Spice and Wolf's Contemptible Cover - Okay, who thought THIS was a good idea?

If it gets somebody to flip through the pages, the cover's already done its job. Once that happens, they're actually able to see that it's mostly text. Then they'll actually be able to read said text.

Half the battle of bookstore novel sales is getting people to take a look inside rather than just moving on down the shelf.

EDIT: And yes, bookstore browsers DO start at the beginning. There's a reason that agents and editors only look at the first couple of pages of a submission before tossing the manuscript onto the slush pile.
 
Why not a woman? whats the big deal? It was done in a tasteful artsy way so why not? I think this is just a case of Americans being to sensitive to any hint of sexuality. Owwwww, nude women. Must be sleazy.

On the other hand, how on earth does that cover represent the theme of the book?
 
I like the US cover a little better for a novel. I don't like novels that have really specific representations of the main characters on their covers, it feels like the book is insisting I imagine them the way the cover artist draws them. So this is just abstract enough and perfectly tasteful, more about wildness and freedom than sex.

The other one would work better on a comic book, though. Anyone who sees it in America is going to think it's a comic book, pick it up and flip it open, realize it's not a comic book and probably get pissed and put it back on the shelf. The American cover at least screams novel.

Also, I think with most people you'd probably get more weird looks for the comic style cover, since it also clearly features a sexualized fox girl who also looks a bit underage.

But neither are that good.
 
well, i have only the little of the manga (very little) that ive read to base this off of, but i don't think that cover matches the series at all, should've kept the original, but what do i know?
 
I love libraries and bookstores. I've watched enough people - outside the manga isle - thurab through books and put them back on the shelves. I even do so myself.

Authors often have little or no say about covers, but any images inside are usually there only if the author wants them there. Publishers run on already thin margins, and the cost of a few extra pages for illustration adRAB up. Books need covers, so those are a given. If I've avoided judging a book by its cover, I'm certainly going to give more weight to what's printed inside, illustrations included. I often assume those things illustrate the contents to some extent.

I'll believe what I've seen first hand. Editors and agents have a job to do. If the beginning sucks, they're not going to waste their time - the rest probably sucks too. Emulating bookstore browsers is irrelevant. Can I assume that you're not an agent or an editor and that you've never looked past the first pages, which you read linearly from the first word, when browsing? Can that even be literally considered browsing, in the sense of browsing a novel?

The people complaining are fans of a book about a female who seems like she's naked half the time. The barbie-doll anatomy of the franchise's official artwork still manages to be more explicit than this cover, so no, American sensitivity to sexuality isn't the issue. If I should say that the cover is neither tasteful nor artsy, I wouldn't be talking about the fact that it's a nude girl.

It's a completely literal "photographic" representation of the main character on the cover. Soooo, yeah.

If you think the original is clearly sexualized, err... I don't know what else to say to that.

Heh, no, I don't think it's that great either. It's at least not the best of the original artwork...

--Romey
 
I actually liked that. I thought it was appropriate for the series. It was something special Geneon wanted to do. And, I feel that it was appropriate for the series.

Here's your cover.

In all seriousness, Yen is owned by a major book publisher. They know what covers would work to sell books. And, I think the cover they chose is somewhat tasteful and artistic. It is a wolf goddess. And, they could have done a lot worse. Like incorporating money into that cover.
 
The folks complaining - some of them anyway - are concerned that the cover looks trashy. They can deal with people thinking whatever in regard to the original cover, but being seen reading a trashy romance novel, something furry, something smutty, or outright porn is just too much to ask. I think the trashy romance novel angle has some weight to it, but I don't spend much time reading fiction in public, so that's not a personal concern. It's still an ugly cover and a pointless change that won't help sales as expected.

Say all you want about the US being puritanical, but book stores aren't run by book burning fascists. There's plenty of nudity. Check out the art book sections if you want to see nudity on covers. Most will be painted or drawn, but there are nipples! The horror! I'd also be surprised if you couldn't find at least one other book with a photograph of a nude man or woman, with the "naughty bits" hidden just as much as this cover. Yen Press is trying to appeal to a wider audience; they might be misguided in their approach, but I don't believe they're stupid. Normal everyday people read books, magazines, and newspapers in public with trashier covers and definitively lurid content.

There's a volume of the Japanese Spice & Wolf DVD release with a nude Horo/Holo on the cover. It's not a great cover either, but it is what it is. You wouldn't see the same people complaining if the US DVD release featured it. I doubt we'll see it, not because of nudity issues, but because our market favors more compact releases.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the new cover will cause S&W to be a smashing financial success. Maybe Yen Press will have the good will to eventually release a hard bound version with the original cover or at least something better looking. We'll see, won't we?

--Romey
 
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but even though this light novel is mostly text, it does have some cartoon illustrations too, correct? If so, a live action cover shouldn't misrepresent what (some of) the content is. The fact that the woman is naked on the cover has little to do with it, and truthfully, Holo IS apparently nude many times in this story, and the photo is tastefully done.

Oh well, at least we always have the anime DVD art.
 
*reaRAB through other posts* Dude, I had no idea there were so many prudes on this forum. I'm tempted to scan in a bunch of my life drawings and post 'em here just for the hell of it.
 
I don't see what the problem is in all honesty. I prefer the look of the original cover but its not like this book has two people having sex or anything too explicit. Its just a shadowed naked woman that that's suppose to be a realistic interpretation of the main character. If the content inside of the book was drastically altered I could see a cause for complaint. But a cover? That's just bellyaching.

What is it with anime/manga fans always making a mountain out of a molehill? A company could edit one line of dialogue from an episode and I bet fans would still pop up a blood vessel.

Jesus man... just jesus...
 
The talking here has been quite calm, so I'd appreciate people not projecting dissatisfaction with perpetually outraged fans onto this entire thread just because you don't like the title or something.

Something that's worth mentioning is that interested fans can get around this by getting the Deceraber issue of Yen Press' magazine, which will have a slip cover with the original art that you can put onto the book.

I'm extremely doubtful that this move will somehow give the book mainstream appeal that it wouldn't have had otherwise, but whatever.
 
Well, it appears that this old issue has reached a compromise of sorts.

So, everyone wins--allegedly, at any rate. It seems to me that Yen Press has backpedaled a bit on their marketing strategy if the Japanese illustration is going to be on the front by default. In regard to novel 1, Rightstuf is selling the dust jacket with the original illustration if you buy the book from there.

If you follow the first link, incidentally, you'll see that both covers for novel 2 are indisputably tasteful. FWIW.
 
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