Random cover musings

[Smiley]

1. What was the reasoning behind billing novels during a certain time period as "The New Novel by Author Name?"

2. Wouldn't it be nice if some pre-release cover art showed what the spine looked like? It's probably not worth the time and expense to put such a picture on the web, but it would have made it much easier to find Forged in Fire at the bookstore today.

 

[Trent Roman]

Smiley said:
1. What was the reasoning behind billing novels during a certain time period as "The New Novel by Author Name?"

Name recognition, authors who have proven so popular with the readership that the name becomes like a brand, one they hope will be associated with quality. The same way one might advertise "The New Film by Quinton Tarantino".

2. Wouldn't it be nice if some pre-release cover art showed what the spine looked like? It's probably not worth the time and expense to put such a picture on the web, but it would have made it much easier to find Forged in Fire at the bookstore today.

I've not seen the book yet - does it not say "Star Trek" and "Forged in Fire" on the spine?

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Smiley]

Trent,

I'm not talking about an advertisement. This is on the byline of the cover. See The Romulan Prize (TNG #26) for an example.

The second point is more of a pipe dream. Yes, the title is on the spine, but if I had known that the spine was orange flames with a black top and bottom, then I could have spotted the book more easily.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Smiley said:
1. What was the reasoning behind billing novels during a certain time period as "The New Novel by Author Name?"

Typically in that era, which was the late 80s and early 90s, when the book went back to press the phrase "New Novel" would be removed. "A New Novel by So-and-So" would be, along with the embossed cover, a visual sign that this was, in fact, a first printing. And very likely recent-ish.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Smiley said:
I'm not talking about an advertisement. This is on the byline of the cover. See The Romulan Prize (TNG #26) for an example.

Well, the cover *is* an advertisement for the book, after all. That's why marketing is involved in what it looks like

What Trent said applies. It is/was about name/brand recognition. It's not typically done with tie-in books, as the tie-in property itself is the brand, but obviously there have been some exceptions/experiments.

 

[Christopher]

This wasn't an experiment, but something that was done pretty routinely on Trek books in the '70s and '80s. Originally, they didn't actually have the ST logo on the cover, but just the title and a caption saying something like "A dazzling new STAR TREK novel" (The Klingon Gambit), "A magnificent new STAR TREK novel" (The Covenant of the Crown), "An incredible new STAR TREK novel" (The Prometheus Design), etc., as a way of clarifying just what the book was. By Web of the Romulans they ran out of adjectives and settled down on "The new STAR TREK novel." But when they started adding the actual ST logo above the book title (in 1987 with Chain of Attack), that became redundant, so they started using "The new novel by ______" on first printings (with subsequent printings using "A/the novel by" instead).

There was even more variety on the Bantam covers; Spock Must Die said "A STAR TREK NOVEL" above the title and "An exciting new story of interplanetary adventure" below it; The Galactic Whirlpool said "More spectacular STAR TREK adventures"; and many of the Bantams said "A/The new STAR TREK experience."

 

[Smiley]

The practice makes more sense to me now that I know the subsequent printings took off the word "new." Still, I'm glad that Pocket did away with the practice. The covers look classier without it, and the copyright page lets the buyer know how recent a book is.