Book cover clichés: have you spotted recurrent designs?

Certain themes and stories seem to be packaged with a particular aesthetic. Have you spotted this trend? Share your examplesWhy is it that books about Africa always look the same? A recent article on the blog Africa is a Country demonstrated that "the covers of most novels 'about Africa' seem to have been designed by someone whose principal idea of the continent comes from The Lion King" - reducing it, no matter the subject, geographical area or writer, to an acacia tree and a sunset. This followed a Twitterstorm triggered by a tweet from SimonMStevens:Like so many (wildly varying) writers on Africa, Adichie gets the acacia tree sunset treatment... (@AfricasaCountry) pic.twitter.com/zMQtirfrQ9.@SimonMStevens @AfricasaCountry See also soulful-black-woman-with-colourful-smudges e.g. UK pb eds of Adichie's bks. pic.twitter.com/bt7kUcaP06There is a peculiar phenomenon in English-language publishing in Southeast Asia: a ubiquitous genre perhaps best thought of as Asian sleaze. It spans fiction and non-fiction, but the cover generally features a partially clothed woman with long black hair, either in silhouette, or viewed from behind. The title is usually something along the lines of Bangkok Velvet. The author is always a white man. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #english-language publishing #southeast asia #white man

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Cover design round-up: May 2021

Welcome to our highlights from the mailbag of books published in May. We're a little late to the party here, so we'll keep things brief. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-10 19:39:36 UTC ]
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How Inclusive Is That Diverse Book Cover, Though?

As more and more books for middle grade and YA readers showcase ensemble casts, why do they lack visible disability representation? Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-04-26 10:31:00 UTC ]
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In the Instagram age, you actually can judge a book by its cover

Social media is now a vital platform to promote new titles. And that means jacket designs that hit you ‘hard and quick’Last week’s big literary event was not the publication of a new book, the million-pound signing of a celebrity author or the announcement of a prestigious prize. Instead, it was... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-04-18 09:00:04 UTC ]
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Infographic: The Most Instagrammed Book Covers

OnBuy.com, a U.K. marketplace similar to eBay or OfferUp, searched Instagram and determined that the book cover most often appearing on the social media site was Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' with 181,000 posts. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Cover design round-up: March 2021

Onto March, and with any luck, you'll soon be able to find some of the covers in our monthly round-up on the shelves of your local bookshop before too long. A fine treat it will be too, as there are plenty of lively illustrated children's jackets here, as well as a handful of lovely treatments... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 12:50:29 UTC ]
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Villarosa Joins Tattered Cover to Curate BIPOC Books

Clara Villarosa, the founder of two iconic bookstores, the Hue-Man Experience in Denver and the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore & Cafe in New York City, will curate BIPOC books for the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Judging a Book Cover by Its Color

When you look at your shelves, do you see a dominant color scheme? Dive into the world of book cover colors and what they may denote. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-02-09 11:33:00 UTC ]
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The 14 most important books for designers to read right now

Experts from IDEO, Adobe, SVA, HOK, Designer Fund, and more share book recommendations for designers who want to expand their horizons in 2021 and beyond. Designers in 2021 face some of the biggest challenges of their careers as they help rebuild a society torn asunder by COVID-19, economic... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2021-01-22 06:00:37 UTC ]
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BBC Two book club series 'Between the Covers' to return

BBC Two's weekly book club series “Between the Covers”, hosted by Sara Cox, is returning for a second series this spring. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-18 14:17:16 UTC ]
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Is the next book cover trend . . . rainbows?

As I was scrolling through Lit Hub’s massive 2021 preview, I noticed something: Rainbows. Specifically, several books featuring full-cover, highly saturated, blurrily blended rainbows. I can only assume, considering that rainbows are generally considered to be a) pretty b) gay and c) paths to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-08 18:00:44 UTC ]
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Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s Book Cover of the Year Tournament

This week, readers on Electric Literature’s Twitter and Instagram voted to narrow a field of 32 beautiful book covers down to their favorite of the year. Some of the margins were razor-thin—in particular, both Sin Eater vs. The Exhibition of Persephone Q in round one and Animal Wife vs. Follow... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-07 12:00:36 UTC ]
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Help Us Pick the Best Book Cover of 2020

This hasn’t been an easy year for sustained, careful reading. But you know what doesn’t take any attention at all? Judging a book by its cover! That’s why we’re doing our first ever “best book cover of the year” tournament—and we want you to weigh in. Vote for your favorites on Electric... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-30 12:00:30 UTC ]
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What a Book Cover Can Do

As a physical component of the book, the cover is a skin, a membrane, and a safeguard: paper jackets protect hardback boards from scuffing and sun damage, while paperback covers not only hold the book together but also keep its sheets clean and safe from tearing. In the past, paper jackets were... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-25 09:49:15 UTC ]
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Beautiful Book Cover Posters For Your Walls

Movie posters have always had a space on walls. Why not also add some rad book cover posters, too? Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-11-11 11:37:00 UTC ]
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Easing the Path for Black Book Designers

Dominique Jones has long been the only Black designer on her team. Enter Black Book Designers, which Jones founded this summer as a way to reach other designers in publishing who shared her isolation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The 10 Best Book Covers of October

Another month of books, another month of book covers. Disproving—somewhat—the theory that we can’t have nice things, this month of the ongoing apocalypse brought us quite a few very good book covers, from the frankly gorgeous to the inescapably charming. My favorites, which I will be using to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 08:49:55 UTC ]
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Arsène Wenger's story guns into top spot amid strong book sales

Arsene Wenger's My Life in Red and White (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) has immediately lifted the trophy in the UK Official Top 50, scoring the number one spot with 35,297 copies sold in its launch week. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-19 21:24:07 UTC ]
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2020 is the year of enormous pink lady faces on book covers.

This year has brought a lot of things, and most of them have been bad. One good thing, though, is there has been quite been a lot of innovative, beautiful, and fascinating book cover design, including, I’ve recently noticed, a book cover trend that I’d like to call “enormous pink lady faces.” In... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-01 15:33:42 UTC ]
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BBC2's Between the Covers book choices unveiled

Matt Haig's latest novel, The Midnight Library (Canongate), and Bolu Babalola's story collection Love in Colour (Headline) are among the seven books that will be featured on the new BBC2 book club programme "Between the Covers", hosted by Sara Cox. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-08 09:58:36 UTC ]
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Lockdown diaries: the book designer

The weekend before the government announced the lockdown I was due to go to Bristol to visit a friend, and a few days earlier we’d been notified at the office that we would be working from home for the next few weeks (of course little did we know, five months later we still would be!). I... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-13 19:28:24 UTC ]
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