As much as I do love reading books and manga and watching my anime or other TV shows, there are tropes that I find quite annoying and wish to not see them as often.
Whether the trope has something to do with the plot, a character, the concept, the...
Don't you just love walking in a bookstore and seeing YA covers that just look the same? Most readers don't. We enjoy seeing a variety of covers which have a significance to the story within. Yet, it just seems that book covers and designs need to look strikingly similar to each other in order to sell.
Let me show you some examples of what I would consider a tacky YA book cover:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
This one was probably anticipated by some of you. The first covers of Vampire Academy sucked. They are just the average tacky YA cover. Whenever you see a girl on the cover, whether it being a face shot or the girl standing and turned away from the front, the cover is bound to have a feeling of blandness.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oh gosh, this first cover of Shatter Me felt plain. I was really happy when they made the cover changes. The new covers for this trilogy are stunning. ----------
I could have shown you hundreds of tacky covers, and they would all have a similar pattern to what makes them bad.
The most common being a girl on the cover (as already mentioned). Other times that make a cover bad to look at is the pallet of colors. Sometimes the colors of the image and the typography don't go together well and just simply make you have a headache whenever you look at it. Or maybe the typography is just.. bland.. ----------
So, what would make a good YA cover? That question will vary to person because it is based on opinion. People are drawn to different things from a cover, but I will try to discuss the main details people find beautiful.
I will show an example of what I would consider a good YA cover, again, this is based on my opinion, but I will give my reasons to why I think the cover is nice.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The author Victoria Schwab has been blessed with beautiful covers? But why do I find this cover good?
1. Limited Colors
There are not too many colors featured on the cover. It consists of shades of red, some orange, black, and white. The colors compliment each other real well in my eyes.
2. Typography
I love the typography This Savage Song has. I find the chalk-like texture of the letters beautiful and the swirls some letters have. The title stands out well against the cover's dark background.
3. The Image
My favorite part of this cover has to be the photograph. It is a violin and on the inside of that violin, you can see what could be interpreted as an alleyway. I love that image, not just for its beauty, but for the fact that both elements play a key role in the story. ------------
Everyone's opinions of a good YA cover vary. Though tons of people recognize those traits that are seen everywhere on covers and it just gets annoying. Readers like to see variation in covers, making each unique in their own way that separate them from tropes.
I apologize for not talking as much about the subject as I wanted to. I may make another part based on covers, even showing more examples of bad covers as well as those that are unique and stunning to look at.
