One of the PW blogs has an opinion piece on cover reveals today – spoiler alert, the author is annoyed by them, at best. Various commenters, however, respond to her question about why they’re done and whether people like them with a variety of insights. Basically, it looks like publishers use cover reveals as a way to send out some actual news about a title and remind people that it’s coming, to build a little excitement over something legitimate – and most readers, at least avid ones, respond in kind, getting excited about an actual bit of content, rather than just another “hey, this is a thing” reminder.
That’s why we do cover reveals – to build some buzz and excitement, and also because we’re excited when we get an awesome new cover in.
But what do you think? Do you care about cover reveals? Would you want to see more about covers – how they’re made, what some of the rejected options were, read thoughts from the designers or artists?
I like cover reveals, or at least I like to share an author’s excitement when they find out what their new book is going to look like. And in some authors’ cases it can add to the hype if they drop clues about how te cover relates to the story while adding an air of mystery (my friend Charlie just posted her new cover with a note that the man on the upper of the two images isn’t ether of the main protagonists, and now we’re all desperate to find out more).
Ooooh, that sort of tidbit is the kind of thing I LOVE seeing on authors’ sites and when talking about books. Note to self!