Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: Cover art for Daniel Abraham's THE KING'S BLOOD and James S. A. Corey's CALIBAN'S WAR

Orbit recently unveiled these two Daniel Abraham covers.

Anonymous said...: any release dates??; 10:39 AM
Unknown said...: I am looking forward to The King's Blood!; 10:42 AM
Shouting Into The Void said...: Not a great cover. Generic weapon shot. Do these really shift more copies? I just can't imagine it working for me.; 10:46 AM
Zafri Mollon said...: The first one was basically a generic weapon shot. Why should this one be any different?; 9:28 PM
Daniel Abraham said...: There was actually a really cool panel at the last Bubonicon where John Picacio talked with a bunch of writers (myself included) about covers we liked and issues of design. Part of what's happening these days is that covers are being designed to be eye-catching at thumbnail sizes. I think both these designs are particularly aware of that.

(And FWIW, neither of these is final, and I like 'em both); 12:08 PM
Zafri Mollon said...: @Daniel Abraham.
Interesting, I hadn't known that. Guess it makes sense considering the rise of ebooks and the fact that you may only be able to see a thumbnail sized image on the spine of a book when it's placed in a bookshelf. Any other reasons why this change is taking place?; 3:26 PM
Daniel Abraham said...: Zafri:

Between ebooks and the increasing drive to buy things online. Even if you're picking up a physical copy from Amazon or the B&N site, the effectiveness in catching people's eyes is still going to be in a smaller format.; 11:26 AM

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist