Former Trashi co-ed, Diane Shipley, has written a fascinating piece for the Guardian about book covers (perhaps you helped?).
It's well worth reading, but there was one thing that leaped out at me... The cover on the left there is the original cover of Sue Hepworth's novel, Zuzu's Petals. I like it. I think it's contemporary, mature, smart. On the right is the published cover of the same book. I think it's infantilising, condescending and old-fashioned.
Following Diane's comments on the two covers, Emma, MD of Snowbooks, publisher of Zuzu's Petals, left a staggering comment... which you can read over the cut!
... our best efforts to sub this book into retailers for 6 months with [the original] cover resulted in pre-orders for... wait for it... 19 orders. That is, orders for 19 copies. If we sold 19 copies of our books, we'd stay in business about, ooh, another two weeks. So at the very last minute, I redesigned the cover, and it was promptly selected for 3 for 2/front of store promotion in two major retailers. We've sold several thousand copies so far.
Shows what I know, eh? It's also kind of depressing, no?
What do you think?
