something that carries over to the paperback, as well, but it’s noteworthy because of how rare that seems to be).

The paperback redesign of Bruised is a head scratcher for me. It’s essentially the same cover, but with the title made to be a lot bigger and in a different style and stretched diagonally across the cover, rather than centered through the middle. It’s a nice font, but it’s lacking the sort of tie-in to the story that the original has with the blood splatters. The author’s name is now stacked on top of the title, and it’s been made smaller, but brighter. I think it might be easier to read, but it’s not as easy to find. As far as the image itself, we still have the broken trophy but it is not easy to identify as a broken trophy. The pieces are spread too far apart, and without studying it or having reference to what the original cover was, it’s not entirely clear what the image it supposed to be. It definitely loses its identity as a tae kwon do trophy, since there aren’t even legs in the shattered remains.

I can’t comment on the color change from bright blue to a deep blue, since I think both work fine and both are not the memorable aspect of the cover. For me, hands down, the hardcover is the winner here.

Sarah Skilton’s Bruised will be available in paperback on April 15, 2014.

What do you think? Which covers in these pairs do you prefer? Have you seen any other noteworthy hardcover to paperback changes lately? I keep a list of changes when I see them because I love thinking about the whats and whys of redesign.