Listmania Monday: Cover redesigns

An open letter to young adult publishers.

Dear publishers,

We, the readers, have a serious bone to pick with you. You publish so many amazing books for us to read. You hold giveaways and send your authors out on cross-country tours that allow us to interact with our favorites. You give us series, even when it's not entirely necessary, just because you know we want more. Thanks for all these wonderful things. In return, we buy these books. We anticipate releases years in advance and wait anxiously for our beloved characters' return in each new adventure. We share our favorites with our friends, request that our libraries buy each new installment,  and sometimes, we buy multiple editions just so we can own that super-exclusive content, be it a new extra short story, a scene from another character's pov, the first chapter of the next book in the series, or even just a special holographic version of the color. Or maybe we also want an ecopy so we can take it on vacation without lugging the physical book.

Whatever our reasoning may be, please believe us when we say you really don't have to worry about our buying your books. What we DON'T like is having to buy multiple copies because your design & marketing teams changed their mind about the covers midway through a series and now you're publishing an entirely different set of covers. Sure, the new covers are sometimes lovely, but we readers are actually quite visual. We like our bookshelves to be perfect. We'd like the covers to match, please-and-thank-you. We also like the format to match, and that gets wonky when you republish the older book(s) with the new covers only in paperback. Dedicated fans loooove a matching hardcover set, particularly first editions, if we can get them so we'd really appreciate it if you would desist with the crazy redesign trend because it's driving us crazy and hitting us in the wallet...which affects our future book budget. So please, when you think you should go in a new direction with the covers, think of us fans first. Publish the rest of the series to match....and then redesign for a special edition. Let us pick our favorite cover design and have a matching set, instead of two partials created from an eclectic mixture of two sets of covers and formats.

Sincerely,

your customers

Okay, guys, you know the drill. Which cover redesign broke your heart the most? Beth Revis's Across the Universe trilogy destroyed me upon redesign. I know she loved it, but the covers for AtU and AMS were GORGEOUS while the redesign was just okay. I mean, I get it, but I am still not over it. Vampire Academy was frustrating, particularly as I can't get hardcovers of Frostbite and Shadow Kiss, but at least I had Richelle sign my first editions. That made me really happy. I'm pleased with both the redesigns for Jackson Pearce's Fairytale Retellings and Stephanie Perkins's Anna/Lola/Isla, but that whole matching set thing will elude us all with those, unless anyone is patient enough to wait for all the paperbacks. Thoughts? Did I leave any out? Let me know!

**This post will eventually have pictures, but I'm still working on that.

Across the Universe trilogy - Beth Revis
Anna/Lola/Isla companion series - Stephanie Perkins
Crewel and Altered - Gennifer Albin
Curse Workers trilogy - Holly Black
Fairytale Retellings series - Jackson Pearce
The Princess Diaries series - Meg Cabot
Shatter Me trilogy - Tahereh Mafi
Vampire Academy series - Richelle Mead
The Vincent Boys series - Abbi Glines