Prompt: A Cover is Not the Book

[Prof. Sky Alton]

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. That being said, there’s no denying that cover art plays a significant role in our first impression of a book and whether it’s right for us. The publishing industry is certainly aware of this power. For instance, I remember when my mother received a box-set of the Harry Potter books specifically geared towards older readers. The only difference? Much darker and more sophisticated cover art: a clear contrast to the bright, child-like illustrations used up until that point.

It occurred to me we could have a lot of fun with this so for this month, I’d like you to design cover art for one of your favourite books that will make it appeal to a whole new audience. Make a romance reader pick up an epic fantasy, a memoir enthusiast delve into a mystery or a ‘serious’ literary fiction reader open a satire. It can be as honest or deceptive about the contents as you like but it must be compelling. Carefully tailor the colour scheme, the font and any images you use and of course, let us know which type of reader you’re trying to appeal to.

Your work needs to be original: taking something off the internet and claiming it as your own is plagiarism. This is especially important if you take inspiration from an existing cover and put your own spin on it: if you can, credit the original designer by name. Remember to keep everything HOL appropriate, adhering to all HOL rules, and please keep your submissions 600x600 pixels or smaller. Please also include a short description of your image.

You'll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Ink Splatters Award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your image and description to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces).

[Adaleine Shuster]

https://i.postimg.cc/j5x9Pkcb/Be-Funky-design-28.jpg

I took the classic Catching Fire book cover. Changed the color code to green and black, and gave the small amount of space right behind the mockingjay a weird green glow. The Words are now have little flecks of color in them. I am hoping it has sort of taken on a sci-fi look. I got the original image (the color of the book) from a quick google search, it looks like it is just the picture shown on Amazon.

[Prof. Maxim Trevelyan]

I took Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, which touches upon romance and spirituality and turned it into a dark, action thriller about love, betrayal and one woman's thirst for revenge. Kind of.

Up and bottom part of the book are black with red text. The upper part has the book's subtitle "One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" and the bottom part has the author's name.

In the upper part of the graphic is a woman's head looking to the right, which is supposed to be the protagonist with a black mark across the eyes. Then, in the middle, there is a red streak with the title "eat, pray, love" in the typewriter lowercase font. Then below the title, we have two photos, one of praying and one of a couple kissing in the sunset.