Discussion Challenge: Ch-Ch-Changes!

So this topic obviously is about:

Cover Changes

It's something we all fear. Maybe we appreciate is sometimes, but let's face it, we fear them! Myself in particular is because they are putting an END to a GREAT cover scheme! And yeah, I have OCD when it comes to my books. Ending the look/size/style/EVERYTHING about the books drives me crazy!!

I can't decide if it's worse when they change them at book 1 or book 3 (in a 3 trilogy) we all know the horror that was almost The Winner's Curse trilogy. I mean to change it at the last book, are you insane?! What's worse is when they decide to do this cover change and yet they release the new book 1 in ONLY paperback! I mean come on! If you're subjecting me to a cover change that I can't do anything about, can't you at least offer the new book 1 in paperback AND hardcover? Is that really so much to ask?!

Here are some examples! Look at how many cover changes there were from ARC to hardcover to paperback!! It's ridiculous! Now granted with the Into the Dark trilogy, the change from ARC to hardcover wasn't too bad. I mean, I did think the first book was called Into the Dark, but that's the series name, so yeah, that needed fixing. But then by the paperback's release I was kind of ehh. Rebel of the Sands though had pretty massive changes. I really liked the ARC cover, the hardcover was gorgeous, the new paperback, eh. It's pretty cool. 

The problem though is the series will never ever ever match. Unless I want to wait out all the years until everything is in paperback. I really really just wish that publishers would offer a hardcover with the newly designed (and sometimes disliked) cover design in hardcover. Because seriously! You would think by now publishers would understand how much readers deplore cover changes. Whether you do it at book 2 or book 3, you're pretty much guaranteed to make readers mad. 

Here's another example from one of my most favorite series, the Study trilogy (the first one!) by Maria V. Snyder! It had a great cover concept in the beginning! I loved it! Granted the cover model had to be changed for the second book because I think she stopped modeling. But still, the concept was the same. And then by the third (and at the time, final book)? BAM! Whole new cover concept. Straight up the end. I was kind of upset by this one because I really liked this first look. And it always makes me wonder what that final book would've looked like.

But now that there's another trilogy out the covers were once again redesigned, but the worst part is it doesn't look like the publisher is releasing them in paperbacks! Just ebooks! Bah!

And now one final picture:

I present to you all the original covers of The Mediator series by Jenny Carroll aka Meg Cabot! Ironically, all these mismatching covers don't bother me. Lol! I feel like it just proves how devoted to this series I am! These were all the original formats and cover designs, that I'm aware of. Now granted, the last book is a step into the adult world while the other 6 were YA. So yeah, a different cover/look is kinda warranted to say that Suze is all grown up! Now they did redo the previous five books when the sixth one came out. But I wasn't really wanting matching covers back then because I was devoted to my original ones.

And in a way...I think that's how I still am. I am devoted to the original covers. Whatever way I first buy that book, that's the cover! Now generally it is the first one. So that's not an issue and with adulthood comes credit cards, so yeah, I'll charge it to buy the new one too. Though I am desperately wishing that they would just release the new cover as a hardcover too.

So now that I've written a long rambling post about this. What are your thoughts about cover changes? Where are you on the scale? Don't mind them? Hate them? They are done solely to drive you insane? Were there ones you approved of were you still upset by them? Or did you like them both?