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New Site Mocks Bad Artwork On Ebook Covers

Posted by timothy on from the modern-dorm-room-posters dept.

An anonymous reader writes A British newspaper is celebrating "the world's worst ebook artwork", as discovered by the creator of a new Tumblr feed. 'It's the hubris of it that people get a kick out of — the devil-may-care attitude of an author who, with zero arts training, says to themselves: "How hard can it be?" Two different authors simply cut-and-pasted smaller images over a background showing the planets, according to one Kindle blog, which notes that one author actually pasted eyes and lips onto the planets, creating an inadvertently creepy montage. But the site's creator tells the newspaper that it's ultimately meant to be an affectionate tribute to their rejection of the mundane and appreciating each creative and beautiful mess.

44 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. I've seen worse... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

    I've seen worse artwork (or simply no artwork whatsoever) on e-books from reputable authors and publishers. Perhaps because they didn't have the rights to distribute the original artwork of the print version electronically, they just slapped on something they had lying around.

    At least most of them have stopped charging more for electronic versions of a book... And they even sell them outside the US now.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    1. Re:I've seen worse... by taustin · · Score: 2

      I've seen worse on paperbacks. Baen is famous for their bad covers, though the non-US ones are far, far worse. This, for instance.

    2. Re:I've seen worse... by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      I've seen worse on paperbacks. Baen is famous for their bad covers, though the non-US ones are far, far worse. This, for instance.

      Yep. Darrell Sweet's stereotypical covers were stiffly posed and had a certain aura that some of the characters could benefit from seeing a dermatologist.

      I don't even want to THINK of what the average cover for a bodice-ripper featuring Highlanders, Lords, cowboys or werewolves is like (other than basically all alike).

    3. Re:I've seen worse... by rochrist · · Score: 1

      Eh. Baen's just often exhibit bad taste.. But it's well-executed bad taste. And it does do it's job. You can indentify ANY Baen book simply by looking at the spine.

  2. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Funny you got first post with that comment...it's EXACTLY what I came here to post. That, and "Pounded by the Biker Rainbow Come to Life...first time gay paranormal m/m taboo" by "Max Wood".

  3. Novelty Effect by Himmy32 · · Score: 1

    By having over-the-top bad art and getting noticed, the authors probably are going to sell more books than otherwise would have.

    1. Re:Novelty Effect by radtea · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Cover design is hard, and most people do judge books by the cover. These books have content that is likely reflected by their covers pretty well, so in that sense I'd say most of them are pretty good.

      The one a few pages in about the guy who's annoyed is really quite good: blunt, angry, simple. Since that's what the book looks to be like, how can the cover be bad?

      For my book (http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Theorem-TJ-Radcliffe-ebook/dp/B00KBH5O8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1400044028&sr=1-1&keywords=darwin%27s+theorem) one of my first readers was an artist, so I hired her to do the cover art. It captures a lot of things about the book, and it's beautiful on its own, so it's a win.

      But I'm sure a purist would find a million things wrong with it, from the ambiguities of the image to my choice of font (not papyrus or comic sans, but any font can be mocked if you work at it hard enough) to the choice of colours (too blue, not enough contrast) to the overall look (too cluttered, too busy)... and so on.

      Still, my hope was to keep it reasonably low on the mockability scale, and while it's fun to mock stuff, but I have a depressing feeling that many of these mocked books are selling a lot better than a lot of less-mockable stuff. So maybe I should replace my cover with unicorns and rainbows and leather-clad half-dressed bikers to see if that boosts sales...

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    2. Re:Novelty Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Darwin's Theorem. A story about a guy's love for a giant flying jellyfish. Spoiler: The jellyfish stings prove fatal, but not before he makes the jellyfish pregnant. The sequel is called Darwin's Theorem II: Jellybaby.

    3. Re:Novelty Effect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Darwin's Theorem

    4. Re:Novelty Effect by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I probably would have used a different color for the subtitle as it seems to disappear into the background, but otherwise it is a pretty good book cover.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    5. Re:Novelty Effect by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      was an artist, so I hired her to do the cover art

      My brother plays in a band and some of the members have cover designs that should just never be on an album. I have tried to convince them that for the next album they should find an actual artist or at least a really good hobbyist to do the cover for them. There are entire websites dedicated to this kind of stuff why are they not using them?

       

  4. So, it has come to this by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mockery on the Internet. This is a dark day indeed!

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:So, it has come to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If I didn't have the anonymity of the internet shielding me, how would I be able to make myself feel superior through criticisms of people dumb enough to attach their real name to something that isn't awesome?

    2. Re:So, it has come to this by steelfood · · Score: 1

      Forget the artwork. Some of the titles are hilarious too.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  5. Not Surprised by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

    My wife is an eauthor and the houses that she signed with would usually take the lead when it came to cover designs. I can only think of one of her books she got to do (made me do for her).

    --
    I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    1. Re:Not Surprised by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      That's true. The author often has little input on the cover design, and "how to get published" guides warn aspiring authors that bringing up cover ideas as part of a novel's pitch is a good way to reduce interest, because it's both stepping on toes as well as getting ahead of yourself. With these ebooks, though, it seems they're in the realm of the self-published so the author has either had to do it themselves or contract it out, possibly to someone else who isn't really an expert.

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
  6. my own customer by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    One of my own customers for web design does her own covers. They honestly should have hired me to do them. They're like a 1990's powerpoint slide. They're absolutely horrid. The only thing keeping me from offering to do them is their horrible reviews on Amazon with multiple people complaining that the book itself contains upscaled graphics, misaligned items, etc. So basically all the books are a complete mess so why not leave the cover?

  7. This is stuff that matters now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    WTF is wrong with /.? Just close shop already!

    1. Re:This is stuff that matters now? by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      Sssh! You're not supposed to tell him he's on the GCHQ honeypot!

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    2. Re:This is stuff that matters now? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      You scream "F*** BETA" and claim the moral high ground as it crushes you and drowns you in mud.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  8. Mr. Ed 2.0 by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    But the cover is a "prank, anecdote and gag". It did its job perfectly well it appears to me.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  9. E-books have covers??? by David_Hart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The only time I see the cover for any e-book that I read is when I am on Amazon selecting a new book. Even then, I skip over the cover to the story summary and the reviews. Opening a book on my e-reader (Kindle) takes me to the first page in the first chapter. The covers are displayed on the home screen, but I only go there to open a new book.

    What would be nice, assuming that Amazon ever comes out with a color e-ink reader, is if the Kindle showed the cover of the book that you are reading on the display when you shut it off. They probably don't do it today because the e-ink screen is grey-scale and the covers wouldn't look all that appealing.

    Physical books required interesting graphic art to catch the eye of a book browser and to differentiate itself. Covers are much less important for e-books.

    1. Re:E-books have covers??? by dkman · · Score: 1

      +1 indeed.

      If you're using a Kindle Fire or the PC Kindle App you do get color covers, but I can't say that I've ever paid a lot of attention to them.

      --
      I refuse to sign
    2. Re:E-books have covers??? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      Don't judge an ebook by its ecover.

    3. Re:E-books have covers??? by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2

      [...] I skip over the cover to the story summary and the reviews. [...]

      I dunno... the cover art for this brilliant work 'kind of drew me in.

    4. Re:E-books have covers??? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      You can browse books by cover instead of in list view on the Kindle. It's just slow and inefficient.

      I do keep an online library of all my books - physical and digital - so I can tell at a glance whether I own a book or not. And the covers feature prominently there. Though I have to manually upload the graphics for each book that way.

    5. Re:E-books have covers??? by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      I have my paperwhite set to show just titles and authors on the home screen, so I don't even see the cover art then.

      Speaking of the "screen saver" pictures, I think some of them are nice. But I really wish they'd just let me turn them off and just save battery by not changing the screen state at all.

    6. Re:E-books have covers??? by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      That one is truly disturbing...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  10. Pure GOLD. Best thing of the now by cloud.pt · · Score: 1

    The fact that 90% of ebooks are of the weird love/LGBT/softcore/shipping/bestiality romance genera, and the fact most of those covers attempt to make allusions to the genre, there is reason enough not to sleep while you haven't seen all of the posts. PURE FUKEN GOLD.

  11. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    I could think of much greater horrors...

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  12. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    Those were my favorites. It sort of makes me miss the finely crafted writing you find inherent in slash fanfic.

  13. Too many! by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    There's WAY too many people in this world, and they all want to be authors.

    1. Re:Too many! by hey! · · Score: 1

      Sure too many people want to be writers. Which is not to say some of them shouldn't be.

      Two of my writing friends have gone onto economically successful writing careers, one as a prolific, traditionally published author and another as a (rare) bestselling self-published author. The self-publisher stands out in part because she's got an extensive background in business; she invested in professional editing and artwork and can do the promotion work for her books as well as anyone at a New York Publishing house could.

      But while they were among the most hard working and technically accomplished unpublished writers I've read, they're not really that interesting (which is why I'm not name-dropping). The stuff they write seems to me to be very similar to other stuff that is published in their market -- maybe a bit better from a prose standpoint than most, but eminently forgettable.

      But there's one unpublished writer I've worked with who the world is really missing out on. He writes Jewish-themed epic and urban fantasy. His stuff has a kind of moral and imaginative resonance -- C.S. Lewis would have called it "numinous". But it's also deeply flawed. His prose is dense, over-complex and unnecessarily redundant. What he needs is really good editor. It'd be a lot of effort for an editor but what you'd end up with is something really special. But does that make business sense, when for the same amount of work he could put out three or four solid but conventional manuscripts by technically accomplished writers?

      As for the unpublished writers who go the self-publishing route, most of them are not technically polished enough to have much chance with traditional publishers, nor do they tend to put the kind of editorial and production effort into their ebooks as my NYT best-selling friend. They tend to treat it as if it were a last-ditch attempt to recoup some of their sunk costs. Which is wishful thinking, but not a crime. Selling substandard prose is not like selling contaminated meat; you're not going to harm anyone, and if anything a dreadful cover should warn consumers what they're getting into.

      And one thing I've learned by sharing my own prose and critiques is that there's a point where it almost doesn't matter if what you've written is more dreadful than it ought to have been. If you write something you care about, there's some weirdo out in the world somewhere it'll connect with.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  14. Was going to hate by Headw1nd · · Score: 1

    I was thinking about how this is trivial and useless this was as a submission, but I clicked through, and the first cover - "Son of the Wind" is pure gold. A+++ will view again

  15. Just like the pros... by berchca · · Score: 1

    Bad covers are just another way indies are crowding out the big publishing houses.

  16. Pounded by the Biker Rainbow Come To Life by EMG+at+MU · · Score: 2

    The artwork matched the title perfectly.

    The artwork for Now That I'm a Ghost I'm Gay matched as well.

  17. people in glass houses by kie · · Score: 1

    It's not just the artwork but the titles as well.
    I'm nervous about making negative comments since I wonder if my ebook covers are any better;
    they couldn't be worse... or are they?... http://www.k1e.org/press

    --
    living the dream
  18. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    I'm wondering if the Kubrick estate approved the use of the front end of "Discovery" for this book cover...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  19. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

    I wonder why some of the Nouns in his Blurb have capital Letters and other nouns have small letters....

    --
    Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  20. The creepy planet montage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The creepy planet montage was not created by the book's author. Clicking through Amazon's preview reveals that someone actually hired an artist to make the cover. Yeesh.

  21. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by youngone · · Score: 1

    "Pounded by the Biker Rainbow Come to Life...first time gay paranormal m/m taboo" by "Max Wood". Has to be the single greatest book title ever. Ever. Shakespeare ought to be ashamed he never thought of it.

  22. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by aiht · · Score: 1
    Most helpful customer reviews:

    Disappointed
    I have to say that I'm disappointed. Thought this was an instructional manual. Now I'm $15.99 lighter and I still don't know how to moon people.

    (For those who haven't followed the link, the book is called "Moon People")

  23. Re:Annoying Orange by WillAdams · · Score: 1

    The thing is, uni-directional apostrophes and double quotes aren't foot and inch marks --- the proper symbol for those are primes and double primes (which unfortunately only a few fonts have --- usually one has to get them out of a Pi font):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

    --
    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  24. Re:Not sure the covers are the problem. by rochrist · · Score: 1

    It seems to be a thing with Amazon e-books in center ....genres....to describe that genre as completely as possible within the title. For example: Taken by the Alphas (Book Two): Gay Shapeshifter Wolf Ménage Romance, or Taken by the Shifters: Part One (BBW/Shifter Romance), or Taken: Billionaire Menage Romance Serial (Billionaire Brothers Book 1). There seems to be a lot of taking going on, a lot of shapeshifting going on, a lot of being a BBW, and a lot of billionaire romance going on. I'm waiting for the billionaire shapeshifter genre.