Comments on: Selling Fantasy By The Pound

By: MarkC

MarkC — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:09:55 +0000

Good point. It was definitely those imaginative, otherworldly covers that engaged me in my early reading.

By: A.R.Yngve

A.R.Yngve — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:56:56 +0000

Since I both write and illustrate, I take an active part in designing my own book covers. (This has also saved my small-press publisher money.)

I am of two minds in the SF/F book-cover discussion.
On the one hand, I see the need to break out of the “ghetto”, that garish, tasteless cover art speaks to the devout but alienates many others….

On the other hand, I remember clearly that what attracted me to the SF shelf as a child in the first place, was the sheer otherworldliness and outrageousness of the cover art:

- A gargantuan Chris Foss spaceship!
- A voluptuous woman in a skin-tight spacesuit, on an alien planet!
- Amazing humanoid beings that never existed on Earth!
- Surreal structures glowing with strange energy!

I mean, if you’re not going to recruit readers early, you’re too late. Perhaps the solution is “variant covers”: one version for the kids, another for grown-ups. (It worked for the Harry Potter books…)

By: Cover design and science fiction | DESIGN UNIT 38

Cover design and science fiction | DESIGN UNIT 38 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:21:52 +0000

[...] Thanks to Torque Control I came upon an interesting discussion over cover design and art in science fiction, which ranges from Solaris Books to Ariel at The Genre Files to Lou Anders, editor of Pyr. And back again to The Genre Files, sucking up Mark Chadbourn in the process. It is a fascinating conversation, and one near to my heart. [...]

By: Gav

Gav — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:09:25 +0000

But a few do seem to over indulge themselves in their writing to the exclusion of less dedicated readers.

By: MarkC

MarkC — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:36:47 +0000

I think you’re right, Gav. It’s just one of those balancing acts that every writer has to do.

By: Gav

Gav — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:27:37 +0000

Lots of writers make their mainstream careers from writing series of books or at least books that stay within narrow boundaries. This maybe frustrating for the writer but the reader knows what they are getting. Much like when they watch an episode of Friends or Will and Grace.

There has to be happy medium where a writer can tell a story that is a section of an ark without making it a requirement that you’ve read the lot?

You seem to manage it