Book Covers

Who needs an obscure concept when you have a photo this gorgeous to start with, eh?

What I love about this cover is how perfectly it captures the raw emotion and poetry of the book. It’s violent and epic and rough and beautiful.

Yeah, the Olde Tyme parchment schtick is olde hat, but what else are you gonna do in a case like this?

Be sure and check out David Alan Harvey’s (the photographer) blog if you’re in the mood to feel worse about skills or lack thereof.

— Ben Pieratt, 2007-10-15 17:07:00

You’re right, great photo and the close-cropping really adds a sense of wild energy. This is a good treatment, the type evokes without slavishly copying type of the period and personally, I still haven’t reached my threshold of antique paper. Perhaps the title type seems a bit quiet and compositionally it seems a bit cut in half with not much interaction between the two pieces. Also I still prefer one of the original (and award winning?) covers with the

hm seems to have cut off the last bit of my post… here’s a link to the old cover . Great to see an Australian author on the pile.

I like how the type of the title/reading line/author creates a sort of accordion shape – very eye-catching. The horses are beautiful, of course.

not much to say here. Kind of just works, but to no special end. While I dig the photo (comes off more as a painting) the over as a whole would not catch my eye. I guess after seeing a hundred covers with horses, this ends up falling short for me. But yes, nice shot indeed… type is not bad and the textured background behind the text is whatever.

Aesthetically, great. But I’m still confused by the need for ‘a novel’. We don’t see this in the UK, in the same way that cornflakes don’t have ‘a food’ printed all over the box. Here it’s doubly confusing: true history or novel? Assuming the latter, the title is a bit odd, n’est-ce pas?

The photograph is so frenetic. I can smell the horses, feel their heat and practically grab the nearest one’s mane! I wish there were more interaction between the top and bottom halves. Maybe the rusty spots that sort of mimic the gray spots of the horses are enough to tie it together.

I agree with James. What is it with you Americans needing to put ‘a novel’ on novels? Novels in the UK don’t have ‘a novel’ printed on the cover to designate that the book is actually a novel. We can tell just from looking at the novel that it is a novel without having to be told “this is a novel” I just don’t get it at all.

I think this is certainly one case when “A Novel” is necessary. First, the jacket design is very non-fiction. Based on the “True Story” title, that aesthetic may be intentional. Nevertheless, when a book looks like non-fiction and has a title that indicates it’s non-fiction, it absolutely needs ‘A Novel.’

“a novel” is the greatest thing since ice cream and it won’t be long before the UK adopt this nuance. There is absolutely nothing in todays design world that dictates what a novel looks, or should look like. You need it. It’s not even a question. It’s tradition, it’s function, it’s another thing to help us dumb americans figure out what the hell we’re looking at.

In many bookstores books are simply on display and not within their section. Many books get misplaced and it is nice for a stocker to know right away were the damn thing goes. It is arguable, but I would not be surprised that this little addition to the cover has saved lots of time, money and energy.

I’m not digging this one like everyone else. I like the photo – or what I can see of it. I don’t care for the crop; the horse on the left is missing nose and it bothers me (should be happy with the horse on the right’s nose?). I think the bottom is all wrong. Takes too much of the cover and I’d place that 2 line blurb at the bottom. And what is this – a “True Story” or a novel? (I’m in the “WTF do we need ‘A Novel’ on all these books for anyway” camp).

Europeans are right: they are indeed superior to Americans, and the clear, unavoidable proof of this fact is our silly, stupid, unsophisticated insistence in using the word “novel” on what anyone with half a brain should be able to identify as a novel.

The fact that spines in the States are laid out from top to bottom is further proof of European cultural superiority.

It reminds me of Kidd’s “All the Wild Horses” cover, without being any better.

Why don’t you people write a novel and then you’ll understand why you would like to include that on the cover of your book.

This cover is pretty nice. I love the photograph. Frankly, I would have used the photo for the whole cover and added some small text on top. I’m not too crazy about the half-and-half.

Maybe a more organic or slightly torn edge on the top of the paper….All around beautiful photo. Close but different to All the Pretty Horses which was designed as part of a series called the border trilogy and should be read by everyone.

‘A Novel’ is unnecessary for the simple reason that whether you find it at a library or a book store, it’s either in the fiction or nonfiction section.

What if this wasn’t fiction? Should it have ‘A Biography’ or ‘An Historic Account’ instead?

(And what is the compelling reason to put it on the front cover, rather than the back or the inner flap?)

Did you guys take any literature classes, or did you simply not pay attention? Let me point out the obvious here:

I’m sure you’ve all heard of short stories, perhaps even novellas. These, too, can be found in the fiction section. As it happens, readers are likely to come to the that section looking for a specific kind of fiction—usually a novel. The label helps them make a selection, even if they’re unfamililar with the work.

By the way, non-fiction books often use similar labels. We’ve all seen “Essays,” “A History,” “Aphorisms,” etc on book covers.

Moving on, I find the cover aesthetically pleasing but way too literal for such a playful author as Peter Carey. The hardcover design, with it’s slight hint of Kafka, seems more appropriate.

I gotta say i agree. That Big ol’ “K” just worked for this type of raw literature.

The horses (as striking as they are) just come off as another Black Stallion type of title. So much for good photography and the drama of it all.

Also, the type setting is uninspired and does not compliment the powerful image which should have simply been bled across the cover in all it’s unbridled glory…

In the end though, this cover does the job and is by no means unsubstantial. It just could have pushed the limits a bit given the strong image…

Jose – Let me ask a rhetorical question: How many 300+ page novellas or short stories have you read?

Anthologies don’t count either, and they usually include key words like ‘anthology’ or ‘collection’ in the titles anyway. When 90% of the content in the fiction section is in novel form, you don’t need to put ‘a novel’ on their covers.

Rek, get over it. You’re outnumbered by everyone in the publishing industry. Move on. k thx

1. Statue of Liberty in foreground
2.New York city skyline at night in background
3 the sky over New York is lit up due to anti -air craft fire
4. explosions over the skyline
Note : the explosions over the skyline & the anti-aircraft fire should resemble the explosions over the Baghdad sky during the Gulf War – the story about aliens attack the earth if you want I can send you the manuscript also

Is it your book? If you know exactly what you want, why do you need somebody else to do it?