I do a Friday Fronts post every week. Clearly I'm a coverwhore. I wear the tag loud and proud.
That said, if I walk into Barnes and Noble and see one more blue cover with some sort of sad girl or guy on it, I'm going to scream.
What happened, cover designers? Was there a giant meeting of cover designers where you all decided to start making similar covers with similar designs on them? I get it; contemporaries need to have a girl on it or two people nearly kissing. Paranormals need to be blue or black with sad people on them. Or look like Twilight covers!
That got me thinking; how is that the people who aren't obsessed with books pick out what to read when they go to the bookstore? They don't use GoodReads or read blogs to know what to pick up ahead of time; they don't always have recommendations from friends.
When in doubt, turn to my sister.
My sister Sami and her best friend Jayme enjoy reading. Not enough to read blogs or use Goodreads, but enough to keep books in their room and to consider a trip to Barnes and Noble a good outing. They both have different tastes in books, too; Sami likes realistic contemporaries ("Not romance! I don't like romance books!" She really does.) and Jayme reads anything that has a werewolf/vampire/something paranormal with some romance in it. (Yes, Jayme is a Twilight fangirl. My sister hates Twilight. I don't understand their friendship.)
And it turns out, when you don't know what to pick up, you become a coverwhore.
We ended up talking about covers as we went through the YA section of B&N and I asked them to pick up two covers of books that stood out to them that they would pick up to read.
This is what they picked up.
[picture here]
When asked why, they simply said they thought the covers were cool. Jayme, who chose Spoiled said she liked the bright colors; Sami (What Comes After) said she liked how simple but pretty it was.
They both agreed that all paranormal romances look pretty much the same.
So what's going on, cover designers? I have to agree with them; I like those covers much better than a lot of other covers I've seen lately. I want more bright colors and more fun fonts and more interesting covers. Please stop looking the same. Do try to stand out.
What are some of YOUR favorite covers? Least favorite?
And don't forget to check out That Cover Girl; I love and agree with pretty much all of her posts.
