Let's Discuss: Early Cover Changes

 

So it was as I was reading an email I was noticing that a few books that are on my TBR pile that I still need to read recently had cover changes from their hardcover to paperback format and it makes me wonder...why change so soon?

Early Cover Changes

I mean, I get it. It's a marketing thing. But then with the change...I'm thinking it's not all THAT different. So why change? What was "not working" for the first book? I'm just curious really. I mean, yes, we have all dealt with deplorable cover changes mid-series or the dreaded "let's change the cover scheme/look for this GRAND FINALE! Readers won't care!" We've all been there. We've all ranted, rioted, or had our eye just constantly twitch...

Here's The Changing Man by Tomi Oyemakinde, the left is the hardcover from last year and on the right we have the paperback. So a little different in terms of setting. The font is slightly different in size and style, but still had that squiggly look going on. The girl is still in uniform and we still see a creepy shadow with red eyes. Both are still rather chilling, but I guess, I just don't get why the change? I would think that a new cover look would be more costly to a publisher...but I really don't know. I know cover changes tend to be about drawing in more readers for more $$$ or the previous one feels "outdated," but that's usually from a beloved series from X amount of years ago and is getting revamped. Or some other such fabricated reason. But these have the same themes and feels...so I guess I just don't get it.

Here's another one that was in the same newsletter! I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me by Jamison Shea...also on my TBR pile from last year. Another horror themed novel, so the overall "feel" of the covers didn't change so much. Since I still need to read it, perhaps I am missing out on some of the symbolism of the differences here. They are a little alike, a girl is floating in reddish water, not sure if it's blood, it come be since it's horror and you just see her face. Then comes the paperback and we have what still looks like blood dripping all over. Pretty sure it is blood running down her face, but the pillars behind her look bloody. I know, it's red light, but the imagery projects a lot of "bloody" thoughts going on. I almost thought her hair was just a bloody mess, but I am seeing it more as red light behind her. Both are chilling and evoke the right spooky read feel. But again...why the change? The sequel cover fits with the first one I feel like. 

I guess I am just baffled with these "early cover changes." Whether there's a sequel or not. What makes a publisher decide a new cover is needed from hardcover to paperback? Is there some sort of copyright happening with the artist? Is that a thing? There are some thing I don't know in regards to the publishing world. This is when I wish we still had the classic RT Booklovers' Convention because I think this would make an interesting panel. Probably more so with publishers than authors, since we know sometimes authors get very little input with their covers.

I guess it just baffles me when a cover gets changed or in these cases "tweaked" so soon. These were debut authors from the looks of Goodreads, so yeah, I guess I am "perplexed" by this.

What's your opinion or stance on these hardcover to paperback changes? I mean, the one is a standalone and the other is a part of a duology, but with the cover schemes both covers for book 1 look fine next to book 2. In that sense...it almost makes you wish publishers could keep the theme the same instead of doing a complete 180 spin on some covers.

Books from the Backlog #105

Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. This is a fun meme hosted by Carole @ Carole's Random Life in Books.

Things seem to be going well for Liv Silver: she’s adjusting to her new home in London; she has a burgeoning romance with Henry Harper, one of the cutest boys in school; and the girl who’s been turning her dreams into nightmares, Anabel, is now locked up. But serenity doesn’t last for long.

It seems that Liv’s troubles are far from over—in fact, suddenly they’re piling up. School gossip blogger Secrecy knows all of Liv’s most intimate secrets, Henry might be hiding something from her, and at night Liv senses a dark presence following her through the corridors of the dream world. Does someone have a score to settle with Liv?

I added Kerstin Gier's Dream On to my TBR in January of 2016. Pretty sure I bought most of her books from Book Outlet or other bargain hunting finds! I remember hearing mixed things about her stuff, mostly how it translated from the original German to English, things got a little wonky from what I recall. I still wanted to give it a try and when bargains were found or free books offered, I took them up! Lol.

 

Can't Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

After escaping the mist, Kiara and Jude are pursued by a vengeful god hell-bent on stopping them from breaking the curse that torments the realm, in this sequel to the highly anticipated debut YA fantasy, To Kill a Shadow…

I still need to read the first book, but now that I know for sure it's a duology, I'm glad I waited! It's better for my sanity if duologies are read back-to-back! Lol.

TITLE: To Shatter the Night
AUTHOR: Katherine Quinn
PUBLISHER: Entangled Teen
GENRE: YA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: December 3, 2024

Let's Discuss: Author Swag

 

So I thought of another discussion which I may or may not have talked about somewhere down the line, but revisiting after a few years is always fun too! Today's topic...

Author Swag

As a reader I have always loved author swag! I still do! Although I do find it hard to display the items as times depending on what it is. For the art prints I end up putting these in a photo album of sorts so I can look through them all. I have a few different sizes going on currently and they are already filling up! 2 of them are filled with mainly A Touch of Magic Designs prints because they have some seriously pretty stuff! I have a whole book dedicated to Stephanie Garber pictures of Caraval and OUABH!

Other items I still enjoy, but they end up sitting in a box...or what I like to call a "treasure chest!" Lol. Some things are just hard to display. Also since I am house hunting still, it's not possible to display them since my shelves are all in storage too. I mean, when that day comes and I get to move in and have my shelves up I know I will be overwhelmed as I have shelf displaying things packed away in storage as well and I still occasionally buy another one every now and then.

But with the fun author swag, I am always hard pressed on what to do with them. I do remember one instagram friend had put all her bookmarks into a photo collage sort of thing that I think would be fun! I end up saving the bookmarks I get but I never use them really as I end up using one from my personal collection.

But still, when an author has swag at their signing, I end up taking a piece or two. Especially for character art. It's the "other" items I have trouble trying to display. Since some pieces are so old now, the books aren't really current or relevant even if some are in ongoing series.

I just don't know what to do with it all. I don't want to get rid of it after all this time, but I feel like I need a better thing to do with them all.

What do you do with the author swag you have? Do you display it somehow? For items like bookmarks and other things that are harder to display--unless you're very crafty--what do you do with those? I guess I am just looking for ideas!

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker. 

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a page
3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE
4. Name the title, author, etc.

I feel like I am seeing some of the other seeds of OUABH being planted in this one! I mean I knew Stephanie was slowly getting an idea for it at the time of writing this one, but now I'm wondering how many seeds were coincidental or not. Lol.

"Tella knew she'd found the right place when she saw the door clapper shaped like a broken heart. It felt like a warning that nothing good come from stepping inside." p 145

TITLE: Finale
AUTHOR: Stephanie Garber
PUBLISHER: Flatiron Books
GENRE: YA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

This week's topic is: Top 10 Books I was Assigned to Read in School

*in no particular order
**I pretty much hated every book I was "assigned" to read...so maybe don't read my comment if the book happens to be one of you fave! Lol. The last 2 are ones I actually enjoyed, as an FYI. Lol.

10. HAMLET by William Shakespeare--yeah...I just didn't get this one. Shakespeare was just hard for me as a teen. It was always so confusing. All the metaphor type speech...it confused me endlessly and still does. Lol.
9. ROMEO & JULIET by William Shakespeare--yeah...besides the language style barrier, the actual story of this one aggravated me to no end!
8. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald--when I was required to read this one, I was already in my I WANT TO READ PARANORMALS streak and this story just bored me.

7. GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens--honestly, from the very first line, I knew this book would be the death of me. And for that particular unit in high school English class, it nearly was! Thank you Spark Notes, you saved my bacon!
6. THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain--I don't remember having a strong dislike of this one, just that it bored me as well. I guess Tom Sawyer might have been better as I remember that JTT movie being fun! Lol.
5. MACBETH by William Shakespeare--sorry, William, I just could not get into your stuff.

4. THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown--again, this was probably one of the ones I disliked the least. It was for a fun course I took in college about conspiracies in literature. But overall, I was entirely bored with the book. I was again thick into my paranormal streak at this point and YA Paranormal was FINALLY coming to life!
3. MUMBO JUMBO by Ishmael Reed--this was again for that same college course. It was just very, very confusing. And when I encountered a chapter number that repeated itself, I was ready to throw the book across the room. I didn't of course, I couldn't do that even to a book I disliked...another student did so I lived vicariously through him for that moment! Lol.
2. THE PRINCESS BRIDE by William Goldman--at last! I finally had a college course that brought up a book I ADORED and had read a few times on my own previously! This was another fun one where we read a book, then watched the movie and did some talks about differences and parallels...that kind of thing! Very fun!

1. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas--at last! The one book I actually enjoyed that I was assigned to read in high school came up in my senior year in the English class that I took for fun because I already had all my English credits. This book was the best I was ever forced to read in school! Again, I was in my paranormal craze at the time (and really, that never ended!) so that I enjoyed a book without an ounce of paranormal or fantasy was shocking! I think it was his looooong game of revenge that I enjoyed the most and what kept me intrigued!

Let's Discuss: Cosplaying

 

Do you ever cosplay? I have found over the years that it just wasn't for me. But lately, mainly with Stephanie Garber's books I have found a certain kind of joy to dressing up like my favorite characters even though I have nowhere to go looking like them! For the most part, I've always read Urban Fantasy books, so if the characters weren't sporting leather pants and halter tops--things I just would not ever wear--they were dressed normally, so it is kind of hard to cosplay characters like that. Then with Fantasy books they always wore extravagant dresses that I just can't afford to buy or have made. So cosplaying has always been a bit harder for me budget wise and just overall ability wise.

Cosplaying

Within the last few years, I had been trying to create an Evangeline costume and it finally came together just before ACFTL released! If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen my post that ended up winning one of the prizes for the Pick An Apply for Jacks contest the publisher had!

I had went for Evangeline's "vampire" outfit as I called it from OUABH! Basically what was wearing when Jacks is fighting turning into a vampire! Finding the right wig was the hardest part to be honest! I think I tried two different styles of skirts in two different sizes. The top I found easily enough at Kohls and the gloves and cape were easy to pick as well! Wigs are so hard! Too many of the ones I tried came with bangs styled and they kept drifting into my eyes. I'm not savvy enough to "style" the wig's hair and cut the bangs so that it still looks good. So, you know I buy and return until I find the right one! I think it took me only 3 tries to get the right one! Lol.

And this year, I am spending a pretty penny to fly out to California for Stephanie's Spectacular Holiday party! While I've always wanted to visit California, I'm really only just going for Stephanie's party and then coming home the next day. It's a pricey trip and since I wasn't entirely sure where Stephanie's one event for Spectacular was going to be released, I didn't really have much time to prepare. Initially I thought she was going to tour and I'd go wherever was closest. But since that idea was axed I just had to break into emergency funds for this flight! Prior to the Hurricane, I had thought maybe it'd be in Orlando as I thought that's where Rosie was from or at least that's the event she attended on one of Stephanie's tours, but then that obviously wasn't going to work out either.

So roundabout way of me needing to get back on track to how my next cosplay costume will be for Tella! But since I no longer do Amazon Prime, I have kind of run out of time to do the "buy a wig and return it" thing. Plus I just wasn't feeling the one I did try on and they are really rather expensive. So instead I decided I would let my hair go naturally curly and I will be a brunette version of Tella! Lol. 

I had a nice summer dress that I bought because the coloring made me think of Tella's dress and while it's not a ball gown style, I'm just adding pretty accessories to it to give it the Tella feel and a dash of winter! I'll try to get a picture taken as well somewhere in the night before it gets mangled! Lol.

Have you ever cosplayed? What character would you want to cosplay as if you could have access to all the things costume related?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

Last Week I Re-Read:

Legendary by Stephanie Garber (5 stars)

Currently Re-Reading:

Finale by Stephanie Garber--my plan to re-read the series right to the release of Spectacular kind of backfired as I only have 200 pages or so left of this one! Going to force myself to read only a few pages a day and then next weekend I will have to occupy myself with my neglected diamond art project, then be completely bored on Monday up until Tuesday at 9am! Lol. You might wonder why I don't just pick a short read for in between...well, I'm being weird and don't want to interrupt my Caraval World flow. So there it is. Lol.

What I Plan to Read Next:

 

Spectacular by Stephanie Garber

Other Posts of Interest:

Let's Discuss: Spooky Books, Not Movies
Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays
Can't Wait Wednesday
Books from the Backlog #104
Book Blogger Hop #327
Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves

 

Stacking the Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! The meme is now hosted by Reading Reality.

Another week down! Only one more full week, then the weekend, then a Monday until Spectacular releases! I am SOOOO excited! Espeically since I am spending a boatload to go to California to Stephanie's holiday party! It'll be my first time on the west coast and though I'm only going to Stephanie's event, I hope to one day come back and do something touristy...and include an event with Stephanie again! Lol. I'm already preparing my holiday costume to wear as well! I don't usually dress up for books mainly because it's sooo hard to find a "fantasy" dress that fits the storyline and looks like what I imagine the character was wearing or like in my paranormal books, they just dress normal! Unless they start sporting leather pants and tube tops and I soooo don't dress like that! Not even for a costume of a character I loved! Lol. But for this one I figure I can "winterify" a summer dress I have, as I suspect it might still be warmish in CA in two weeks, plus in the event space as well will likely get warm, so "winterifying" a summer dress is the plan! Lol. 

For this actual week it was somewhat timid. Not much happened the first half but then on Wednesday I had a signing to see Erin Sterling and Ally Condie and it was a lot of fun! Then Thursday I had another signing to meet Kate Golden who I only just recently started reading but I loved the first book of her trilogy and cannot wait to finish it. Which based on the ending she briefly mentioned of book 2, I am SO glad I waited to read that one until I had book 3! Lol.

Here's what I got this week:

The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling--SIGNED!
A Reign of Rose by Kate Golden--SIGNED!

Then I recently created an Amazon order mainly to get some costume pieces to add to my dress and in order to get the free shipping I just threw this book in there, as it was one I was interested in and the price was right to get the rest of my costume accessories! Lol.

A History of Ghosts, Spirits, and the Supernatural by DK Publishing

Then I FINALLY got my copies of the first three Study books from The Bookish Box! I ordered these nearly a year ago, I think it was just one week or less shy of the actual full year. But they arrived at last!

I'm a little meh on the actual covers, but I LOOOOVE the stenciled/sprayed edges! The naked hardcovers are pretty too and I liked the character art on the flipside, so maybe I'll just flip the covers! The Study trilogy was one of my first adult fantasy series I read, so it has a special place in my heart! It also got me friends with Maria as well! So that book boxes were FINALLY giving this classic series some love made me so happy I purchased them with little thought! Now I did hold myself back from purchasing a recent set I saw from another book box company. I wasn't familiar with them and they were doing Valek's trilogy books and I was a little meh on those covers, so couple that with the unfamiliar company and I decided to pass.

Then I got some preorder goodies in the mail this week:

First up is swag of The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich, straight from the UK!
I got a bookmark
a sticker
a signed bookplate
two postcards 

THANK YOU Dawn!!

Then I got The Heart of the World preorder goodies which were character art cards of the covers!

THANK YOU Penguin Teen!

Then at Kate Golden's signing, I got a whole stack of fun character art:

There were stickers &
Character cards!

And that was it for me this week! Definitely more than I expected after last week! What all did you get?

 

Book Blogger Hop #327

 

This meme is hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addict!

This week's question is: Do you have a favorite book or author that you turn to every October to celebrate Halloween? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

MY ANSWER: Not so much. I mean, in October I will try to read some scary books or thrillers from my TBR pile. More often than not though I am usually in event prep mode and am reading books for that. Or as I might possibly be now, as I write this in advance, I might be re-reading the Caraval trilogy for Spectacular later this month! Lol.

But in a perfect world, I'd be reading thrillers or books that border horror!