You know, I'm starting to have a problem with urban fantasy books.
No, no--not with their content--with the fact that I can't tell them apart anymore. The covers all seem to feature the same image: a svelte, beautiful Caucasian brunette is standing in the dark wearing revealing black clothing and carrying guns and/or knives.
I guess it's good marketing (or to be more precise, "positioning"), because at a single glance, I can say, "Yep. That's an urban fantasy novel."
Good luck getting me to recognize a particular series based on the cover, however. Books are not widgets, and one novel is not interchangeable with another, but the images slapped on their fronts certainly are. Once, I even bought a book that I'd already read because its cover was so generic I didn't recognize it as something I'd seen before.
It's a little like those romance novels from the 80s that always featured a flowing-locked woman in the arms of a flowing-locked, shirt-impaired man. You knew right away that was a romance novel.
(Actually, the women were shirt-impaired too, but only above the nipple-line. However, I digress.)
I guess this is what happens when a genre or sub-genre becomes extremely popular. If the customers are snapping up those books like candy, then the publishing industry might as well establish some branding, not just for single authors, but for the whole genre.
The logic is, if you put a something in a candy bar wrapper, the public will assume it is a candy bar and consider buying it whenever they're in the mood for a candy bar--even if it's a confection they've never tried before. Thus, if you put an urban fantasy book in an urban fantasy wrapper, you can be assured of a few sales to people who haven't heard of that author but who love urban fantasy.
However, this tactic flummoxes people like me, who like a leeeettle bit of urban fantasy every now and again. When I go to buy that leeeettle bit, I'm faced with a brick wall of covers that all look alike and there's no easy way to find that one series I tried a while back and sorta liked. (Especially if I don't actually remember the author or title, heh.)
The situation wasn't always like this. When C. E. Murphy started out, her urban fantasies featured some lovely, light-toned covers:
And now? Um.
Not that this isn't a beautiful cover, because it really is, but it isn't distinctive beyond being very, very obviously an urban fantasy novel.
And, of course, the authors have no say in this. Their publisher chooses the cover, and the publishers are appealing mainly to the voracious urban-fantasy-gourmands out there--not to people like me, who just want some urban fantasy tapas.
Do any of you have this issue, or am I just getting senile? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.
(Well...if you think I'm senile, maybe I don't want to hear it. But at least I won't be mad at you for long! Wait--what were we talking about again?)
8 comments:
It only really bothers me when something is positioned as urban fantasy and isn't. Otherwise I mostly look out for Kim Harrison, although her later books aren't as good as her first one, in my view.
Mind you, I love the Harry Dresden series and I have no idea which ones I've read because they all look exactly the same, which bears out your point.
I understand what you mean, entirely. Though I think this trend is actually seen even more so in paranormal romance...a subtle subset of the genre. In fact, I went to an author signing this week for Mark Henry. He talked about how his first book, Happy Hour of the Damned, had a cover page that made it look like a paranormal romance--pretty woman, semi-spooky background etc. The problem was, the story was anything but that. It was rude, crude, morbidly dark humor, etc. No romance whatsoever...and this led to sales suffering from enormous amounts of returns because people were buying it based on their expectations of the cover.
For me, it's something I'm slightly worried about with my books. The one I have on submission now is urban fantasy, but it doesn't really have any romance in it, and I am afraid it'll get stuck with a generic cover despite, what I believe to be, a pretty unique premise. So yeah, I totally get what you're talking about.
One thing I've thought of doing is trying to mock the "urban witch with a tramp stamp" cover cliche that is seen a lot lately. Since one of my characters is an elderly janitor, maybe he could be in a sassy pose, his back exposed with a fake tattoo, broom slung over his shoulder. It'd catch attention, at least.
@fairyhedgehog As for the Dresden Files, yes, they have a pattern set for how the covers look. But for that popular of a series, I think it's to their benefit because it makes it easily identifiable. Plus they had the pattern set for the titles...two words, up until the last one-worded Changes. It's also fun to compare the first-run Dresden File covers to the newer ones. Quite the shift.
Genres tend to go samier than differenter so it's easy for books to get miscast until there's submolecular division.
As for book covers, I have a dream artist and a list of instructions — same as I have a navel that spits solid gold nuggets whenever I brush my teeth.
Fairyhedgehog: I love the Harry Dresden books, but you're right--they're indistinguishable from one another. If you asked me what the cover of one of them looked like, I wouldn't be able to say--other than, "Well, Harry's on it and he's got a fedora on...."
Josh: Oh, now that would be annoying for Mr. Henry--I steer clear of paranormal romance, but I quite like gritty stuff! Not only did the book annoy fans who wanted a paranormal romance, but it would have been avoided by some fans who would love what his book did offer.
Janitor with a tramp stamp? Hee! If your book has humour in it, that would make a great cover. If not, it could possibly backfire... It would still be a funny cover, though!
Whirlochre: I'm now picturing a svelte brunette wearing tight, black, and somewhat navel-exposing clothing. He poses winsomely with his sleekly threatening toothbrush.
Suddenly, a villain looms from the darkness, but Our Hero knows what to do--a glittering attack erupts from an unexpected location...
OOOO she has another book out...
Later need to go to amazon...
Serious comment, you do know they are different series, the First is the shaman walker series, while the second is a darker world and suite that cover more.
Now back to new book...
Sarf: I realize it's a different world, but even in the Urban Shaman series, the covers became darker and more typically "urban fantasy". That said, they do remain a set of books that have distinctive covers. The main character never carries weapons, she wears jeans and t-shirts, and the settings are usually natural, rather than urban.
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