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?
bysinginglight says
Oh, I really don't like the pb for Out of the Easy. I was okay when they did a similar switch for Code Name Verity, because it strongly reminded me of the Guernsey LIterary Society cover and that's the best adult readalike I know of. But for Out of the Easy, well, nothing about that top says early 50s to me, and all in all the hc is a much more memorable cover. I had the same reaction to the pb of Between Shades of Gray, as I recall.
I also really don't get the change for Dark Triumph. It looks weirdly photoshopped to me. It's clearly the same girl wearing the same clothes, except now she does look very goth (but not Gothic). In costume history terms, being able to see her whole dress makes her look less authentic. The book is set in 1489, but to me that dress screams early middle ages. Ismae's dress on the cover of Grave Mercy did look reasonably authentic, which makes this more disappointing to the costume history nerd in me. It is a more action-oriented shot, but overall, I strongly prefer the hc, which actually suits Sybelle's character more.
I like the new pbs for the Grant books. To be honest, the hc version always creeped me out a little bit, and not in a good way.
admin says
I think I wrote about the change of the Between Shades cover and said the same thing — they're definitely angling the paperbacks towards a more adult audience than a teen one.
YES, the new girl looks very modern goth vs. Gothic on the LaFevers cover. Such a strange change.
Katie says
The paperback of The Ruining makes me think of the 70s.
admin says
Someone over at Goodreads made a really interesting observation kind of in line with that:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/5320218-hardcover-to-paperback-six-ya-book-makeovers-to-consider#comment_87881495
admin says
I think the girl's face/hair on the pb of Dark Triumph looks very weird. Like bad cg/photoshop.
admin says
I can't say I'm a huge fan.
Stephsco says
This is so interesting! It really shows you how much a cover can affect the story and change perceptions of it.
admin says
And you can see when there's an entirely new audience being targeted, too.
Liviania says
Dark Triumph – looks like a different shot from the same session – she still has the same clothes. So while that doesn't change the history, the whole look does seem more modern dead on.
But she now looks like a Poser image on a cheap small press book or something instead of a girl in a photo taken specifically for a major release.
admin says
YES, it does look like it's been done really cheaply and not for a book that was a big release.
Lauren Claymon says
I'm definitely not feeling the new PB cover for Out of the Easy…although I guess I'm kind of the audience for it. I really loved the color of the HC one and felt like it definitely evoked that dark richness of New Orleans and the French Quarter. Also, it kind of looked like velvet or tapestry to me, and I thought that matched the Storyville setting.
I'm reading Dark Triumph right now, and I think the HC cover is a WAY better representation of Sybella's character than the PB. The girls are assassins, not knights. They're using those swords on the sly…not on the battlefield! Plus, I agree with the others who have said it looks cheap–that new backdrop is awful.
admin says
Maybe you aren't the audience for Out of the Easy's new cover? It's hard to say. Perhaps it's for adults who don't read YA?
I'm still not sure what to make of the change for Dark Triumph, either.
Cayce says
I wish someone would make some good covers for the Gone series, I love that series so much, and while I think the black covers are okay, it could be much, much better.