Friday 22 April 2011

Book Cover Series


Aren't these beautiful? There's something about book covers designed in series that sends me wild. I love it. I have frequently considered buying a copy of a book I already own just because it goes better with the other books by that author.

They don't even have to be that spectacular. The collective, bordered covers of Michal Chabon's novels are fantastic, but these fairly simple Christopher Brookmyre covers still make me sick with envy when I browse them in a bookshop.

The fact that the amazing McCarthy covers have blurb-quotes as part of their very design is no coincidence, I think. A major draw of the uniform covers is the badge of excellence they represent. This author is good enough to have his back catalogue reissued; and this author's back catalogue is expected to appeal to a more intense reader -- the sort who care that their books match. Cormac McCarthy's novels, by the way, are expected to appeal to the type of reader who runs his fingers across the embossed bumpiness of words on covers.



If I'm entirely honest, I don't just appreciate these covers; I aspire to them. They are how I concieve of writerly success. An author has made it when they have arty-designy uniform back catalogue reissues. My real ambition as a writer, then, is not to get millions of readers (it's more vain), it's not to write the Great Novel Of Our Time (much less ambitious), it's to look pretty damn fantastic oin my own shelves, if nobody elses.

9 comments:

  1. Those McCarthy covers are fantastic. I think you're right that an author has made it when their back catalogue is reissued with new matching covers.

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  2. Yeah, the McCarthy covers are great. I have The Road with a different (not movie) cover, and I'm seriously contemplating getting another copy in the embossed wordy series.

    Browsing your blog, I realised I didn't mention something I was planning to -- actual series novels, and their covers. Because Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series have incredible covers.

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  3. I love the Thursday Next and his Nursery Crime covers. Which TN covers do you like, the American or Brit versions?

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  4. I have the Brit ones... I've just had a browse of the American covers on GoodReads, and I don't like them as much.

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  5. Everyone seems to prefer the Brit ones but I actually like the American ones.

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  6. They look like pretty clever images on the American ones, but I love the sheer colour and pulpy fullness of the UK versions. They just look so exciting.

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  7. Great book covers can really convince me to buy. It's basically a work of art you know.

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  8. Work of art is right. And you HAVE to judge a book by it's cover, that's what the cover is for.

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  9. I've definitely picked books up by awesome cover art alone. The McCarthy ones, with the blurbs, are basically shouting how great the book is. Classics get reissued with fancy covers all the time, and it's fitting that these "modern classics" get new, artsy covers.

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