Attached Link: http://punkrockpenguin.net/waste/amuse/badcovers/

Thanks to The Mouthpiece, a little amusement for Friday: While you may not be able to judge a book by its cover, you can certainly judge its cover. Scroll through this funny selection of particularly awful book covers. TGIF, everyone!! Hope you have a most happy weekend too.

Hilarious, Dialyn! Thanks for the giggles! I do believe that the same artist who did the Sizemore books did the covers of my novels. Same publisher, same leather-clad bimbo. Funny, I don't remember cladding my character in leather... A great weekend to you all, Denny

Some of the covers didn't look that bad to me until I read the little sentence underneath. I did notice that there was quite a number of vampires with bad covers...must be something about the genre that it doesn't bring out the best in artists.

I think, to be serious for a moment, mass market books don't get the attention they should get as far as artwork. It's expensive to hire artists who really have the touch. A mass market book isn't expected to be a runaway bestseller, and in fact, they expect to lose money on it. So, I suppose just having your words between ANY cover is a good deal! (Now, I'm going to try to post this message just once instead of twice!)

I saw an electronic book cover not too long ago and I thought, there is something familiar about that. Something very familiar, as it turned out...it was the Poser 4 woman in her casual clothes and the standard ponytail standing in a tunnel. I thought, "gee, I could do that." But would I want to? I asked the writer (who was on a forum) and she said the cover had been done by an artist on contract to the publishing company, so I guess they made some kind of money (probably not much). I would think, given the great liberty the artists take with the subject matter, cover creation would be a lot of fun. You certainly wouldn't have to worry about being subtle.

It is fun. I have an artwork sideline and have created many book covers for self-published authors. I use Poser, too. Why reinvent the wheel, huh? You do have to read the book, though, to get the best, most dramatic images. I also find it helpful to talk to the writer. Often, I've edited the book, so I know it pretty intimately by the time it is ready to go to print.

Thanks for the link, dialyn, I laughed and laughed and laughed!