Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat.
This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week. As we are a faith-based group the questions refer mainly to Christian fiction or non-fiction.
Today’s question is:
Do you like the current trend for illustrated contemporary book covers?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group. Remember to comment today on Tuesday Book Chat to enter the giveaway.
Let’s chat!
To be honest on a whole no. Some are done well but a lot are not my cup of tea. I am noticing not all publishers are using the illustrated covers and while many are not AI generated many have that look. Also, it gets confusing cos at one stage the illustrated covers were mainly Rom-Com now it can be all subgenres of Contemporary Fiction.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group.
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It’s not my favourite style, but I actually prefer them to the photo of a face staring at me from the cover or spine of the book.
I agree I don’t mind the art ones where its like a photo but its been done by an artist. like Fairest Inn All that I reviewed recently
To be honest, I think the question is a bit broad. There are as many variations of illustrated book covers as there are kinds of books in the world. Probably all my favourite book covers are illustrated, but I’m not fond of cartoony rom-com type ones. I prefer arty covers which hint that there’s more going on between the covers than a romance and a cute cat. 😁
I’m not fond of photographs and I definitely don’t like faces on covers. Not sure why. I think I just prefer to imagine the character’s face for myself.
I think when the question first was thought off was about a year ago. (we do the questions a year in advance so all this years questions have already been set) But it was the cartoonish ones with no facial expressions. They were more the Rom-com but are now used in more than that genre now. but I have noticed already this year the trend seems to be changing so while still illustrated not the zombie or faceless characters like they were.
that cute cat has sold books to me although I saw a free download of mystery books today but cos I don’t know if they are just no spice or both or which is which the cats didn’t persuade me. I hate having to check which are which.
Interesting, I did a google search on faceless, blobby illustrated book covers. I had noticed them as a trend but not so much lately.
Apparently big, bold and colourful is still a current trend.
Will be nice to see something different eventually.
I have noticed there is another change. I guess its the problem with some questions a year is a long time in the publishing business. I think it came partly out of the covers crossing all the contemporary genres. at one stage it was the Rom-Coms then it was contemporary as well so you couldn’t tell from the cover what it really was. I tended to stop looking at the covers and going to the blurb because the cover wasn’t enough to convey what the genre was. I am noticing the trend is changeing.
Illustrated covers are ok if they reflect the books messaging and are well done and I know the author. If they are new to me and I know nothing about them or can be hard to know what genre the book is.
Thats true. At the time of the question the cartoonish blob like people were popular but I notice now they are much better and I like them more now.