Bad Book Covers

I receive several e-mails a week from different sites wanting me to feature something on my blog. Appoximately 99% of those e-mails clearly come from spanners who have no idea that a blog called In Bed With Books is about books.

OnlineCollege.org maintains a blog about a variety of topics designed to interest college students. Doesn't really line up with IBWB, but the article I received an e-mail about does fit my interests: 25 Worst Book Covers of All Time.  I'm impressed by the variety of genres covered, though most of the books are pulpy SF.  It's so easy to make fun of pulpy SF covers.

But I'm always interested in cover conversations.  After all, different people have different tastes.  Although some cover art is brilliant or awful no matter what.

Judge a Book by Its Cover is a hilarious blog by a former librarian Maughta (and a few others). If you think you know hideous book covers, wait to be astouded by the depths of awful she and her compatriarts have illuminated.

The famous Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog frequently features awful romance covers.  (Cheesy romance covers come close to being as bad as pulpy SF covers.)

The super interesting Jacket Whys is another librarian blog.  She examines trends in children's and young adult book covers, whether they be good or bad. She also compares different editions of a book to track which covers work best.

I can't think of a cover I truly hate off the top of my head, but I love this one for Golden Fool by Robin Hobb.



It's detailed, beautifully colored, and the image directly relates to the contents of the book.  Plus, it shows a little skin without being faux sexy or impossible to carry on the bus without embarrassment.

Oh wait, I thought of a bad cover.



So, what covers do you hate or love?

Review: Burning Ambition (+ Contest)

By Jonathan Bernstein
Read my interview
Available now from Razorbill
Review copy

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
-from "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats

BURNING AMBITION begins much quicker and with more excitement than HOTTIE. Unfortunately, the Department of Hotness has peaked (which you can read in an excerpt here). There are no supervillians in Beverley Hills and soon the friends begin fighting. Dorinda and Kellyn both fall for David. T, the boyfriend, insults Alison. So, Alison hangs up her crime fighting gear to become an intern at her favorite magazine, Jen.

At first things go well. But fifteen-year-old editor Pixie Furmanovsky is close to the edge due to her father's neglect . . . and then she gains superpowers. But the Department of Hotness is in no shape to keep her at bay - they lack the convention to stop her passionate intensity. To win the day, the young teens will have to overcome their hormones to take down the tyke tycoon, and we all know how difficult that is when you're fifteen.

Sometimes BURNING AMBITION gets anvilicious. Ignoring your friends is bad. Ignoring a single coworker is bad. Ignoring your children is bad. Torturing people to get them to date you is bad. (Okay, so the last isn't really anvilicious. But it bears repeating.) Of course, BURNING AMBITION needs a strong moral center to counter-act the running joke of pee-filled balloons.

On the other hand, BURNING AMBITION is mostly just a fun and quick read. Alison isn't a typical post-THE DARK NIGHT RETURNS superhero. She's a girl into fashion and her boyfriend, who sometimes has trouble helping her friends with their issues because she's too wrapped up in her own. Though the friends have issues, they fit well together. Unlike most books I can take the main characters fighting with each other because they take steps to be happy. As mentioned above, when upset with her boyfriend, Alison finds a job that she finds fulfilling. Yes, she wants to reconcile with him, but she doesn't just lay around moping about it. Or the fighting works because it's cartoony. Kellyn and Dorinda definitely go over the top trying to win the boy.

If you need something quick this summer, you might want to pick up HOTTIE and BURNING AMBITION. Both are good beach reads. And when you read them on the beach, no one you know will see the atrocious covers.

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I have two copies to giveaway. This is a lightning contest: first two to comment get it.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Burning Ambition

I've been sitting on this cover since June, but it's time to discuss a HOTTIE cover once more. (Yes, that has has been done here three times. But the trailer is still a saving grace.)

Now, I am looking forward to the sequel. I enjoyed HOTTIE. I appreciate that this cover matches the redesigned HOTTIE cover, since branding is important to realizing two books belong together.

Let's build up, no?

The background: Simple, but fun. The blue balances the brightness of the red and yellow, and the contrast illuminates how the two figures in the foreground oppose each other.

The foreground: Love the expressions - these girls clearly don't think much of each other. But the clothes! I don't think there's a summary yet, but I've determined the plot is from their outfits:

Superheroine Hottie has a new nemesis, but she doesn't know who. She narrows it down to the Valley, given the girl's propensity for wearing a gold elastic belt over a yellow polyester prom dress - with a hair accessory that is so 2000. To blend in, Hottie throws a pleather jacket over her LBD and replaces her "H" with a "U" for "Undercover." She's going to show this hot mess the literal meaning of the words. But her nemesis has a burning ambition to escape the world of itchy, synthetic fabric clad villainy . . . and you can't fight fire with fire.

The typography: I like the tagline and author name, but wish a more exciting but complimentary script had been used for the title treatment. As is, it's easy to read but boring and doesn't balance out the figures on the bottom half of the cover. Maybe if the font were smaller and the girls took up more of the cover.

What do ya'll think?

ETA: Actual summary from Amazon:

Alison Cole and the Department of Hotness are back and ready for action in the sizzling sequel to Hottie—all about a Beverly Hills princess who can shoot fire from her fingertips!
Ever since defeating her evil stepmother, Carmen, Alison’s life has been totally fla-mazing. But when she wins a coveted internship at Jen Magazine, she’ll have to take on fifteen-year-old Editor-in-Chief Pixie Furmanovsky—the biggest Superbrat the world has ever seen! Pixie always gets what she wants, and now she’s after Alison’s boyfriend, T!

Can Hottie give little miss BratGirl a Super Sweet Sixteen that she’ll never forget? Or is this Superteen about to get superfired?

Current release date is 6 April 2010.

Hottie: Third Time's a Charm?

I told you it was coming, and it showed up in my e-mail inbox today.



I love the expression on the model's face. (Off course, I've always had a thing for photos that look more like a candid than posed smiley.) Her pose causes her neck to be a little lost, but I can live with that. I love that the dress is classier than on the previous cover. I think it would look even better with the background flipped, so that she's highlighted by all that yellow and the part that is unobscured is the interesting pink and orange striation. (I do love the colors - bright, eye-catching, not too girly.) But as we know from experience, it could be worse.

For comparison, here are the ARC and original paperback covers:

Which do you like best? What do you see as the pros and cons of the new cover? Do you believe it will attract teens and bookstore buyers more than the previous two attempts? Or do you think this one is a step *back*? Don't forget to read my interview with Jonathan Bernstein, where he explains his feelings on the original cover change. Or to read my review of the novel, in which I deliver a point-by-point explanation of why I hated the second cover.

Coming Soon . . .

Since I've made my burning hate of the HOTTIE cover clear, Jonathan Bernstein e-mailed me to say HOTTIE is getting a new cover. I hope the new one will appeal to both YA readers and bookstore buyers!

(Check out the trailer, which is pretty cool.)



Sorry I went silent - I've been in transit for days now. I'm vacationing right after finals, so I had no time to pre-write posts. So be prepared for whatever I come up with while I'm away!

Review: Hottie

By Jonathan Bernstein
Read my interview with the author.



Just because I can't ignore it, let's look at the original cover:



Why does this cover work better?

1. The clothes are classier. Hottie's outfit was inspired by her style idol Audrey Hepburn, who would wear a little black dress with pearls - but not one that looks like a bagged Halloween costume.

2. The orange is brighter than the light pink, making the whole thing pop more. You know what happens to books that pop? People pick them up.

3. The girl is a cartoon, a nice homage to the fact superheroes are mostly found in graphic novels and animated shows. It gives a hint of the contents and taps into one of the hottest markets. Many local bookstores and libraries have been expanding their graphic novel/manga sections.

4. Young adults like it better. (So do adults who read young adult literature.) HOTTIE is a young adult book. You see where I'm going here?

More power to Penguin, for doing what they needed to do to get the book in stores. But bookstore buyers, I must ask you: Really? Really?

But hey, we all know not to judge a book by its cover. It's the content that matters. And I was almost as worried about the content as the cover a couple of chapters in. The first sweeps through the head of several characters of varying importance, as Alison receives news of her election. None of the characters come off as particularly sympathetic. Alison then gives in to her friends manipulation to get plastic surgery - at fourteen.

But when her bad decision goes wrong, HOTTIE gets moving. There's a wonderful sequence of destruction as Alison discovers her new flamability, at which point she realizes she needs the help of her high school's comic book geek, David. Their adventures together help Alison become less shallow and David more self-actualized. (Plus, their driver - an older teen who can be paid to chauffer people to parties - gets off some of the best lines.) Then she discovers her arch nemesis: Wettie. (So they don't know her powers . . . it makes sense.)

I really enjoyed how the love triangle was done. Both boys were nice, cared about Alison for Alison, although one had the advantage of knowing her secret identity. Love triangles work much better when there's reasonable belief either of the choices could win fair maiden. (I'm looking at you TWILIGHT.)

After the disastrous beginning chapters, HOTTIE becomes a funny and entertaining story. There's crime-fighting, friendship drama, family drama, and romantic drama. Pretty much any kind of drama you can think of, which is a nice counterpoint to the comedic elements. Jonathan Bernstein likes to make pop culture references, most of which blend in fine, except for an unfortunate one to Chris Brown. Of course, I read my copy shortly after the news broke so the reference will likely become less jarring as time goes on.

I'm partial to superhero stories, but even taking that bias into account I enjoyed HOTTIE and stayed up late to finish it. The ending is a little far-fetched, but I like how it calls back to an earlier important conversation in the novel enough to accept it.

HOTTIE is available now, and is Bernstein's debut novel. He's also a screenwriter, so you can enjoy his talents with the movies JUST MY LUCK and MAX KEEBLE'S BIG MOVE. His blog is linked to above, as is my blogiversary/birthday interview with him.

Interview with Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein is a screenwriter (Just My Luck, Max Keeble's Big Move) and the author of April release HOTTIE. Apparently, if you want to write you should be named Jonathan Bernstein because there's a bunch of them out there. But I did know which one I was interviewing . . . or did I?

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1. HOTTIE changes POV, but one of the main narrators is the eponymous supergirl. What were some details in developing an authentic voice?

It's always a tricky situation when you've got a not-teenage not-female author writing in the voice of a teenage girl. You can usually sense when the writer is working out his own adolescent issues. It's hard to avoid stereotyping when your lead character is both the most popular girl in school AND a superhero who can burn down buildings with her fingertips, but I tried to keep her as sympathetic and flawed and real as possible.



2. The ARC featured a cartoon girl, but the final is a photo. Do you know why the change was made? Which cover do you prefer?

I'm not going to lie, I ENORMOUSLY preferred the former cover. When I saw the replacement, I felt like someone had squeezed lemon juice in my eye. My understanding is that the big book chains were reluctant to order copies of the original version. As a debuting author, you want to be a team player but, at the same time EVERY YA blogger in the universe-- and this is a pretty uncritical community-- has heaped derision on it. My standard reply is that if you hate the cover, hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised by the contents. But the phrase `don't judge a book by it's cover' exists because everybody judges book by their covers all the time!

3. Why a superhero novel? Do you read comics/graphic novels? Any favorites?

It was more of a reaction to the spate of terrible humorless female superhero movies that came out a few years ago: Catwoman, Elektra, Aeon Flux, plus the Birds of Prey TV series. I'm not a huge comic book geek but I'd definitely class myself as a fan of "Love & Rockets" and "Heartbreak Soup" by the Hernandez Brothers, Ai Yazawa's "Nana" manga and some of Adrian Tomine's stuff.

4. You're a screenwriter and journalist as well as an author. What are some differences among the mediums? Which is your favorite to work within?

Whichever one I'm currently doing, I wish I was doing the other one. If I get to a scene in a book that requires me to describe a character's house, I have to describe the house. If I'm writing a screenplay, all I have to do is write the word house. Which is very appealing to a lazy guy. However, a screenplay is more than likely only going to be read by a handful of people all of whom will have strong opinions on how to mangle it. A book is all you and will ultimately reach some kind of audience.

5. Several authors in this event live in LA. Any theories on why LA attracts YA novelists?

Some were born here. Some moved for the climate and the lifestyle. The other 95% came here to work in movies and TV. Then they made the move into fiction. YA is attractive because the market is so vast but it's also challenging because the audience is discerning.

6. When I googled you to write these questions, I discovered the other Jonathan Bernstein. How do you feel about another writer running around with your name?

There's more than just one. There's another screenwriter (he wrote the Jerry Springer movie `Ringmaster'), there's one that writes military books, one who authors books on public relations, specifically crisis management. If we get together and pool our resources, we could take over the world!

7. It must be asked: what superpower would you like to have and why?

You know how they say you only have one chance to make a first impression? What if you had more than one? What if it didn't matter that you cracked bad jokes or walked into the furniture or had pieces of broccoli stuck to your teeth because you could erase the horrible first impression you'd made and get a do over? That would be my power. Maybe I'd be called The Imp. Or just Imp.

8. HOTTIE features a mix of the popular and unpopular kids. Which group did you belong to in high school?

Like you have to ask. I wasn't horribly unpopular but you don't go grow up as the only Jew in a Scottish school without earning a few scars along the way.

9. What are some of your favorite books? Which authors do you think influenced your style?

"The Rachel Papers" by Martin Amis. "Good As Gold" by Joseph Heller. "We Need To Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. "The Crimson Petal And The White" by Michael Faber. In terms of my own influences, I'd say it was very clearly John Hughes and Joss Whedon.

10. You're clearly somewhat pop-culture obsessed. How would you describe your taste?

Like that of a demented, schizophrenic 12 year -old girl.. Favorite album: The Lexicon Of Love by ABC. Favorite Movies: The Apartment,The Breakfast Club. Favorite TV Shows: Chuck,Peep Show. Favorite Group: Girls Aloud.

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I like his superhero name. Personally, I'd got for omnipotence. (It's cheating, I know.) Be sure to watch out for my review of HOTTIE, coming in April.

(Also, just look at the covers. Maybe the bookstore buyers were high, because what teen wouldn't pick up the cute cartoon over the girl wearing polyester?)

And be sure to return for the announcement of the first batch o' winners.