Artsy Shelf – 12 – A Vampire’s Fantasy
I think if you take a quick look at these covers, you’ll know right away what I mean by “a vampire’s fantasy”!
If there is one thing that has been done one too many time when it comes to book covers, this is it : sensual woman offering her throat to hungry vampires. As much as I love vampires and their mythology, and as much as I think the neck of a woman is very sensual, this lacks a certain originality – especially since they are all confined into a same genre category (despite some of them being YA and some Adult) I know that Eternal Kiss has a lookalike, too ; those are only a handful of many similar covers!
Plus, it makes me wonder : are these book covers destined to catch casual readers’ attention, or vampires’ attention?
What do you mean, vampires don’t exist?
What do you think, readers? Any of these grab your attention? Is there another kind of book covers that you think has been done one too many times?
I haven’t gotten into the vampire books, so they don’t grab my attention.
I’ve been a huge fan of vampire novels since my teens but am absolutely sick of the things thanks to the last year or two. The obsession with vampires means that more and more publishing houses are churning out books that are being written for money – not for artistic purpose.
The girl’s neck thing has been overdone but I really like the necklaces of the ‘Chosen’ and ‘Vampire Kisses’ covers. 🙂 I also like the long cut rather than two puncture holes on ‘The Turning’ cover – it’s a little different … but not really. 😛
The only one I like is Chosen. It grabs my attention every time I see it on shelves. The other ones are boring and too obviously vampire. Chosen looks like witches because of the necklace. I’m much more interested in reading about witches.
I love the cover of Vampire Kisses! Anything with selective color captures my photographer’s eye. But you’re right — as a reader who only casually enjoys vampire books, they don’t do much for me. I do have Blue Bloods in my TBR stack, though! I always liked the skyline on the cover!
O The Turning looks gooood!
I can’t say any of these covers appeal to me, but then I’m not into vampires.
These covers would definitely catch my attention. I love the cover of Chosen but hate the cover of The Eternal Kiss, the woman looks too desperate to me.
There are so many covers that are repeated so often, like a girls feet, or a woman’s back or someone’s headless body 🙂
My sister and I find anything that’s too cliché as a minus point. It’s too common so I’d rather go for something different.
Kay, great job on pointing out the cover redundancies…quite hilarious! Personally I think there’s nothing wrong with writing a book that has broad appeal, but if you choose to do so, you have an obligation to work extra hard at being original. I’ve always been bugged by the way romance books constantly fall back on the bare male torso. I like bare male torsos as much as the next girl, but…BORing!
I was very pleased with the cover my publisher designed for my book, “How to Catch and Keep a Vampire: A Step-by-Step Guide to Loving the Bad and the Beautiful.” (You can see it here: http://www.dianalaurence.com/cakav) I likewise did all I could to approach the topic of vampires in a way that avoided cliches and had something original and meaningful to say. Otherwise the exercise is about nothing but making a buck, and what fun is that?
We had a conversation last night about when the heck did vampires become so popular (and um…hot). The guys said with Kate Beckensale in Underworld but I don’t know if the craze was there then. I’m thinking it will eventually die down…
The exposed neck is the vampire novel equivalent of a ripped bodice on romance novels. At this point it’s pretty much visual white noise for me. 😛