Wednesday, May 27, 2009

What do you think of this cover?

Here is the cover for Vanished: True Stories (originally "Tales") of the Missing, due out in January through the Scholastic Book Club. (It will hopefully also be available in bookstores, but that Scholastic division has not made that decision yet—maybe I'll circulate a petition.)

The book comprises the stories of seven people who disappeared, some of whom were not heard from again; I blogged a bit more about it earlier this spring. Based only on that information, what is your opinion of the cover design?

I'll be curious to see if anyone has the same first reaction I (and my wife, separately) did. Be honest—I am comfortably used to criticism. And I will share my take shortly.

9 comments:

Steven Rowe said...

cover seems interesting - makes me want to look at the book as well wonder how the swing stays up.

Tricia said...

The first thing I thought was fiction, even though the cover says true tales. I would have loved to see newspaper style clippings pronouncing the headlines for the missing. THAT would get me interested. This, not so much.

Anonymous said...

Hey Marc,
This is definitely NOT what I had in mind for the cover. It looks too sunny and happy--even with the empty swing. Like Tricia said, I was thinking more along the lines of a ransom note or a funky font that vanishes. I think they're expecting too much of kids to connect an empty swing to missing people.
--Erin

Richard said...

My reaction may the opposite to that of Erin. I find it extremely scary. It immediately puts me in mind of abducted children -- not children who might have vanished for some other reason, and not adults. And with the title, I believe that's what kids will think of immediately.

Billy Hogan said...

The ominous title combined with the bright cheery picture makes for a chilling cover. Like an earlier post, my first thought was of missing children.

James Broadhead said...

My first impression based on the photo was that the book is a collection of accounts about missing children, but the title suggests otherwise.

The title doesn't payoff the cover image, so I'd have to say that it's not a good choice for a cover.

Marc Tyler Nobleman said...

Thank you all. I greatly value your input. As some of you noted as well, my concern is that the image should convey the mystery of disappearing without implying "child abduction" - something like footprints that abruptly end or a comparison of two old-time group photos that are identical except one person is missing from the second.

Tricia - Several on Facebook suggested similar.

Erin - Glad to hear from you and I agree with your swing comment.

Anonymous said...

The cover may be the great mystery in the whole book! It makes me think of the subway ads for Nicholas Sparks novels; anyone who's vanished from this picture has left to go eat strawberries and cream at a plank picnic table just offstage.

Doc said...

Really, really, creepy.