Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Trends in cover design


I was looking to borrow a new E-book from the library and saw that they have a "collection" of more than 100 books of World War 2 fiction.  Recent fiction about WW2, that is, not fiction written during WW2.  And I hadn't scrolled very far down the page before I started noticing a trend in cover design.

Perhaps you can notice it too:


































Until now, I did not realize that WW2 fiction is so popular.  Nor did I realize that we apparently have no idea whether people in those days even had faces, let alone what they might have looked like.


9 comments:

  1. Yes, I noticed that since you mentioned it. The thing that fries me with a lot of the new books is "The Girl" is in way too many titles and it absolutely turns me off. I liked the original "Girl" books but hate that other authors tried to capitalize it.
    Happy Halloween.
    xx, Carol

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  2. Perhaps it’s easier to imagine ourselves as the protagonists if we cannot see their faces? Amazing, though, how every cover was a landscape in the background and figures facing away in the foreground!

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  3. It's sunbonnet sue! Maybe there is mystery that leads you to want more? Maybe they are just easier to draw without faces.

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  4. this gave me the giggles...so many backsides

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  5. About 10 or 15 years ago, I noticed a trend toward using feet on book covers -- with painted toenails, flip flops, high heels, etc.

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  6. People with faces cost more to put on a cover.....

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  7. All with their backs to the wall. I wonder why, just a trend perhaps?

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  8. Boy that sure displays a complete lack of creativity in the field of cover design!

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  9. Is it possible it's the difference between fiction and non-fiction? The book I'm reading now, Code Girls, has a photograph with the young women's faces on the cover.

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