Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

LOL I was wondering if anyone else would catch that. Too funny lol.

My word image story92. It is my goal to tell 92 stories before I die.

So…he’s the dreamcatcher in the second one? What are we supposed to do, skin him and stretch the tattoo over a frame?

[ugh, I hate my brain sometimes. But he still looks like he’s puzzled by a nasty rash in that first cover.]

Sometimes, even the author wonders where they found the cover models for their books.  Now I know!

[you hope that your cover copy is accurate.  You never expect it from the artwork.  Appealing, yes.  But never accurate.]

The second guy has got a sustika (dreamcatcher, wtf?) on his shoulder, and at first I thought: How to scare off short-sighted readers in Germany and Austria 101 - passed!

Well, it looks like someone’s got a crush on Dean Winchester. I wholeheartedly approve.

Hmm I sure do like that back of his. Double the pleasure. Still has that look that says, “Where did it go?”

I look at it and I think there’s something like the Mel Brooks “moving mole” gag going on. ‘Wait, yesterday it wasn’t… It more over there right? What’s going on here?!’

Poor guy.  He even wandered into a tattoo parlor looking for it.

I am increasingly amazed by the so-called “art departments” ... I do a little graphic design in my line of work, and am constantly stepping up the mad skills & ideas in an effort to always make the next project better than the last. I would nevah purposely pull out some old design - for any reason - and duplicate it for something new.

Tsk. That’s just bad (and lazy) design.

— Bonz

The second guy has got a sustika (dreamcatcher, wtf?) on his shoulder, and at first I thought: How to scare off short-sighted readers in Germany and Austria 101 - passed!

I believe that is an attempt at a stylized “thunderbird” of Native American mythology or in some tribes, that symbol is called “whirling log”.

I want to know if the artist gets paid a new fee for each time the same cover is used…?

It really looks like they just copied and rotated the tattoo three times.  I’m not sure that really counts as a thunderbird.

Well, it’s an improvement in that it’s gone from “WTF? BWAhahaha! What’s he LOOKING at?!” to “Huh. Wonder what he’s looking at.”

I still think somebody ought to be keeping track of how often and how recently these images are used.

I used to work in the industry, and a lot of times cover art gets reused because a) it’s a whole lot cheaper than commisioning new art and b) it’s a whole lot faster than commisioning new art.  Most of the books that get the second string art are reissues, or midlist books. At least nowadays they’re making some attempt at distinguishing the reused cover from the original.

Economic aside, you’d think they’d have a minimum on how many years apart the covers appeared - do they think that HQ and Silhouette readers are so completely separate and distinct as to not remember covers??

spam word: once25 - do we have 23 more times to live through this cover??

Ok, what’s with the stories about author surveys, dozens of meetings, and ten month turn arounds for covers.  After this and yesterday’s post—I’m a little suspicious of that story.  I think HQN has one person dept.  with a mouse and Photoshop.

Dude—I’ve got to say the second picture gives me a whole new slough of things he might possibly thinking as he looks at something I might enjoy imagining.

I think in the first picture he is thinking-

YES! The shrinkage was only temporary.

I like how the first title has “Sleeping with the Enemy” right over where his little friend would be.

Does he think of it as the enemy? If so, is this story about self-love?

I think the poor jamoke got done on one side, turned around, forgot the set the timer, and—OOPS!—got scorched.  He was probably too preoccupied studying Wee Willie Winkie.

The could have at least given him a new necklace. Cheapskates!

Word: lived86 Yes, 1986 was a year I would love to relive. *sigh*

you’d think they’d have a minimum on how many years apart the covers appeared

one would hope, yeah.  course then you get the godawful dated 80s flashbacks with the ginormous hair.  (can’t say how HQ/Silo does it though, as I didn’t work there.)

Ok, what’s with the stories about author surveys, dozens of meetings, and ten month turn arounds for covers.  After this and yesterday’s post—I’m a little suspicious of that story.
lead titles vs. midlist—there’s your difference right there.  Big to-dos are made for big titles. Midlist, reissues, and series titles don’t get that attention.

I’m now working in a different publishing genre, and it’s funny how the same things go on.  Authors get asked for art info regardless of whether or not they’re going to get big-name art (at the romance house, it was so we could pick a close-to-accurate reissue cover if need be).  Meetings happen regardless, but not every book gets the same amount of attention or budget.  It’s not like bam, lets just talk about the pretty pieces of art. Even a crappy piece of cover art gets discussed and picked over—probably more so, b/c you have to figure out a way to make it look not exactly the same as the last time it showed.