Aptly titled new Tumblr "Lousy Book Covers" collects the delightfully dubious achievements in jacket design. The book Spending Christmas With a Yeti is already at a marketplace disadvantage, what with that title, but then there’s the book cover. Oh boy, where to start. The real-life snowcapped mountain intruded upon by a clip-art Ford Explorer and what looks like an albino King Kong drawing? The puke-green background behind the title? Fortunately, for our amusement at least, it was efforts like this one for which the "Lousy Book Covers" Tumblr was made. In an age of consumer-as-creator, it’s sometimes fun to see the self-generated works that aren’t soaring aesthetic achievements. Creator Nathan Shumate is a writer and artist who also--wait for it--designs book covers. This expertise gives him special insight into what makes these book covers so bad, but anyone can plainly see that perhaps Chip Kidd was not called in on these jobs. Most covers featured on the site look like self-published works gone horribly wrong. Of course, the major publishing houses are also capable of putting out the occasional clunker every now and then.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2013-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
Last year not only marked the twentieth publication anniversary of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, it also saw the release of his first novel in seven years, Crossroads. So it was only fitting that Picador would embark on a redesign of the author’s backlist. We spoke with Alex Merto, the art... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-17 08:54:52 UTC ]
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Samsung's newest tablets have only been available for a few weeks, but they're already receiving discounts on Amazon. You can snag both the Galaxy Tab S8 and S8+ for less right now thanks to clippable coupons that knock $50 and $75 off the tablets, respectively. Just make sure to clip the coupon... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-03-09 14:54:03 UTC ]
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Another month of books, another month of book covers. This February, while short on days, was long on eye-catching cover art—from the moody to the playfully nostalgic to the downright naughty. Below, my favorite book covers from February. Colorful blobs are a certified cover trend, but it’s the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:51:41 UTC ]
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Along with announcing the Galaxy S22 lineup, Samsung has refreshed its range of tablets — which some folks already had an inkling about after earlierleaks. For the first time, Samsung is introducing an Ultra tablet, which aligns with the Ultra branding the company slaps on its highest-end... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-02-09 15:00:19 UTC ]
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People turn to large Android tablets for streaming and even work, and Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S8 family of tablets—with screens now up to 14.1 inches—offer massive, detailed displays for both consuming and creating content. While the large panels can feel a little awkward in tablet mode,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2022-02-09 15:00:00 UTC ]
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While 2022 may have started with a whimper when it comes to the things that really matter—voting rights, filibuster reform, vaccines for children under 5, a robust and timely government pandemic response—it also started with some pretty nice-looking books. This month, my favorite book covers are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-28 09:51:39 UTC ]
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On January 14, 1963, poet Sylvia Plath published her first novel in England under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas.” The book had a positive but relatively quiet reception; only a few weeks after its publication, on February 11, Plath would die by suicide. It wasn’t published in the US until 1971,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-14 09:50:32 UTC ]
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Last week, the Electric Lit team stayed glued to our phone screens as we tasked our social media followers with anointing the best book cover of 2021. The tournament was full of close calls determined by razor-thin margins (Mona at Sea prevailed over Black Girl Call Home by just five votes in... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Back by popular demand, Electric Literature is hosting our second annual “Best Book Cover of the Year” tournament, where readers determine which cover designs impressed in 2021. Just as the Italian Renaissance was born of the bubonic plague, will covid’s enduring grasp on society inspire... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of heated discourse surrounding a trend in book covers in which many new releases opt for variations of the same colorful abstractions: The Blob. Somehow deemed appropriate for everything from dystopian debuts to literary fiction bestsellers, these... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Do you know who translated your favorite foreign-language novel? Whoever did wants you to know—as soon as you pick up the book, in fact. That’s why translators are demanding that book publishers credit them on the front covers of the books they translate. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-10-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling authors including Bernardine Evaristo, Sebastian Faulks and Preti Taneja have called on writers to ask their publishers for translator names to appear on book covers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-30 06:26:35 UTC ]
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Amazon is rolling out a software update for its Kindle, Paperwhite and Oasis devices that could make them easier to use. The company announced the changes will be arriving in the coming weeks for Kindles 8th-generation and later, Paperwhites 7th-generation and newer as well as the Oasis... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-10 22:45:31 UTC ]
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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