The Business: Seeing The Spirit Of The Age In Covers

This isn't about the book. It's about the cover and what it signifies.

Name a bigger downgrade pic.twitter.com/xTQ7FlJCsY

— JD Cowan (@wastelandJD) November 3, 2020

When Urban Fantasy broke through back in the '80s, its (anti-)heroes were adults doing adult things. The authoress' oft-mentioned War For The Oaks (set in '80s Minneapolis, a setting as long-gone as the era) was exactly that, right down to the heroine's fornication scene. Then the Young Adult section took prominence in OldPub, Rowling struck gold with Potter, and the image of the genre became nigh-indistiguishable with Young Adult fiction generally (until you crossed over to Erotica, at which point you're seeing books in the image of Twilight/50 Shades of Grey).

That's what the different covers signify; a change in the business's perception of the genre to prospective readers--and thus buyers--of the product.

This has nothing to do with the accuracy of the cover regarding the book. It has everything to do with Marketing trying to sell widgets, and that means it's time to tap a different sign- or, in this case, a video.

OldPub is very much a Corporate place, and thus the same Corporate thinking we see in play elsewhere applies here- and often exactly in the way Retroblasting describes. Yes, even in smaller--but still OldPub--companies; Baen, you're not immune at all (or to Convergence).

You can track how the spirit of an age shifts by how the covers of enduring titles shift. Find yourself a list of the various covers to, say, Frankenstein; track down, if you can, the specific individuals that designed and approved those covers. I guarantee you that you can use them as indicators of when the mood shifts at a given place, and across the industry you can see that influence emerge in one place and swiftly spread as co-thinkers and vain strivers ape what sticks.

You can also track differences in markets by seeing how covers change in different places. (e.g. Japan vs. Canada) Same interesting data comes up. I would not be surprised at all if there are Mareketing people who (a) find this interesting or (b) find this useful and actionable intelligence.

And that, folks, is yet another reason for why your covers matter.

(Admin note: I've begun migrating Star Knight lore to the Study. Those posts will be republished there, after which future lore is exclusively posted therein.)