Let's Talk: Cover Trends

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Let's Talk is a pseudo-regular feature here at i swim for oceans where we create an open forum for all bloggers to discuss issues not only pertinent to the blogging world, but to simply weigh in on the little things. In this case, it's book covers. 

You all know that I'm a cover slut. Truly. I pick a book with my eyes before ever reading a single sentence. It's petty, I know, but I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that does this.

I was looking at my shelves the past few days, and I noticed a lot of really interesting (and odd) trends going on in the young adult market. The most prominent one was a phenomenon I now refer to as simply:

"The Year(s) of the Girls in Dresses"

You all ready for this?







Now, don't get me wrong, I love the vast majority of these books. I also happen to think they're hella pretty. A lot of these covers don't need girls in dresses though (yes, Paranormalcy is relevant, I know), but otherwise...I'm perplexed. Love the eye-catching visuals though!

What other cover trends have you seen lately, and what do you wish you could see more of?

22 comments:

  1. I agree! I notice quite a few new trends where now the girl is not only in a dress but floating in the air!

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  2. I like that a lot of 2012 contemps aren't showing faces, just bodies/legs in various situations. I think it lets us use our imaginations more when reading :0)

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  3. I did a post about this earlier this week!It's crazy how many covers have dresses on them now! I think the Fallen cover started it all.....I definitely like this trend better than the up-close faces (like the new delirium/pandemonium covers)....

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  4. Don't forget the girls wearing the dresses are always sad! If I were wearing a gorgeous dress like that, I'd have a smile on my face!

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  5. OMG you're right. Not that I have looooved this trend.

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  6. I was starting to think that I'm the only one getting tired of all the pretty girls in pretty dresses. I've enjoyed most of the books but the lack of creativity with a lot of the covers annoys me a bit.

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  7. I feel like there are a lot of books coming up with girls/boys wearing hooded sweatshirts. Is it just me?

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  8. I do love a pretty dress, though. Very eye-catching but not so stand-out when there are a ton of girls-in-dresses covers.

    It's better than the dead girl trend. Or the peering over the shoulder trend.

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  9. I think with YA, we will always have a pretty dress cover trend. Teens often have dreams of being in that ball gown and meeting the perfect boy. I know I did!

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  10. I kinda hate pretty girls in dresses. Probably more than I hate faces on covers - because I hate that too. Shatter Me has to be the biggest cover disappointment for me this year, though. I had such high expectations of awesomeness and then we get a pretty girl on the cover? And the pretty girl does not resemble Juliette at all, or embody her personality, or anything about her. That upsets me.

    I don't know if pretty girls in pretty dresses are what's selling, but if it is, I'm clearly not like most YA buyers because I loathe the trend.

    As for what I'd like to see, I'm into the more abstract or weird kind of covers, or covers that actually relate to the book. The Daughter of Smoke & Bone has a great cover that actually fits the book, as does Divergent.

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  11. i love the pretty-girls-in-dresses trend because they are eye-catching and they stay lodged in my brain - like, my brain remembers the pretty covers. but i don't really like when they aren't relevant to the book. i really loved the die for me cover you show. it's so beautiful, and partly the reason i picked up the book. but the cover of the OTHER edition (the darker cover with the boat on the front) is actually the pretty-girl-in-dress cover that is the scene from the book, not this one (from the best of my memory). so that sort of bugs me a little but.

    all in all, though, they are beautiful and i do love them. another gorgeous one is abandon by meg cabot. just, wow.

    btw, i didn't like the cover of shatter me at all. i don't care for the pretty dresses on dystopian or apocalyptic books. to me, it just doesn't go.

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  12. I totally agree with Nikki about the Shatter Me cover. It's a gorgeous dress and I love it, but it doesn't fit her at all. I never read a dress described like that. I think the Wither cover would fit her better. Though she does exude power in that cover.

    And now that I think about it, I've loved the covers of the Fallen series, but she never wears a dress like that. I think they are just appealing to the reader's eye, hoping we'll buy it b/c it has a pretty cover. And I do stop long enough to read what it's about when it has a pretty dress on the front. Hey- I'm a girl! What can I say?

    Heather

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  13. Oh yes dresses, everywhere! Every single cover, oh look a girl in a pretty dress, sighs..but, I do adore them cos the dresses are so pretty

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  14. Yes, pretty dresses. Girls floating in the air, girls in water. There was in interesting article on girls "appearing" dead. I believe the article was posted on a blog for one of the editors of Bloomsbury. She loved the pretty covers but not the idea of girls looking like they are dead. I agree...it's rather morbid. Other cover trends are just faces or a half face with an eye.

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  15. I have to admit, I love a lot of these covers, but I also think that they don't necessarily embody the feel of the books. Marketing is probably a big reason why dresses are so popular. Like I Read Banned Books said above, I think with YA, we're always going to have covers with dresses because it is rather typical of teenage girls to like the whole fairy tale, romantic aspect of formal events like prom and dances.

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  16. I agree too. The covers really are beautiful and eye catching, but quite often there is no relevance to the story.

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  17. While I agree the covers above are quite gorgeous, I'm getting a little bored with every cover having some beautiful girl on it. I just want some kind of variance. That doesn't mean it turns me off at all, in fact almost every book above I wanted because I love the cover, too. It's just that there are so many other designs possible. Take DIVERGENT, for instance. No girl and I think it is absolute fabulous. The sequel INSURGENT is no less eye catching. Okay, that is all. I'm done rambling. :D

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  18. We do find a lot of dresses in covers nowadays, I also have seen a lot of covers with a girl´s half face or girls running from something... that covers make me curious ^^
    Nice post!

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  19. Interesting! I never noticed this trend before! I think that you could definitely say the Wither dress is relevant to the book too. After all Rhine does get all dressed up to go to a gala right? :)

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