Cover Cafe is hosting the 2009 Cover Contest (formerly hosted by All About Romance). If you want to weigh in on which covers should win their categories, hop on over and take a gander. Categories “covered” include Alternate Reality, the Two-Image Cover, Historical, Contemporary, Series, and Worst Cover.
As an author, I didn’t vote for Worst Cover. Authors have little to zero control over their cover art, and I don’t feel it’s good sportsmanship for writers to bash each others’ covers. Readers, however, that’s another story. A reader voting on a Worst Cover might give a heads-up to that particular publisher’s art department to, um, try another tact. Or is that tack? Hmm…
You need to provide your name and email address when you vote, and you need to vote in a minimum of three categories for your votes to be eligible. So if you don’t want to do any of those things…you can look and wonder at and mock to your heart’s contest, but you can’t vote.
Oh, if you wish, you can also provide the reason you love or hate the cover you choose to win a particular category. A little box pops up for this purpose. Plus, here’s a link to the Dear Publisher blog, where you can leave more general comments about the covers.
I voted. I hit every category but historical because none of those covers really jumped out at me. I did vote in the ‘worst’ category because I figure if we don’t start telling publishers that certain covers are awful, then they’ll keep foisting crap like that on helpless writers. Seriously, what were some of those art departments thinking? A man should never have a train coming out of his… well, you know. And the web covered one with the screaming woman? That look was bad enough on 50’s b-movie posters.
Anyway, I only saw one book I’d read. How bad a little reader does that make me?
B.E., that’s a good point about the Worst Covers category. I didn’t think of it that way. I just thought how bad I’d feel if I were the author of one of those covers, knowing that despite what I put on my art fact sheet, I wound up with…something bad.
I don’t think I’ve read any of the books listed! So that makes me a worse reader than you, LOL.
I tried to skip the worst cover category, but the site wouldn’t take my ballot until I’d voted. Readers are free to do what they want, but I don’t think it’s professional for authors to pick on each other.
I hope more readers become aware that we have very little control over our covers and even our titles with some publishers.
Ye gods. Someone please take the ‘ out of wan’t. My eyes can’t follow the teeny tiny type. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it. 🙂
LOL, Alice, it’s fixed!! I agree with you about the tiny type. I’ve gotten used to it since getting my new computer. I must update my blog’s style sheet one of these days so the type for the comments is larger, but the last time I updated my stylesheet I made a mistake that left my blog open to vulnerabilities. Now I’m leery.
Well, I will get to it. Just have too much on my plate!
It is “tack,” as in direction, from the sailing term. 🙂
Why, thank you. Now I can stop being “tact”ful.