I have snarked
the covers
that were on
your website
and which
you probably thought
were totally
brilliant
Forgive me
they were godawful
so mantittyriffic
and so poserlicious
OK, I didn’t come up with that just to give William Carlos Williams yet another spin in his grave (although the thought of the old dude whirling around like a Twister spinner every time somebody came up with another parody of “This is Just to Say” is kind of amusing). No, what I want to do is say this:
When we snark the covers, we’re not snarking the book, and we sure as hell aren’t snarking the author.
We thought this was pretty much self-evident, given that we’ve talked before about how with romance novels, you really, REALLY can’t judge a book by its cover. And many of the covers we’ve poked hardest at were books we’ve especially loved. I think we’ve poked at just about every Loretta Chase and Laura Kinsale cover in existence, and if you don’t know how much I loveses me some Chase and Kinsale, you probably haven’t hung around the site long enough. But some authors have taken the cover snark personally in the past, and I think it’s finally time to clarify things.
If you’re a cover model and you want to smack us down for being big meanies for making fun of your strange facial hair or your gigantic man-titty or your 80s hair or your backfat, feel free. If you’re a cover artist and want to take us to task for shitting all over your precious, precious creations: go right ahead. Or if you’re a fan of the cover and think our opinions are dead wrong: BRING. IT. ON. We loves us a lively discussion.
But authors, know that we’re not poking at the contents of your book, much less you. We know you don’t really have a choice, most of the time. We’re sympathetic, more than anything else. Our hearts and our eyeballs ache for you.
Heh. We know. You wait for the actual review of the book before you poke at the contents. 😉
(“come56”—is that even possible? Even with heavy-duty batteries?)
Authors might know, but do the artists and publishers know what you’re doing? Can you actually pull copyrighted images from their websites (or wherever you got them) when many companies have a notice on their websites regarding reproducing the graphics without written consent? For a few chuckles, seems to me you might be opening yourselves up to some major trouble. Just my opinion, of course, since I basically find nothing funny about snarking or slamming or degrading anyone who works in the arts (whether it’s writing or painting or whatever) just so untalented people can feel superior about their own selves. But again, just my opinion.
I don’t think that everyone who’s horrified at some of the covers is untalented.
And I definitely don’t feel superior, just flabbergasted—often—by the idea that those covers “help” sell the book itself.
Then again, I’m just an untalented reader.
I basically find nothing funny about snarking or slamming or degrading anyone who works in the arts (whether it’s writing or painting or whatever) just so untalented people can feel superior about their own selves
People who work in the arts need to be resistant to harsh criticism and open to constructive criticism. Period. That’s the nature of the arts and of criticism. And, honestly, given the utter lack of technical competence in some of the covers that get snarked here, I think the artists need a little reminder to keep working on honing/improving their skills.
And since when is criticizing someone’s “art” degrading the artist? Degrading the artist would be saying, “Suzy Painter is an untalented h0r who thinks her brother’s greasy mullet is hot.”
Just sayin’.
Tami – you need to LIGHTEN THE F UP!
And if it’s an enfringement of copyright to post covers on a website, you’ll be changing the whole foundation of reader blogs. Not something that will happen very quickly, nor should it.
If someone is going to create something that looks as bad as these covers, they should be prepared to take some heat.
And speaking for myself, I’m damn talented.
From the position of an author who has found her book covers the subject of much snarkage I can say, I don’t take offense. In fact, I get a kick out of it. Do I dislike the covers? Nope. Okay, I’ll admit to really not caring for one of my covers at all but I’ll keep quiet about that one (and NO, its not one that has been snarked).
I know its all done in fun and in the spirit of poking fun at ourselves. Hell, if we can’t laugh at ourselves then what’s the point, right?
I adore my cover artists and wouldn’t change them for the world. I can only hope they smile and laugh along too. Its not meant to be mean… its meant to make people, laugh, smile and talk.
And hey, hello.. nekkie angel butt will get ya talkin’!
I’ll get smacked down about this post later but it’ll be damn hard to bring me off my high of seeing Nora snarked my cover too! *dances around room*
Covers have always been targets. There’s always been bad ones (long before the e-pubs came along). Sometimes, by mistake (the famous Christina Dodd’s three armed heroine), sometimes by “wtf were they thinking?”
Heck, the SB have even made La Nora reach for the alcohol before noon with the European versions of the In Death series.
I remember feeling bad when Alison Kent commented on the cover snarkage for the cover of her book “The Grinch Makes Good.” (Which I submitted.) But then I thought, you know what? The bad cover kind of caught my interest and actually kinda made me want to read it more than I would with a blah, unmemorable cover.
As an author, I think it’s great that you snark the covers with the same verve that you snark the prose. With the exception of the very lucky P.C. Cast, I doubt there’s an author out there who hasn’t been slammed with a hideous cover.
We hear constantly the importance of promoting and marketing our product. Well, packaging is as important as content, and it’s a terrible shame when a horrible cover is put on a decent book. I’ve heard several readers remark they wouldn’t buy a particular book because of the cover. That worn-out cliche of “you can’t judge a book by its cover” may be true, but people often do just that.
The people who create cover art are no more excused from criticism of their creations than the authors sport those creations on their book covers.
Personally, I hope you continue to snark book covers on a regular basis. I think there is a certain pressure put on authors not to rock the boat too much and complain about artwork assigned to their books, even when the complaint is legitimate and later echoed by countless readers. It’s a shame there are no statistics that show a title tanked not because of poor writing but because of bad packaging.
…since I basically find nothing funny about snarking or slamming or degrading anyone who works in the arts (whether it’s writing or painting or whatever) just so untalented people can feel superior about their own selves.
Thank you for that astounding and dumbfounding analysis into our motives in snarking covers on a weekly basis. Allow me to assure that you’re wrong. Certainly we need no help in soothing our monstrous egos at the expense of others.
Funny how your comment contrasts greatly with the email we get from authors quietly thanking us for calling attention to the horrid, unattractive and peculiar art that is so often slapped on the cover of their manuscripts. Cover art does matter, because its marketing, and using poorly wrought images does nothing to help the sale of the book or the promotion of the genre in general.
We started this site because the genre needed criticism that wasn’t throbbing hearts and fluffy bunnies, and that goes for cover art, too. Cover art is important in sales, period. If I’m paying $9+ for a paper back and then have to cover it up because the art is embarrassingly tawdry or downright disturbing, my $9 investment and my hot pink website gives me a voice to say, “That ain’t right.”
But your mind is clearly made up having visited to make such sweeping judgments of our motives, so I’m doubtful any response, no matter how reasoned or open for discussion, would make a dent.
Dovetailing on what Denise wrote, I think it’s a testament to the love of readers for their romances that they will buy books even with the awful covers. I mean, really, I continued to spend money throughout the ‘80s despite the overwhelming presence of Fabio (often naked with only a strategically placed woman to cover the man bits) on the covers. Does this make it easy to take a book out in public to read? Definitely not. But I still bought the books.
It’s sort of a bit like therapy to be able to snark at what I felt I had to keep covered up when I was in high school and reading these books between classes or at lunch.
Here’s a design firm that designs book jackets examining one new book cover each week. The name of the blog? Jackets Required.
Brilliant!
I remember feeling bad when Alison Kent commented on the cover snarkage for the cover of her book “The Grinch Makes Good.†(Which I submitted.)
Yes, I commented – in the vein of the snarkage – but I didn’t complain!! It was pretty strange, that collarbone that looked like, well, something anatomically impossible!
(was53 – and would have to be at least that long to make that impossible thing happen)
And of course, any exposure of a cover in a memorable fashion prompts people to pick up the book when they see it in a three-dimensional form. AKA any publicity is good publicity!
You know, there are moments in all the snarkage where I do feel an uncomfortable twinge for certain cover models, because I think it can be too easy to blur the distinction between the image and the person. I tend to think that if anyone has a case for feeling insulted, it’s the cover models (although again, IMO it depends on the nature of the comments). Then, maybe the artist who creates the cover, although those folks are basically in the same position as authors—subjecting their work to public consumption and therefore scrutiny. The line between their work and their personhood is more obvious than for the cover model.
Ironically, perhaps, I’ve kind of taken the vocalized distress of authors at certain cover snarkage as a reflection of their relative power in the industry. In other words, the cover models and the cover artists don’t seem to have the same currency necessary to complain in public and not be seen as troublemakers (aka out of a job or deemed too difficult to work with). So while intellectually I understand how authors can feel abused or powerless in the face of public critique, on another level I think there’s a certain luxury—an already extended grant of power—in being able to vocalize one’s distress publicly. IMO it’s more often that the truly powerless don’t feel free to speak aloud.
SING IT,
SISTER
BITCH. Sure, the cover-snark entries make me laugh like a loon, but inside I’m cringing at the thought that a publisher considered these worthy marketing efforts and approved the covers.
There’s always talk about not judging a book by its cover, but you know what? In addition to holding a story, a book is an object, and therefore worthy of aesthetic scrutiny. Remember when Apple released the iMac in the late 1990s, and each one had a bright color surrounding the monitor? I still think part of the reason those sold so well is that Steve Jobs had realized that if people were going to bring a computer into their homes, they wanted it to look good sitting on their desks.
The same goes with books: If I’m going to carry a book around with me in my bag, and read it on the train, and prop it up on my stomach while I’m reading it in bed, which is to say if I’m spending a lot of time with something, I want it to be pleasing on aesthetic grounds. Maybe that makes me shallow, but if I’m spending time with an object, I want to feel good about it.
(This goes for objects I buy, not for things given to me. If my little cousin draws me a picture, I’m going to hold onto it no matter what it looks like, because it was made for me with love. I have different criteria for things I choose to spend money on.)
All of which is to say, covers are important because they are the ultimate representation of the book’s interior. Reviews may give me information about the book, but it all comes down to me bringing this object into my life. As someone with limited time for reading (I have a job, school, family, friends), I can’t help but judge books by their covers as a way to narrow down what I might be interested in reading. When a cover is so atrocious it steers people away from the book, the publisher has failed.
And don’t give me that crap about having to accept subpar graphics due to costs. I’d like to remind you about the Smart Bitches cover contest from 2006; I couldn’t find the link readily, but there were some *fantastic* entries and winners, submitted by non-professionals using stock photography. It can be done, and it should be done.
My spamblocker word is soviet72; let’s send the bad covers to the gulag!
You know, sometimes a cover does just make you go, “What the hell?” And you wonder how it got approved, because it had to be approved by more than one person.
I find the cover snark funny. And yes, I’ve had my cover snarked here. I’m braced to have it happen again, because I have one snark-worthy cover coming. It’s not personal. An image is out there, anybody can comment on it.
I confess I’ve been tempted to send you the cover of my latest book so you can snark it, because, well, it’s not awful per se, but it totally does not illustrate the characters or the plot. (It’s a romantic erotica, but looks like a YA….)
I say, even bad publicity is getting your name and your book out there!
Hey, if you’re going to snark anything, I’d rather you snarked the cover than the story. And the publicity can’t hurt. *goes off to get herself really bad cover*
Can you actually pull copyrighted images from their websites (or wherever you got them) when many companies have a notice on their websites regarding reproducing the graphics without written consent?
As far as I know, what we do falls under the satire and commentary fair use provisions of copyright law.
For a few chuckles, seems to me you might be opening yourselves up to some major trouble. Just my opinion, of course, since I basically find nothing funny about snarking or slamming or degrading anyone who works in the arts (whether it’s writing or painting or whatever) just so untalented people can feel superior about their own selves.
Y’know, making a truly ugly speculation about motives while attempting to soften the blow with some sort of equivocation tends to cut your high horse off at the knees. Just my opinion, of course, since I find that sort of mealy-mouthed behavior transparent and amusing.
Candy, it’s been through the courts many times. The reproduction of visual art for the purpose of criticism has time and time again been deemed fair use in the United States. In fact, fair use exists mainly to prevent the stifling of criticism, whether through critique, snark, or parody.
It even allows for superficially nicey-nicey passive-aggressive criticism that ends with the whine “but that’s just my opinion”, even though such criticism is about as useful as teats on a bull.
IMO one of the best reasons to lurk around SB is for the “lively discussions”, without real meaness.
Uptight Tami…Do Amazon, B&N, and my local grocery store have written permission from each author (or even publisher)? I kinda doubt it. Hey, I paid good money for those books, which gives me some rights as to scanning & commenting with friends.
Seriously, this issue needs more attention not less. The art some publishers slap on romance (do they hate us or what?) is practically criminal. They give romance a bad name, and it won’t change if everyone keeps mum.
On the other hand, how many writers & artists have gone on to improve themselves after having flaws pointed out? Anytime you “create” something and offer it for public consumption (sale), you open yourself to comments good or bad…whether writer, artist, architect, landscape design, clothing design…etc. AND any writer or artist could find fabulous ideas on this website!
Dittos to…When a cover is so atrocious it steers people away from the book, the publisher has failed (there are alot of failures on the romance shelf)…I think it’s a testament to the love of readers for their romances that they will buy books even with the awful covers…If I’m paying $9+ for a paper back and then have to cover it up because the art is embarrassingly tawdry or downright disturbing, my $9 investment and my hot pink website gives me a voice…
Go Mandy…“And hey, hello.. nekkie angel butt will get ya talkin’!”…Yeah, I’m looking for an online blurb for NAB, the snarks made me curious. (I liked your cover too).
Seems the more popular(powerful) a romance writer becomes the less likely their cover art will involve long haired power lifters bending back a gymnist who had to get out of the biz because she became overdeveloped.
I’d much rather see those floral covers or that castle in the distance than two people who don’t even remotely resemble the characters described inside. I don’t care if cover models starve to death or have to resort to doing porn just to keep a roof over their heads. I buy books despite the covers more than I should and I hate the fact that I’m keeping a sub-industry of publishing going because it.
When I see covers and recognize the models from other covers I’m not charmed. I’m angry because it means publishers think that romance is cookie cutter and the same pretty face and musclebound body will do, over and over.
As for reproducing covers on this site: if publishers had a problem with it they’d put a stop to it. They’re probably right chuffed that this is being done. Free promotion for their books, and all.
As much as I might chuckle over some of the covers I’m still left with the thought that despite the fact that genre fiction keeps publishing going it still gets very little respect. Do you think they’d do this to Joyce Carol Oates? Hell no! She’d go on the book lecture circuit and bad mouth them. Ever notice how Joyce Carol Oates looks like Olive Oyl from that Popeye move?
Do you think they’d do this to Joyce Carol Oates?
I adore Oates’s work and have always found it wondrous and beautiful that she conjures up such potent and rich prose from her petite frame, but in any case, she had her share of struggles to be taken seriously as a woman writer. Now, of course, her name is dropped casually for the Pulitzer, but once upon a time, she was trying to gain acceptance in a social environment that materially discriminated against women. In fact, I thought she and Elaine Showalter did some critical feminist work together.
“Do you think they’d do this to Joyce Carol Oates?”
Out of curiosity, I searched her mysteries that she wrote as Lauren Kelly, but those are your typical sleazy, true crime type covers.
however, I did find a case of cover recycling—
1996
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DCTN852VL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg
1999
http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/5174C0XA8NL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg
I think if the inside of a novel is fair game for reviews, then so is the cover.
And whoever came up with “Just call me angel of the backfat angel, just fry some eggs before you leave me, baby,” owes me some piece of mind! Now I keep hearing that song in my head, but with those new lyrics, lol.
I believe that all the cover snarking that goes on, especially the spew worthy comments here, benefit the authors. If enough noise is made by readers about sub-par covers, publishers may listen.
There are e-publishers whose sites I don’t even visit because the covers are so consistently fugly. That can’t be good for the authors…