Kobo's Best Indie Cover Contest

gmw · 12-31-2019, 07:21 PM

The link to the 10 finalists here.

Shows you what I know. My favourite of the finalists is coming equal last, while the current leader looks (to me) both generic and inappropriate to the genre and blurb.

VydorScope · 01-02-2020, 06:45 AM

Sadly, these things tend to be more popularity contests then about the actual covers.

JSWolf · 01-02-2020, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Sadly, these things tend to be more popularity contests then about the actual covers.

On Goidreads when they do the best cover poll, it is mostly a popularity contest. Twilight got 1st place and it's cover is garbage. It's someone holding his/her hand out with an apple. That's it It's that bad.

In this case, it's not as bad. What I think is the third best cover is in first place.

gmw · 01-02-2020, 08:06 AM

Or that good. I like the Twilight covers - the whole series. They stand out. They have mystery. They merely suggest romance rather than leaping up and clawing your eyes out with Ts & As. They don't particularly say YA, but still, I think they have rather more class than most of that genre.

There are a couple of books in the Kobo poll that I think are conceptually very good, but fail in their execution. Leaves me wondering if they went with too early a draft rather than pushing on to really refine it.

JSWolf · 01-02-2020, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmw

Or that good. I like the Twilight covers - the whole series. They stand out. They have mystery. They merely suggest romance rather than leaping up and clawing your eyes out with Ts & As. They don't particularly say YA, but still, I think they have rather more class than most of that genre.

There are a couple of books in the Kobo poll that I think are conceptually very good, but fail in their execution. Leaves me wondering if they went with too early a draft rather than pushing on to really refine it.

IMHO, Twilight covers = really ugly

ZodWallop · 01-02-2020, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

On Goidreads when they do the best cover poll, it is mostly a popularity contest. Twilight got 1st place and it's cover is garbage.

I'm going to disagree. What's between the covers might be garbage. But the covers for the entire Twilight series were great. Some of the best book covers in years.

The covers are all similar with black, white and red. But they aren't same-y. They match the themes of the books. They are very well done.

JSWolf · 01-02-2020, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm going to disagree. What's between the covers might be garbage. But the covers for the entire Twilight series were great. Some of the best book covers in years.

The covers are all similar with black, white and red. But they aren't same-y. They match the themes of the books. They are very well done.

That may be, but as stand-alone covers, they are absolute garbage. They got voted for on Goodreads due to all the girls who like sparkly vampires. When you are voting for the best cover(s), you should be looking at just the cover and no voting based on the book. It's not supposed to be a popularity contest. It's supposed to be about the best covers, not some of the worst covers aka Twilight series.

gmw · 01-02-2020, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That may be, but as stand-alone covers, they are absolute garbage. They got voted for on Goodreads due to all the girls who like sparkly vampires. When you are voting for the best cover(s), you should be looking at just the cover and no voting based on the book. It's not supposed to be a popularity contest. It's supposed to be about the best covers, not some of the worst covers aka Twilight series.

Highlight mine. Possibly you didn't meant that clause quite the way it sounds. The best book cover should not only be about the cover, but how well that cover sells the content. So the cover must be appropriate to the content. If it turns the right audience away, and/or attracts the wrong audience, then even the most beautiful cover is not doing its job properly.

Thus the main fault I can give the Twilight covers is that they don't clearly say YA, not that that seems to hurt their sales at all.

Mind you, the requirement that a cover sells the content does make the competitions like the linked Kobo one problematic, since most voters have probably not read all contestants and so can't judge whether the cover is doing its job properly.

JSWolf · 01-02-2020, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmw

Highlight mine. Possibly you didn't meant that clause quite the way it sounds. The best book cover should not only be about the cover, but how well that cover sells the content. So the cover must be appropriate to the content. If it turns the right audience away, and/or attracts the wrong audience, then even the most beautiful cover is not doing its job properly.

Thus the main fault I can give the Twilight covers is that they don't clearly say YA, not that that seems to hurt their sales at all.

Mind you, the requirement that a cover sells the content does make the competitions like the linked Kobo one problematic, since most voters have probably not read all contestants and so can't judge whether the cover is doing its job properly.

A cover contest is not about how the cover matches the story. The words are irrelevant. You vote for the best looking cover. The words are voted for when you are voting for the best books.

gmw · 01-02-2020, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A cover contest is not about how the cover matches the story. The words are irrelevant. You vote for the best looking cover. The words are voted for when you are voting for the best books.

Whatever the original intention of the poll (if it had one beyond being some end of year filler), you may well be right as to the result, especially if a significant proportion of the voters think the same as you do. But that does make it a truly pointless exercise.

JSWolf · 01-03-2020, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmw

Whatever the original intention of the poll (if it had one beyond being some end of year filler), you may well be right as to the result, especially if a significant proportion of the voters think the same as you do. But that does make it a truly pointless exercise.

I disagree. When you do a cover vote, you look at how good the cover is. But unfortunately in a lot of cases, it's popularity contest and the covers don't actually matter. Like what happened on Goodreads with their cover poll.

gmw · 01-03-2020, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I disagree. When you do a cover vote, you look at how good the cover is. But unfortunately in a lot of cases, it's popularity contest and the covers don't actually matter. Like what happened on Goodreads with their cover poll.

If I understand your post correctly, you object to book cover popularity contests* because you believe they often become content popularity contests. I suspect a formal study would find such a correlation exists, but cause and effect could be harder to isolate.

It is possible that a book gained popularity as a result of its attractive cover. It is possible that a cover looks attractive to people because it matches other books in a popular genre and so just becomes a refinement of something people already associate with enjoyment. And speaking of associations, think Pavlov's dogs: "every time I picked up that image I had a good time so I find that image attractive", sort of thing.

* Any contest that looks only at the cover image without considering whether it is appropriate to the content is not looking for good covers, it is only looking for popular covers.

ZodWallop · 01-04-2020, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That may be, but as stand-alone covers, they are absolute garbage. They got voted for on Goodreads due to all the girls who like sparkly vampires. When you are voting for the best cover(s), you should be looking at just the cover and no voting based on the book. It's not supposed to be a popularity contest. It's supposed to be about the best covers, not some of the worst covers aka Twilight series.

Again, we'll have to agree to disagree. Twilight has very good covers.

I'm going to venture that your disdain for the covers is tired to your dislike of the books and their fans. Your judgement of the quality of the covers is irrational.

ZodWallop · 01-04-2020, 12:10 AM

In my opinion, the best book cover is the cover for The Great Gatsby:

VydorScope · 01-04-2020, 07:47 AM

Pretend for a moment I was a Stephen King level author. I then put out a book with an okayish cover but inside was the typical quality and content that my readers like. I then enter a cover contest. I decide I want to win the cover contest so I send an email out to my newsletter "Yo! My stuff is up for a vote, go vote!"

Who do you think would win that contest? The person with the best cover, or the biggest loyal following. I will leave the answer as an exercise for the reader.

12-31-2019, 07:21 PM	#1
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Kobo's Best Indie Cover Contest The link to the 10 finalists here. Shows you what I know. My favourite of the finalists is coming equal last, while the current leader looks (to me) both generic and inappropriate to the genre and blurb.

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01-02-2020, 06:45 AM	#2
VydorScope Wizard Posts: 3,418 Karma: 35207650 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: iPad	Sadly, these things tend to be more popularity contests then about the actual covers.

01-02-2020, 08:06 AM	#4
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Or that good. I like the Twilight covers - the whole series. They stand out. They have mystery. They merely suggest romance rather than leaping up and clawing your eyes out with Ts & As. They don't particularly say YA, but still, I think they have rather more class than most of that genre. There are a couple of books in the Kobo poll that I think are conceptually very good, but fail in their execution. Leaves me wondering if they went with too early a draft rather than pushing on to really refine it.

01-04-2020, 12:10 AM	#14
ZodWallop Gentleman and scholar Posts: 11,499 Karma: 111164374 Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Space City, Texas Device: Clara BW; Nook ST w/Glowlight, Paperwhite 3	In my opinion, the best book cover is the cover for The Great Gatsby:

01-04-2020, 07:47 AM	#15
VydorScope Wizard Posts: 3,418 Karma: 35207650 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: iPad	Pretend for a moment I was a Stephen King level author. I then put out a book with an okayish cover but inside was the typical quality and content that my readers like. I then enter a cover contest. I decide I want to win the cover contest so I send an email out to my newsletter "Yo! My stuff is up for a vote, go vote!" Who do you think would win that contest? The person with the best cover, or the biggest loyal following. I will leave the answer as an exercise for the reader.

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