OK, how do you feel when a book being made into a movie or TV series gets a movie tie-in cover? And if it's the only one you're able to find in stores right before the film/series is released?
In 2011, as the film of Something Borrowed was nearing release, I went to find the find the book at Barnes and Noble. I don't recall if it was the only cover available, but I ended up getting the one with the movie poster. If that was the only one available at the time, then I had to take what I could get. I know it would still be the same book. In many cases, the movie cover actually has more artwork than the original cover, as is the case below.
When the new Dune movie was about to be released, many people on Facebook were saying that they wanted to find a copy of the book that didn't have the movie cover. That, however, was the only one I could find. My mom had read Dune back in the 1980s before the first film came out. While book hunting at thrift stores and monthly library book sales, I kept an eye out for a used copy of Dune, but to no avail. I ended up getting the movie cover book from Target. Again, sometimes you have to take what you can get.
I managed to find a used copy of Gone Girl sometime in 2013 before I learned of the upcoming movie. At the same time and place, I found a copy of Orange is the New Black after the series had premiered, but with the original cover. There was more than one movie tie-in edition for this one.
What is your take on movie tie-in covers?
Posted to Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight.
Movie tie-in covers don't bother me. Usually if I'm buying the book, it's because I saw the movie and loved it enough to want to read the original work it was based on.
ReplyDeleteI avoid them when I can. The movie's relationship to the book is often sketchy to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI know why publishers do it but it still irritates me. I especially hate it when the covers are changed to match the movie and then the book no longer matches the other books in the series.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand them, BUT I find they're often cheaper at used book stores than the original cover. Which is their only redeeming value. Not to slam movie poster designers, but I want the art that goes with the book- the art an artist was paid to produce for the book. Even if it's "bad", it's still an integral part of the book's birth into the world!
ReplyDeleteSo, I usually don't like them (unless it is The 100 heh), mostly because I know I will end up only picturing the characters as the actors then! I like having a blank slate, I guess? I also feel like most people in general don't like them, so I am not sure why publishers do them so often, seems like a waste honestly. I get that they do it because they want people to "recognize" the book from the movie/show images but... still, no.
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