A new commenter with the username of “Yo” just commented on half a dozen different posts. Since Yo seems intent on kicking the wasps’ nest, I think it’s easier to begin buzzing all in one place, instead of on those scattered posts.
In the comments to Chasing the White Rabbit, Yo says:
Not bad, good title, not sure why it made it on this site, lots of jealous people exist in the world I guess.
Ah, yes. The only reason we would have an opinion other than yours is jealousy, obviously! Although why we wouldn’t concentrate on truly successful covers instead of ones that are, at best, marginal is left unexplained.
In the comments to The End The Book: The Disappearance, Yo says:
Good cover image fitting for the plot of the story, only children or the illiterate who don’t read judge a book solely on it’s cover…
Actually, illiterate people are the ones who think that “judging a cover” and “judging a book by its cover” are the same thing. Illiterate people also don’t realize that I’ve written a full page answering that oft-repeated, never justified “don’t judge a book by its cover” cliche. (Illiterate people also don’t understand how commas are supposed to work.)
In the comments to Saving Gideon: Growing Years: The Angel Chronicles, Yo replies to a comment asking whether it’s really appropriate to show angels dressed in Roman armor, giving the persecution of the early church by Rome:
Actually many a Roman Solider converted…the reason why Constantine made it the official religion…it’s best you critique the cover, not the history as your obviously are illiterate when it comes to basic history…
Actually actually, Constantine was Emperor almost three hundred years after the death of Jesus — three centuries which were largely characterized by brutal oppression of Christians by Rome. Please enlighten us as to how a span that long is something to be entirely ignored in your “basic history.” (Of note: Now we are encouraged to critique the cover, whereas earlier it was tantamount to “judging a book by its cover”? Whatever stick lies at hand, I suppose…)
In the comments to Without Any Warning, Yo says:
Many Best Sellers have had very little for cover, ever hear of Catch 22 by Heller, I got it right next to my computer and all the cover says is Catch 22 in red and the background all white…you guys really really need to bone up on your book selling history….
So you’re saying that minimalist is automatically good? Or that the cover to Without Any Warning is the equal to that of Catch-22 (please note the correct title, complete with hyphen)? Or that the criticism leveled at this cover was solely because of its simplicity? (The answer to all three is No, by the way, in case you’re confused.)
In the comments to the page “Copyright Concerns?,” Yo says:
“I am an Amazon and Smashwords affiliate”
but how do you find time to do this site if your making money being a affiliate? It doesn’t make sense,,unless your a lowball player and this site is a Catharsis for you not making much money…i get it…
There’s so much stupid here. Do you, Yo, know what an “affiliate” is? It means that my links from this site to Amazon and Smashwords are monetized; if someone clicks through and buys the book in question, I get a referral fee. This site is not something separate from and conflicting with being an affiliate, it’s how I am an affiliate. Your attempt to get off a half-assed insult only showcases your ignorance.
I think Yo left some other comments, but really, I already feel like I’m swatting a fly with a Buick.
Dude, this just means you’re doing your job right. This site is designed to get under the skin of sensitive authors. Fortunately, I’m too dull to be bothered by it. 🙂
Dull, pointless arguments from the weak-minded. Yo probably thinks movie critics are out of line too when they trash yet another movie-that-shouldn’t-have-been-made.
It’s either that or Yo believes everything that has ever been created by mortal hands is beautiful and perfect, therefore, no other mortal with an opinion dare express said opinion short of syrupy praise. Riiiight.
Yo: If it’s a cover, it must be good, especially if you people say it isn’t. (Translation: I’m kinda ignernt about this publishun binness but all critics are a-holes and I hate them.)
Nathan: Whatev’. We’ve met your kind before and triumphed with our larger brains and thoughtful, intelligent opinions (and snark, LOTS of snark). (Translation: We eat you trolls for breakfast, uncooked, and never look back.)
–if your making money (should be you’re)
–your a lowball (ditto)
He can’t even use the correct words. Dumb comments aside, his “literary” credibility is zilch.
Just another troll looking to stir the pot and get attention (and successful on both counts).
But it’s FUN when they do!!! 🙂
Must be a coincidence their avatar looks like a penis.
And now you can’t unsee it.
Your avatar looks like a caterpiller!
Yours makes me hungry.
CRAIG! DANG IT! grrrrrr…. O_o
My avatar looks like a dog…
Yo? Oy!
I wonder if one of those fine book covers is on Yo’s book or was designed by Yo. I’m guessing The End The Book: The Disappearance is Yo’s. Which cover do the rest of you vote as Yo’s product?
If so – I’m not sure how you arrived at that – it’s interesting that the novel, as is the case with so many bad-covered novels (that aren’t, in my opinion, grossly amateurish, as some of the covers here are), is actually doing quite well.
The critical question for me is: How representative are graphic artists, and those who consider themselves “graphically enlightened” (as on this site) of the mass of readers? Do most readers, in other words, throw up their arms in horror at the usual graphic design faux pas? “Oh my God, the designer used mirroring!” Would that be typical of most readers?
I have my own opinions about what constitutes good covers, which I can defend at considerable length, but I have absolutely no confidence about what is important to “Joe/Jill Average” reader. I am extremely skeptical of the received wisdom claims that book Cover X absolutely will prevent sales, whereas Cover Y will increase them. I can’t believe that a cover has no substantial impact, but on the other hand, the correlation between allegedly good covers and sales seems awfully ephemeral.
The correlation between cover quality and sales does strike me as a bit iffy. Baron LeSade, who’s had several of his covers featured on here (and frankly deserves to have many more of them featured on here), has several of his books on the bestseller list in the erotica section at Smashwords; shows you how discerning the average reader for that kind of crap is.
Of course, maybe the reason books with bad covers are selling is just that with the advent of internet publication, covers aren’t that important anymore. It’s not as if most of the people buying stuff from Smashwords are planning to get a physical copy of those books for their coffee tables; nobody’s going to see an awful cover anywhere but on the site itself.
Another possibility is just that readers of certain genres will buy anything. Both the covers and the content of bodice-rippers are pretty laughable, and there’s no shortage of mockery for them online, but I’ve known women who had stashes of as many as 500-1000 of them. The mockery might even be helping them sell: here, for instance, is another site that I came across that made fun of the covers on bodice-rippers. Do you think anybody might be tempted, as I was, to put those hilarious covers through Tin Eye and see what their original titles were?
I hadn’t considered the physical copy/coffee table versus internet publiccation idea; perhaps there’s something to it. Still, from everyone I’ve spoken to and every discussion on Goodreads I’ve seen, people still do appreciate what they consider to be a beautiful or evocative cover. But their tastes vary wildly, so I don’t see the confident “Of course if your covers are professionally designed, they will sell better!” mantra as too persuasive.
I suspect there’s a fairly strong correlation between the truly awful covers (the majority posted here that look like they were designed by children or the severely deranged/handicapped) and sales, but there’s a line between arguably awful and those crazy covers which might not prevent sales (in my view, some of my covers qualify as straddling that line). Sometimes, I think, people deal with a not-too horrible cover’s idiosyncrasies and perhaps even embrace them. I’m thinking of a very successful series where the covers feature mannequin-like characters.
“maybe the reason books with bad covers are selling is just that with the advent of internet publication, covers aren’t that important anymore.”
I think that with ebooks, it’s more important to have the right search tags and a intriguing description than a really good cover. That’s not the same as saying that covers are unimportant, they can still be the line between buy and don’t buy.
It’s true that some book buyers are clueless about good cover design, just as some are clueless about good writing. But nevertheless, beautiful writing and beautiful covers are things to be praised, and lousy covers and lousy writing are things to be scorned and made fun of.
The masses may not always be behind us, but we’re fighting the good fight. 🙂
Well, the problem is that many of us seem to strongly disagree about what qualify as beautiful covers and beautiful writing. Still, we should fight for what we believe those things to be, I guess. I have a friend, for example, who informs me that one should never place characters on a book cover, while I totally favor characters being on a cover.
I had always thought you were no supposed to show a main character’s face on the cover. An author wants the reader to imagine what the character looks like in their mind through the descriptions in the book. As soon as a character is visible that is what they look like, and this can cause problems if the text description doesn’t match the cover.
Although I have seen many, many examples of how not showing character’s faces really isn’t practiced. Fantasy books, Sci-Fi, and Biographies being the main offenders.
In fact some books with bad character descriptions could have benefited from showing the main character on a the cover. Some particularly bad novels could have benefited from a character comparison chart.
The first comment he made was on the Gideon one, where he proved he did NOT have a knowledge of what he called “basic history.” If he made one – that’s the one. Then he ran around posting on others to cover his tracks.
The Saving Gideon cover was professionally designed. I actually visited the site (advertised on Goodreads) which listed that cover as an example of the artist’s works.
I thought it was mediocre-minus, for what that’s worth, though not what I would consider to be pretty bad (The Disappearance).
I think Yo’s cover is one that he/she/it didn’t leave a comment on.
This thread is awesome. Like a whiny crying kid who says they’re not tired; and I get dedicated a thread and page..thank you!
Gee, you’re right. The mature thing to do, obviously, would be to let you come in here and be stupid without anyone tell you to shut it.
Thanks. You saved me from clicking the Back button to giggle at your avatar.
Lawrence’s thoughtful essay, and the responses, are of great value to self-publishers.
Now can we go back to ripping on Yo-Yo’s repetitive stupidity?
I’m sorry that makes absolutely no sense, who’s a whiny kid in this metaphor? Are you saying you’re a whiny kid.
I was right the first tie, you really are a penis.
I’m sorry that makes absolutely no sense, who’s a whiny kid in this metaphor? Are you saying you’re a whiny kid.
I was right the first time, you really are a penis.
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but to me the point isn’t to rag on “Yo,” but rather to discuss the bigger issues of what works artistically and financially in book covers.
It’s a question I’ve spent a lot of time on, without attaining any clear answers.
One sort of paradoxical thing I’ve observed is that if people rate book covers – say, on a 1 – 10 scale – most people rate even professionally designed covers as around a 5 or 6. I have this growing impression that once a cover crosses a certain threshold of professional appearance, it’s not that important, so people don’t feel compelled to get excited and rate them as “10.” Almost every cover I’ve seen here would dissuade me from buying the book (including one or two of my own covers!;-).
I come to Lousy Book Covers
first to link forward to the CheapCaffeine cartoon, then backto trample the hopes and dreams of aspiring indie small press book cover artists while going “Nyah-ha-ha-ha!” (mine is an evil laugh!) knowing in my heart of hearts that covers like Empress Theresa are simply awesome beyond my ability to match – ever.(I am a book buyer and reader. My question with a book cover is: knowing nothing about the book or author (indie small press, self-pub, whatever) will it make me want to pick up and browse, maybe buy, the book? Or does it bleep like a HazMat warning sign?)
Actually, the illiterate don’t judge books by their covers. The illiterate have no worldly use for books or covers. It’s a bit like saying men (or any other person not in possession of a functioning uterus) judge tampons by the packaging. 😛
Some books are useful to illiterates and the literati alike:
o leveling furniture with uneven legs or bad flooring –
o kindling a fireplace on a cold winter day –
o convenience paper in an outhouse –
of course:
o these thousands of non-reading uses do not depend on quality of cover
o if the book’s an eBook or PDF there are no non-reading uses regardless of cover.