Ditch the cover - join our merry bandwagon.
I don’t know if this is a thing to be especially proud of … and I’m not quite sure if this is quite the brilliant sales campaign that I had in mind, however … it would seem that I’ve created something of a bandwagon.
It might, of course, be better if this trundling bandwagon was actually selling more copies of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
As it is though … a fair number of people are now fully in agreement that the Clavier cover is … EXECRABLE.
Take that most brilliant of Stormtroopers, Juliet Doyle, who has launched a stunning BLITZKRIEG on Idle Tom’s cover:
"The book deserves so much better.
It certainly deserves to be read, and I fear that it won’t reach a fraction of its potential readership whilst sporting this misguided cover.
So, I’m all for Bill’s sticker idea - the bigger the better.
But ultimately the book needs a radical re-design - one which beckons seductively, attracting the eye of the book-browser, and which captures both the freshness of first love and the age-old tragedies of jealousy and betrayal. Or, failing that, simply a cover that’s Nice instead of one which Isn’t Very Nice At All. "
My hero! Juliet’s exactly the sort of gun-toting trouper that you need in the front-line. In fact, I’ll soon be recommending her for one of Idle Tom’s gallantry medals.For more from Juliet, check out her crackling blog here.
Also on our merry bandwagon, we have Sherry, who writes:
It would be extremely difficult to invent a worse cover! What a crime. If I get a copy, will immediately have to make a paper jacket for it.
And meanwhile Diane writes:
"Mmm, not a cover you’d want to show off in public. Maybe issue a concealer stick with each copy - to cover up the offending artwork? I hear that Yves St Laurent’s Touche Eclat is the business. But even Boots’ cheapest own brand would do the trick."
* What do you reckon? Have you ever seen a worse book cover? Could it be the worst book cover in history? Have your say!