This thread is long, I haven't read thoroughly. (and here am I, making it even longer...)
Was info already posted about "Corroding Empire" being an intentional parody?
http://neveryetmelted.com/2017/03/21...scalzi-parody/
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While I'm thinking about it --- cover-creation advice blogs tell self-pubbers to google other books *similar to their own* and use those covers as inspiration for their own cover -- to attract readers of *
that genre*. So we are going to see more and more clones of book covers.
And frankly, it already feels like 75% of scifi books use blue/cyan color scheme (sometimes with magenta highlights), planets and/or stars in background, and hulking spaceships. So what's the surprise that they tend to look like the love-child result of an incestuous relationship?