Thursday, July 16, 2015

Re: Book Cover or Movie Poster?

I agree with what Erin said about movie posters being turned into book covers. I try not to buy these books, though I know I have a few books with movie design covers. For instance, I know I have a Lord of the Rings book (Two Towers) with Legolas on the cover, and I'm pretty sure when I bought it years ago it was on display along with each main character represented on separate book covers of the same book, so you could essentially pick your favorite character and have him on your copy of the book (which is what I did, but then again I was a teenager). Now that I look at the original intention of the book cover I see how they updated the type and brightened up the color, making the newer book more modern. From a marketing standpoint I completely understand why the publishers would choose to go this route. Unfortunately, the movie cover doesn't exactly capture the essence of the story, nor does it separate it from the movie. I believe books with movie posters on them may mislead readers into believing the book will be just like the movie, when in fact, they are completely separate mediums and should be treated as such.