Cover Launch: BEST SERVED COLD
- - November 11th, 2009
Now in bite-sized format: the mass market edition of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Now even more bad-ass.
I may have gone over this before, but you may ask, “Why would you change the cover from Hardcover to Paperback?” and my answer usually is “Why not?!” — there’s always more than one way to portray the story in a book, and why not take the opportunity to do something new and maybe even attract a few new readers that you may have missed the first time around. There’s some seriously publishing-geeky conversations over here between Editorial and Art about audience, readers, how people browse in bookstores vs. airports vs. bog box chains, etc. but in my book I will usually always go for reshuffling the elements at least — keeping the art, but playing with the crop, size, order, type on a cover. (That is, unless the Creative Director hasn’t had a lot of sleep that week, or some other art emergency is draining manpower when the cover change comes up for discussion, so don’t go back thru the backlist and nitpick me, ok? Ha.)
In the specific case of this book, you may recall there was some serious debate over the cover design for the hardcover (which had much to do with the gender issues and conventions rife in sci-fi/fantasy art) in which there was some insinuation that since we had an icky girl on the cover that the book could not possibly be as bad-ass as Mr. Abercrombie’s fabulous prior books and we were all sell-outs to the urban fantasy machine. (Noting that the main character he wrote was a female, so really, what else were we supposed to do, pretend she wasn’t there?)
Since the hardcover is out now and selling very well (It is a great read, so you should go get the hardcover instead of waiting for this version next year), I imagine Joe’s very dedicated fanbase have come to appreciate, or at least settle for, the hardcover design. So when the chance to redesign for mass market came along, we all agreed here at Orbit HQ that we should just go for an in-your-face, big-red-type, blood-stained, testosterone-sprayed cover with a big bad-ass snake on it (yes, the snake does have to do with the story). Enjoy!
November 11th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Much better than Orbit’s first attempt. Good job at creating a cover that captures Joe’s novels, but will also appeal to the non-Fantasy fan.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I absolutely LOVE it. God damn, if I had a copy of that book, I would carry it around face out so that people could see how bad ass it is.
November 12th, 2009 at 6:43 am
I like it. But I was also a big fan of the US hardcover art (not put off at all that it features a girl — she’s much different then the usual urban fantasy girl crap). Anyway, I’ll going to purchase this no matter what the cover looks like since I loved the First Law trilogy. Another thing this mmpb cover has going for it is that it’s not embarrassing (like the US versions of Steven Erikson’s Gardens Of The Moon and Memories Of Ice to name two.) Good job.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Hey all, a quick note on comment moderation.
We try to be evenhanded about approving negative comments, however we don’t like approving comments that we find insulting to authors, especially authors we don’t publish. (we’re funny like that)
There’s a fine line between “I don’t like series/author/x” and “series /author x is rubbish.” Woodge’s comment above is right on that line. The comment that merited this note was on the other side.
The best way to know which side of the line your comment is falling is to ask yourself if it would be insulting to say your comment to the author in person. If you’re the kind of person who likes insulting people in person, go one step further ask yourself: “if an unbiased observer saw me say this to an author in person would they think I was a jerk?” If so, chances are it won’t get approved.
If you’re looking for a place where you can let your hair down and tell the world what you really think about something without fear of being cautioned, we’d recommend any of the great independent blogs listed on our blogroll.
(I should also mention that comment that merited this note wasn’t insulting to Joe – it was inadvertently insulting to another author. It was otherwise a great comment, but the one offhanded remark about another series put it over the line.)
OK, play ball.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I like it and it looks like it might have a good chance of pulling some new readers in. If it was anything other than MMPB, I would pick it up without a doubt. I am not at all a fan of the original cover art for the US release, but this is a definite step up. Keep up the good work, there are those of us who appreciate it.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am
I love it – the First Law covers and the Best Served Cold hardback cover were good, but getting a bit cliched I think. However, they did have a sort of Abercrombie brand feel to them. Are you not worried that you might lose this easy recognition, or that some more casual readers might think this book is a different type of beast all together – i.e. a different genre.
Although I guess the big sword is a bit of a give away isn’t it as far as the genre goes.