New covers for old books.

[denouement16.livejournal.com]

Laurell has gone on and on about the new cover art for the Anita series, but it never sunk in that this meant the early books were being repackaged again.   This is the third round of covers for the first eight books.  None of the other series I have read have gone through so many repackagings.  Are some of the completists out there buying the old books with the new covers?  LKH says the new covers are to get away from the sexualized imagery, but it seems to me that the goal is to get existing fans to shell out even more money for books they already read. 
At least putting these kinds of covers on the old books isn't the kind of false advertising the Blood Noir cover was!
Link to LKH's page with the new covers:
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/works.html

Comments

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

It all looks like false advertising, tbh. I've never read the AB series, but it never once came across to me as gritty as those covers seem to represent.

She wants to appeal to a larger crowd, to trick them into thinking AB is all bad ass when really the central character just whores around and tries to be all "bad ass" when she can barely cover her own ass at that. Chances are she and her publishing house are freaking out at how little the books are selling (except for her devoted fan base). Or at least thats what I think.

[rosencrantz23.livejournal.com]

But if she covered her ass, that'd cut into the amount of sex she could have per book...

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

When the books first came out, the early ones, they had interesting, noir/ pulp style covers. The sexualised covers came in much later. I have to admit that I don't like the newest covers much at all - they'd put me off, to be honest, if I didn't already know what horrors awaited between them. :/

[denouement16.livejournal.com]

I have the original books. That's why I'm wondering about this 3rd repackaging :)

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA, is that a deer antler on Obsidian Butterfly? Ran out of variations on the theme of "something sharp or stabby" pretty fast, huh? I remember seeing the cover of Blood Noir and wondering if the resemblance of the new cover art to a slightly less grisly Saw movie poster was intentional.

I think my paperback Discworld run has more different cover-art styles than Anita Blake, but that's probably the only one.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

There was a tweet aaaaages ago (and I'm too tired to slog through her twitter to find it) about how it wasn't her decision, but the publisher to try and set her apart from all the clones out there. Which is a fair point, because when AB:VH had the sexy bodypart covers, there were all the backporn and low-riding jeans heroine pose covers of the wannabes too, and everything looked/read kinda samey.

So on the one hand, I'm kicking back and waiting for the new influx of clones. But on the other, the UK Jim Butcher covers did it first (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Storm-Front-Dresden-Case-Files/dp/1841493988/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261437281&sr=8-4) (but with actual relevance), and to a degree Kim Harrison's repackaged covers (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Witch-Walking-Rachel-Morgan/dp/0007236093/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261437399&sr=1-3). I say Harrison, because of the bright colours with stark contrast.

From a completist side of things, I...I think I'm a very bad collector? I'm not really interested in getting all versions of the covers, but I will probably go to great pains to get the originals (or would, if I didn't already have them). I really loved the first run of the UK covers with the Anita Action Pose Gallery that came out right when the US Sexy Bodypart repackaging came around (I hated the Sexy Bodypart covers), and those ones are pretty hard to find now. The UK covers now tend to be a face that takes up most of the cover and something vaguely related going on in the background.

I think the new AB:VH covers could be cool if they weren't for AB:VH. Or if the covers had something to do with the actual books. On a small photo safari the other day, I took a photo of the Laughing Corpse (http://pics.livejournal.com/dwg/pic/000ka5cc) and am so WTAF over how it's got a black butterfly on there. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ZOMBIES/COMEDY CLUB? NO REALLY. If it had been the Obsidian Butterfly cover, it'd be awesome. I don't understand what's going on in the marketing department, but I want to have a stern talk with who signed off on these. :\

That said, the UK covers of the MG books have been a million lightyears better than the US ones, simply because there's less WTFery going on and not quite so neon magenta or cyan to sear your eyes. Alas, I have US covers on my MG hardbacks.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

The original US ones were very much pulp covers, like this one here :

http://ipac.selco.info/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&aspect=power&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=rw&ri=&index=ISBNEX&term=051513449X&oper=and&x=12&y=9&aspect=power&index=.TW&term=&oper=and&index=.SW&term=&oper=and&index=.SE&term=&ultype=&uloper=%3D&ullimit=&ultype=&uloper=%3D&ullimit=&sort=#focus

I didn't like the UK run with the Anita Action poses, as by that time Buffy was on TV and it was a very obvious attempt to corner the teenage market.

I think that's supposed to be a death's head moth, a la 'Silence of the Lambs' on that copy of 'The Laughing Corpse'? But it has nothing to do with the book!

[denouement16.livejournal.com]

"Or if the covers had something to do with the actual books."

That's exactly it! The new cover style could have actually used something from the early books, but they don't. A machete dripping blood would be an obvious choice since that's what Anita actually uses in her "day" job.

just sayin'

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I really miss the old Jim Butcher covers *sigh*. I am buying up all the first Dresden books in HC (because i have torn through the mass markets) and the new covers are so dull....

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I had all of the old pulp covers in paperback up to Blue Moon and then the hardback for Obsidian Butterfly, which was the first one to come out with colored body parts. I like the original covers. At least they had some relation to the book.

[gator-grrrl.livejournal.com]

I have all the old pulp covers and the first paperback edition of Obsidian Butterfly. Quit buying any format after Incubus Dreams, which I couldn't finish. The old covers are certainly the most appropriate for the books.

When I really like an author, I tend to be a completist, but never to the point of buying a whole new set of books just because they have new covers.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I only buy a recovered book if I like the new cover better than the old one. Or else one copy of the book goes to the friendly local used book store.

[alex-lebeau.livejournal.com]

I only buy a recovered book if the old one's been demolished or lost. Which has yet to really happen: I thought I had lost my copy of "Cry to Heaven" by Anne Rice, but found the exact cover copy. Then I lost "Exit to Eden" and found an even older edition.

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

It always makes me sort of shake my head- she's worried about sexualized cover imagery, but there's so much sexualized content in the latter half of the series that at least they were advertising the product correctly. I feel sorry for anyone who jumps in based on the less sexy, more powerful covers only to stumble into the ardeur and all that crap eight books in or so.

[naeko.livejournal.com]

I *don't* understand where she says that her books got people slapped by old ladies even in the original US covers. They were not SEXY AT ALL! I dug the originals and I was not happy when they recovered all of them the first time.

[flirtswithfan.livejournal.com]

I think the new covers are certainly going to stand out in the romance section where some stores are now shelving her books. These new covers might be a bad attempt to have them reclassified as horror.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I wish LKH good luck with that. Also from my book store:

[world-dancer.livejournal.com]

My BFF owns a used book store, and has the early half of the series in Scifi/Fantasy and the latter half of the series in Romance/Erotica. And she won't sell them to minors. (Also won't sell Breaking Dawn to minors and does make sure adults really know what's going on in the book before they buy for their tweens).

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I can think of a few authors who get repackaged this much. Stephen King, R.A. Salvatore, and Nora Roberts all get new packages with every reprint, it seems.

And in the romance genre, holy cow, Catherine Coulter. That's a sneaky one, because they rename her books and make them seem like they're new.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

At least the Nora Roberts ones have a deal on the front that tells you it's the first time a work has been published, to cut down on the confusion.

Or the deal with the In Death series where they went back and reissued the paperbacks to match the new (somewhat ugly) cover scheme. My hardcovers show a progression in style, which is pretty neat.

DV

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

Putting some Interesting New Covers on old books isn't anything particularly unusual, as far as I've seen, especially when the old covers gradually fall out of style. I've always thought it would be pretty neat to do a book of the covers of certain 'classic' books have been repackaged for each new decade/era/fashion. I saw an edition of 1984 that looked like a classic pulp sci-fi novel, with a cover painting of Julia in Seductive 50's Babe Mode rubbing up against Winston in a crowd.

[darkese.livejournal.com]

The new Saw knock off covers are ok. I don't like them for these books because they have nothing to do with the story. I usually go back to look closer at a cover when I'm done a book, I like it when you realize all the stuff you thought just looked cool when you bought the book is actually in the story.

On their own though they aren't particularly inspired or the type of covers I could go back at for my second look. I wouldn't feel any need to hide the covers either. They're meh.

The Flirt cover is just bad though imo. I picture LKH's publisher walking into the designers office and saying 'You've got 3 minutes and 43 seconds to design a cover. This is the name of the book, this is the blurb, author name and some previous covers to inspire you. GO!' ..and that's the story I'm sticking with.

[fishsanwitt]

Oh Lord. I just read some pages from her latest effort and - gross. Just gross. She needs an editor - STAT!

[denelian.livejournal.com]

it seems most common to do a radical change in covers in Sci-fi, and not very common to do so in Romance. and not all the common to do in Horror, either.
Urban Fantasy books tend to fall to either side of the divide, depending on if they are marketed more towards sci-fi-ish people or romance-ish people. LKH has been trying HARD to *NOT* be "lumped in with" Romance, and i think that THAT is why the change in covers - so that they don't look like "Romance titles"

she fucking writes [bad, unsexy] erotica, but wants to be marketed as Action/Noir.
why are her publishers letting this continue?

[denouement16.livejournal.com]

Because enough people still buy her crap. Divine Misdemeanors made the New York Times list. Her publishers probably won't make her change until the books quit selling. What's really depressing is that there are so many people who want to buy poorly written erotica when there's so much well-written stuff out there.

[yaoihuntresse.livejournal.com]

Man, some of those covers have no effort put in them.

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Bah, they suck. I prefer the original covers too, although most of the AB books I own (wah, I still own 1 to 9! Can't get rid of them!!!) have the half-naked women on them. Only Blue Moon has the pulp cover... O__O