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Violanthe
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 Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton
Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:45 am |
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Look at the following cover. Imagine that you have only the cover and the information it provides (including images, title and author name) to decide whether to buy this (or any) book.
Would you buy this book having looked only at its cover? If so, what on this cover sold you? If not, what on this cover turned you off?
If you have, in fact, bought and/or read this book, tell us how well our verdicts guided us. Did the cover lead us rightly into great fiction? Or did the cover wrongly steer us toward a bad story or away from a great one?
So, would you buy this book by its cover?
Regular posters are invited to join our "official" Buy the Cover game:
https://www.arwz.com/arwz/viewtopic.php?t=422
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Last edited by Violanthe on Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:25 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Magus
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:39 pm |
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No. It looks like romance with a fantasy setting (which is not to be confused with Fantasy with romantic themes).
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"It ain't all buttons and charts little Albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin' is?... Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she ain't keepin' up just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her up when she ought to fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens, makes her home." Captain Malcom Reynalds, "Serenity" |
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Mervi
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:02 pm |
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| This looks somewhat like the double snake heads of the symbol of Hermes or healing and since I'm always interested in fantasy done in the Ancient world, I'll definately take a closer look. |
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Magus
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:51 pm |
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Hmmmm... the myth of Endymion WAS a good one, I must say... and he DID father 50 children...
I wouldn't buy it based on the cover, but it would prompt me to look at the back, at any rate. I still say that it looks like a bad fantasy-set romance novel, though, at least by the merit of its title and cover.
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"It ain't all buttons and charts little Albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin' is?... Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she ain't keepin' up just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her up when she ought to fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens, makes her home." Captain Malcom Reynalds, "Serenity" |
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Violanthe
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Magus
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:00 pm |
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The serpentine-staff... the heads form something of a heart.
And, now looking at the plot, there's no way that I would ever buy this book. I don't even understand what the allusion to Endymion amounts to. It doesn't seem to connect to the myth at all.
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"It ain't all buttons and charts little Albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin' is?... Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she ain't keepin' up just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her up when she ought to fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens, makes her home." Captain Malcom Reynalds, "Serenity" |
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Peter
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:44 pm |
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I'd definitely give it a look. The warped font used in the lettering alludes to something mildly strange as well.
Peter |
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Violanthe
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Magus
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:15 pm |
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Snakes are, by nature, phallic, as are staves. Added to the heart that I saw (or at least perceived that I did) and the satin/velvet red background, it looks like a romance novel. Also, the myth of Endymion is, by nature, a romantic myth.
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"It ain't all buttons and charts little Albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin' is?... Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she ain't keepin' up just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her up when she ought to fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens, makes her home." Captain Malcom Reynalds, "Serenity" |
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pyanfaruk
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:36 pm |
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The title made me think it was a new book in the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. The illustration - Old Viking Romance. I agree with Magus about the heart, plus the Viking ship's prow look to the dragons.The author - new to me.
I'd look at the blurb - so I suppose the cover's done its job.
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Magus
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Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:50 pm |
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Since most books on the shelves face spine-out, it usually comes down, even at times, to either the author or the title, or even what scant decorations adorn the spine itself.
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"It ain't all buttons and charts little Albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin' is?... Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she ain't keepin' up just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her up when she ought to fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens, makes her home." Captain Malcom Reynalds, "Serenity" |
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DougGogerty
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Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:05 pm |
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I see 80's sword and sorcery when I look at the cover. The squiggly unreadable font is a turn-off for me and I would probably reject it right off for that.
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Violanthe
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:31 am |
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| Quote: | | Snakes are, by nature, phallic, as are staves. Added to the heart that I saw (or at least perceived that I did) and the satin/velvet red background, it looks like a romance novel. |
While that might say "romance novel" to a Freudian, it's not going to communicate the same thing to your average Joe - or, in this case, Jane. Knowledge of the myth's content is also not going to be widely known.
That said, while this cover would be a terrible marketing strategy for a "romance novel" - meaning the commerical genre of romance - it could indeed be communicating to readers well-versed in mythology that it is a "romance" in the sense of medieval romances, tales of gallantry and chivalry, etc.
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