Fantasy book covers: darker, more serious than before?

[BenG]

Also they usually sell ebooks for less than the paperback so they may not want to hire a real artist or pay royalties to the original artist.

[jgaiser]

Afraid I'm with pwalker. I like the 80's covers. Looks like someone took a little effort to create a cover instead of a colored page with writing on it.

But then, I never bought covers. I've never bought a book because the cover was cool. It was recommended, the reviews convinced me or the on book blurbs sounded interesting.

[danskmacabre]

Covers aren't important to me anymore, as I use an ereader, so I just see a vague black and white image as a cover which I just skip to the text from immediately.

Still, I prefer the older covers in general, but that's probably me thinking back to my much younger days and fond memories.

[rkomar]

In the 80's, you bought books in a bookstore, where the covers drew your eye to the books to make them stand out from the other hundreds of books on the shelf. Today, you don't have the same experience (you don't get 300 hundred covers on a web page and see what stands out). I would say that the purpose of today's cover is to not turn you away from an ebook that you came across some other way. That is, they are more safe and conservative than flashy and eye-catching.

[Katsunami]

Are there any people here who just browse e-book websites as if they were in a book store, and then buy (or not buy) a totally unplanned book?

I never did; up until now, I've always known what I would buy when I went to an e-book store.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Are there any people here who just browse e-book websites as if they were in a book store, and then buy (or not buy) a totally unplanned book?

I never did; up until now, I've always known what I would buy when I went to an e-book store.

I do. I usually try to scan the stores to see what's new on a regular basis, though for the most part, I'm scanning for authors that I know about. What ebook covers do is separate out the professionally done books from the mass of self published stuff.

I really, really, really wish that I had some program or website where I could put in a list of authors and it would notify me when they have a new ebook out. Trying to wade through Amazon's list is simply painful and mind numbing. Page after page after page of PD, porn and self published drek. I generally give up after 30 pages.

[cadele]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I really, really, really wish that I had some program or website where I could put in a list of authors and it would notify me when they have a new ebook out. Trying to wade through Amazon's list is simply painful and mind numbing. Page after page after page of PD, porn and self published drek. I generally give up after 30 pages.

Fictfact does this very well and is superb for tracking series

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I've been stumbling on a lot of early 80's fantasy lately. I thought Terry Brooks and David Eddings were the only famous/significant ones at that time, but it seems I was wrong. Also, there seem to be more women writing fantasy, even back then, than I thought.

There is a lot of overlap in the SF&F writers from the 70's and 80's. There are always been a fair number of women writing fantasy. A Norton, M.Z. Bradley(Darkover), Katherine Kurtz (the Deryni series), Patricia McKillip, Anne McCaffry (Pern). That's off the top of my head, so I may have misspelled a name or two.

In a way, the late 70's and 80's was a golden age for fantasy, at least as far as sheer volume and shelf space in book stores. If I recall correctly, there where about 4 or 5 major publishers/imprints putting out SF&F at the time. I think Ballentine was the big name, but you also had Ace, DAW and Roc. I think that Baen Books got started right about that time as well.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by cadele

Fictfact does this very well and is superb for tracking series

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and signed up, but I suspect that they have the same issue as authoralert, i.e. they don't report when a book comes out purely as an ebook.

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

And that works for character descriptions within the book. One of the Mages in Gardens of the Moon I envisioned as young and slim. Then she was described as 200+ years old and overweight. Sigh. There goes my dreams.

I really like that there are overweight people, old people, ugly, young, beautiful etc etc it's diverse instead of just the kind of hollywood movie cast.

That mage was known by everyone in the novel for being plump.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I'm kicking this thread with the only reason of saying: "I think I'm right."

This can't be a coincidence. I've bought 15 books in the last few weeks, most of them fantasy and some science fiction, and they were all written in the 80's. While going through them to set the metadata and split omnibuses, I obviously also found the old covers.

1980's: Tacky, nerdy, cheesy
Current: Either dark and gritty, or modern and serious.

Every... single... one.

For example, Barbara Hambly's covers.

80's style
Current style

Patricia C. Wrede:

Shadow Magic: 80's (OMG, this one is tacky) vs. Current
The Raven Ring: 80's vs. Current

This change goes for ALL of her books, as well as the ones by Patricia C. Wrede. I've seen that even the Dungeons and Dragons e-books and new editions are getting new, non-nerdy covers.

There are some books that, going by the 80's cover, I wouldn't even have bought...

These new covers are just too cheap and generic looking.
Covers of the 50's and 60's were commonly simplistic or tacky

I bought that Shadow Magic, cover and all way back when.

I would not have even picked up the NEW cover of that Robin Hobb book because of the non-informative covers (cover raves are not informative , they are HYPE). The old cover contained some key story elements (a Live ship was not a generic sailing ship)


Artists never seem to get the concept of 'Practical' quite right

Females in Scanty clothing in the Snow (or desert sun) while their male counterpart is weighted down with furs

Lots of things hanging off space armor to get snagged (Lucas' Storm troopers got that right)

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Are there any people here who just browse e-book websites as if they were in a book store, and then buy (or not buy) a totally unplanned book?

I never did; up until now, I've always known what I would buy when I went to an e-book store.

Yes!
Baens front door is sort of like the New title 'end cap' display at my old book store

Show me lots of 'face out' covers (like Grid view in Calibre), let me click thru for more if something 'catches my eye'

[tilia]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and signed up, but I suspect that they have the same issue as authoralert, i.e. they don't report when a book comes out purely as an ebook.

You can choose format at authoralerts. Hardcover, paperback, mmp and/or kindle books.

[twowheels]

It has happened to computer programming books as well:

http://globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-..._the_atari.jpg

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Are there any people here who just browse e-book websites as if they were in a book store, and then buy (or not buy) a totally unplanned book?

Yep - I don't plan book purchases (e or otherwise), I just browse through random stuff, read a few pages of anything that has an interesting enough blurb and then decide whether to buy or not.