Sci-fi cover books in a sad state

[Zelena]

Hello,

I read a lot of science-fiction when I was younger. And now barely any.

But when I see the cover of reprinting editions of books I liked, each time, the cover is less interesting, less inspiring, less original. Not without quality but with less talent. Even childlish sometimes. Before it has been like a creative experimental field and now, a boring commissioned work. I think that good covers in science-fiction are important to enter in a universe that is necessarily different. It is less effective when the strangeness, the weirdness isn’t there and doesn’t appeal to the subconscious.

Am I the only one to have seen a change?

[JackDaw]

For me they do seem to followed w more of a formula...I’ve always assumed that one factor is the length of a lot of sci-fi and fantasy series...there’s a desire to give each volume in the series a similar feel.

In the “old days” most books were short punchy one-offs, you can easily imagine artist giving them a quick read, then creating a cover rooted in what the book meant to him or her.

Nowadays...with the massive door stopper novels, suspect artist just gets a brief synopsis, and clear guidance from the big publishers. It’s maybe a more structured approach, but also maybe more boring.

[Zelena]

I agree, the collection means the artist has less freedom. Still, it doesn’t prevent to be able to do a innovative and significative work. If I remember fondly about these books, years later, it is not just the story but also because of the cover:

[Zelena]

I’ve always assumed that one factor is the length of a lot of sci-fi and fantasy series...

Not that the collection “l’âge des étoiles” invalidates your theory about the number of titles in a collection: it has only something like eleven titles.

But after reading an interview (french) about Wojtek Siudmak who has made countless science-fiction covers, the key seems to be the relationship between the artist and the publishing director. The artist said he looked through the book, made several pictures and the director chose one or the artist made another cover. He said also that now publishing directors are more interested in business and less by expanding their artistic culture.

[Kirby101]

People don't go to bookstores and scan the science fiction isles. They order on Amazon or read the digital book. So the impact of the cover doesn't matter to the publisher any more. I suspect they pay way less for cover are than they did in the past, when there were illustrators whose names we recognized and were stars on their own. Like a lot of illustration work, it is probably done in house or farmed to the lowest bidder.

[Starter Set]

I still remember the covers of my Lovecraft's or McCaffrey's books back in the 80's, 90's, there were some nice piece of arts.



Shame that this type of art isn't something people care about anymore, i know that as a kid some covers made a big impression on me.

Ah well...