Lousy Book Covers

Clicking on that link was nerve wracking. Was terrified I'd find one of my covers there.

Wow, some of those were quite painful.  Sadly, others you can tell a lot of work and love went into, but the skill to carry them out just wasn't there. 

My Mother-in-Law and husband did both of our covers.  But Dh is a computer genius and MIL is a retired graphic artist, otherwise we'd never even have tried.  I sometimes wonder what "people" think of the cover for book two, but most of the book takes place as a starving, desperate young family travels down I-40 in Tennessee on bikes, and later on foot (in a post-apocalyptic setting).  MIL actually stood in the center of I-40, when no cars were coming for a minute-long stretch, to get the exact shot we wanted for the cover--after driving all day looking for a good stretch of road.  So, even though we ended up manipulating it by bringing the looming trees in closer, and making the sky black, it's just a meaningful picture for Dave and I.

I don't really get joy out of other's bad covers, because as Satchya said, some of those covers are works of love or simply the best an author could do at the time.  I don't know.  It seems ... mean.  This guy, the owner of the site, is a cover artist or a writer or an editor or a jack-of-all-trades ... and I just don't think it reflects well on him to highlight the errors of others (even if, at one point, he offered to redo their covers).  It's a mean-spirited way to drum up publicity for ones self and very transparent and doesn't speak well of him as a human being.

He seems to get a real rise out of embarrassing others, hence the e-mail with the author over copyright.  She misunderstood copyright law, and was trying to protect her work from being used as fodder on a slanderous site.  He didn't have to further embarrass her, or mock her. SMH.  I don't get it.

First of all: Yikes!
Second: So glad I didn't see any of my covers there!
Third: Maybe the negative publicity will cause a spike in sales...?

Just plain nasty

So: I have no dog in the fight. . .I have no book covers to be mocked.

But I think this sort of thing is mean spirited.  It's all fun and games until one of you find YOUR cover there -- a fear that has been expressed several times.  And then there will be hurt feelings.

Really, what's the value in laughing at other people because you find them inferior. Does it make you feel better? Because, to me, laughing at their book covers is the same as laughing at them.  It's bully behavior and unattractive.

Hi all,

I was reminded of the razzies - where the "worst" performances in movies are "honoured". While of course not really an honour when you've won, the whole process is not necessarily mean and some actors show up and accept the "trophy". I do think that by reacting in a positive way to this kind of publicity (who said: "There is no bad publicity"?) does not necessarily hurt your product, but actually can indeed give additional impetus to sales.
As well, some covers are made trashy on purpose. The cover should fit the book, and "trash" fiction is out there for a reason - some people like to read it.
All the best,

Yves

Ann in Arlington said:

So: I have no dog in the fight. . .I have no book covers to be mocked.

But I think this sort of thing is mean spirited. It's all fun and games until one of you find YOUR cover there -- a fear that has been expressed several times. And then there will be hurt feelings.

Really, what's the value in laughing at other people because you find them inferior. Does it make you feel better? Because, to me, laughing at their book covers is the same as laughing at them. It's bully behavior and unattractive.

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^ This.

Mockery is never nice but it's better to know than to not know. Originally the owner of this site offered free cover re-makes to every author featured on the site who approached him, which was a nice gesture.

Yeah, it doesn't really help this guy's case that some of these covers aren't really bad. Aesthetics is in the eye of the beholder, even with cover designs. (I know my book covers look really unconventional and simple, but that's intentional.)

The thing is, it's really easy to be what's commonly known as a "caustic critic" (insert joke about TVTropes here), because sadly some people just find that funny, despite not actually helping the people who need it.

Originally the owner of this site offered free cover re-makes to every author featured on the site who approached him, which was a nice gesture.

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I may be cynical, but I don't see that as much as a nice gesture as an attempt to drum up customers and publicity for a cover design business. If someone criticized my cover publicly and offered me a new one, I would suspect ulterior motives and decline. But I'm the suspicious type *shrugs*.

As a continually-recovering "bad cover" miscreant, I have sympathy for people who, like me, can't tell if their covers are any good. Like writing, design is one of those endeavours where you need to already be good to tell if you're any good.

I don't think calling a cover "lousy" or other disparaging comments will ever endear someone to you or your design work.

Many fine examples of what not to do on that site.  

Of course, I had to go through every page to make sure none of mine were on there.    That would have been embarrassing, for sure. I need to put redoing covers closer to the top of my To-Do list, to prevent future inclusion.

I have to say, though, that the cover featured on 12/31/12 hasn't seemed to harm the book -- the ranking is fantastic, and so is the author's ranking. The guy must be doing something right.

** never mind, the site could be construed as mean-spirited or cruel -- it didn't seem that way to me, but I don't want to defend anything I don't know personally about the site or owner**

Good for you, Italianhaircolor. I agree with you one hundred per cent. It's just bullying. The guy is trying to drum up business by putting other people down. By the way, when I looked at that Amazon author's book page, someone had posted a nasty review, blaming her for being upset. So the bullying has escalated. I hope Amazon removes the 'personal' review.

Ann in Arlington said:

But I think this sort of thing is mean spirited. It's all fun and games until one of you find YOUR cover there -- a fear that has been expressed several times. And then there will be hurt feelings.

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Not necessarily. It's one thing to have a bad cover, but to have one of the, uh, best bad covers, should... be an honor... or something... right?

George Berger said:

Not necessarily. It's one thing to have a bad cover, but to have one of the, uh, best bad covers, should... be an honor... or something... right?

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I disagree. Anytime you're putting someone else down to build yourself up, you're being a bully. And even if the person takes it well, it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. And it's not nice.

I am certainly not above chuckling privately with my friends over really horrible covers, but doing it publicly seems kind of dumb.  ESPECIALLY if one intends to sell design work, as he does.  I checked out his design site, and while his designs are nice, he hasn't got a lot of them yet.  Like me, it seems he's pretty early into this venture.  I suspect that going into it mocking other covers isn't the smartest way to get a start in this biz.  But time will tell. 

ElHawk said:

I checked out his design site, and while his designs are nice, he hasn't got a lot of them yet. Like me, it seems he's pretty early into this venture. I suspect that going into it mocking other covers isn't the smartest way to get a start in this biz. But time will tell.

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Makes you wonder what the cover of the "Better Living Through Linkbait: 250 Secret Social Media Marketing Ideas The Pro's Will Never Tell You!" ebook he read was like, doesn't it?

--George, don't yell at me, Julie, the misplaced apostrophe is completely intentional...