Talk to Me Tuesday #1 - Cover vs. Content

Talk to Me Tuesday is a brand new weekly meme where we will discuss anything (and everything) literary-related in an open forum of honesty. Questions for the next week will be posted one week prior to the post on the Features page. If you'd like to participate in this weekly feature, simply create your post, link back to me, and add your post to the wonderful Mr. Linky below. Have fun, and have at it!

This week's question: What books have better covers than content, and what books have better content than covers?

We all know that the YA market is currently dominated by incredible covers. From upcoming books like The Water Wars (om nom nom) and Across the Universe to recent releases like Virals and Dark Song, it’s clear that covers are fast-becoming as important as the content itself. So, what happens when a perfectly good novel is stuck with a rather, shall we say, unfortunate cover? I am by NO means a graphic artist or designer, but I am a self-diagnosed cover-slut, and I’m not afraid to admit that I’ll often judge a book by its cover.

Take, for example, The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum. The series is a fun, sci-fi/fantasy tale, but the covers are bit, well, flat. I get it. It’s a door…for time…in an hourglass. Go figure. Now, I loved the book, but I bounced over it for a long time because the cover felt so blah compared to others on the shelves. For me, a good cover hints at the story’s content without over-exaggerating the details (*cough* Zan-Gah *cough*). I want colour, a touch of beauty, a hint of mystery, and something that makes me do a double-take in the store because, let’s be honest, I judge with my eyes first. See a sampling of what I drool all over in the store:

Here’s what some of your fellow book bloggers have to say about covers that didn’t quite work for them:

Sandy from Pirate Penguin Reads believes that the same goes for Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier. She says, “Born confused doesn’t have the nicest cover, but I LOVE that book to pieces!”

Linna from 21 Pages feels that the cover for She’s So Dead to Us by Keiran Scott falls flat. She says, “It’s terribly bland without conveying something meaningful about the actual plot or characters.”

Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y Castell thinks the covers for Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series just don’t live up. She says, “They are just so childish.”

Author, Melissa Walker says, “People hated my Lovestruck Summer cover, but loved the book.”

Capillya from That Cover Girl loves Jennifer Echols’ work but couldn’t connect with the cover of The Ex Games. She says, “What I don’t get is how I’m supposed to walk out of a library or bookstore without feeling completely mortified that I’m carrying a book that has cartoon characters on the front.”

Yes, there are times when books have far better covers than stories…Witch & Wizard is a prime example, but I will say that I bought that book based on the cover, so it clearly influenced me.