Friday, February 22, 2013

Leggin’ It



Having already written once on this page about the attractions of crime novels exploiting shapely women’s legs to capture buyers’ attention on bookstore shelves, I now feel quite inured to any further criticism of my male fascination with such fleshy appendages. Therefore, let me put forth this question: Was publisher Mysterious Press wise in switching up the front cover of Thomas Perry’s new standalone novel, The Boyfriend?

The jacket above--designed by Carlos Beltrán and using a stock photo from FabioFilzi/Getty Images--is the one you’ll find on the finished book, which its flap copy describes as “a riveting, sexy novel of unbearable suspense.” The one below appeared on advance copies of Perry’s book. Which would you be more likely to purchase?

2 comments:

Chad Eagleton said...

Maybe it's just me, but the two different covers give a completely different feel to the woman on the front, and the book by proxy. While both have short skirts on, the bottom one seems more like a normal girlfriend who's playing it a little risky, maybe for a night out they haven't had in a while. The angle of her stance and the way her ankles look in her shoes, she's maybe not use to the heels. The woman on the top, however, she's worn a short skirt before and knows how to work it and her heels.

Karl said...

Interesting compare-and-contrast. I like the advance-copy cover better. The model looks far more human and real, partly because of her believable proportions, partly because of looking a little awkward in her heels, as Chad noted. The release-copy model looks like a figment of Photoshop's imagination; phony.

Also, the color scheme and composition of the advance-copy cover are darker, grittier, more ominous and threatening.

Those factors combine to give (if you're VERY optimistic) a faint promise that there just might be something interesting in the book.

I like the use of partially see-through text in both.