Cover Chat: Double Trouble! Doing a Double Take at Some Lookalike YA Covers
Welcome to Cover Chat, a periodic feature in which we chat about …. you guessed it: book covers. I’m always amused and confused by lookalike covers. Are the publishers trying to copy a popular cover to capitalize off its success? Are they trying to confuse me? Or do great minds just sometimes think alike?
Can covers look too much alike? I think they can. Here are some covers to upcoming books that reminded me a lot of other covers…
Headphones and a cord in a heart:
In Real Life by Jessica Love (St. Martins, March 2016)
Encore to an Empty Room by Kevin Emerson (Katherine Tegen, April 2015)
Motel signs:
Run by Kody Kiplinger (Scholastic, June 2016)
Kissing in America by Margo Rabb (Harper, May 2015)
I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios (Henry Holt, Feb 2015)
Silhouette of a Girl Walking Behind Some Tall Text:
Take the Fall by Emily Hainsworth (Balzer + Bray, February 2016)
The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Bloomsbury, July 2015)
Bold Cursive Font:
The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry (Razorbill, January 2016)
The Last Place on Earth by Carol Snow (Henry Holt, February 2016)
How do you feel about lookalike covers? Tell me in comments!
Great comparisons! Sometimes this irks me, but I'm learning to overlook the similarities.
Great comparisons!! I will say that The Fixer and Take The Fall have confused me. When I saw the Take the Fall cover I swore it was The Fixer and got so confused. I love the headphones covers even if they are similar. Great post!
When covers are that similar I just end up forgetting what I've read/not read or which book is which and skip them all.
I get cover trends (like girls in dresses etc) but is it just me – lately the covers are almost EXACTLY the same.
Karen @For What It's Worth
The bold cursive has been around a LOT! There are like four different titles that I get confused as the same book because of the typography!
Such great comparisons, I would've never realized this on my own! I must admit though lookalike covers don't really bother me to much because on their own you don't notice it to much. But that tall text writing is everywhere!
I was thinking the same thing a few days ago when I saw the cover of The Haters, if I'm not wrong it has headphones and a heart, too. Or maybe just the headphones, whatever.
I love this post, Jenn!
Great post. I just read In Real Life, and that cover really doesn't make sense. You'd like the cover designers would be more aware of what's already been done. It doesn't make it confusing to recall books when the covers are so similar – I have confused people's reviews of Kissing in America with I'll Meet You There because those covers are so similar.
Wow, the first two are really similar with both of them having a heart in the headphone wires. And Kissing in America and I'll Meet You there- same thing with the arrow thingie. I don't know, I see a lot of similar covers too and it can be irritating- I think one time I saw the exact same cover just a different title. That threw me a bit… 🙂
Oooh I hadn't even realized some of these — I don't have too much of a problem with lookalike covers although I don't like it when the same models are used over and over again (aka those from the Lux series, those from On Dublin Street and those from Easy) — when there are 6-10 books all with the same models by different authors, that is way too much!! Great post! ♥
I think it's a bit of both?? Because I don't think designers would particularly troll each other, buuuut…I think they could do a bit more research to make sure stuff isn't too similar?!?!? The WORST is finding covers with the same stock images. *facepalm*
most of the time i dont mind look alike covers as long as they are not almost the same and I get them confused. they do seem to go in trends though. not sure why. if its on purpose or accidental. some of those are really really similar.
I like similar covers… but when they're for the same author's books. That way they look all pretty and cohesive together even if they aren't linked. Two totally different books by different people? Not so much.
I don't like covers to be similar, it makes me think that they didn't put much effort into the cover.
I agree that a lot of covers are starting to mimic each other, and it's really annoying. But there are also some covers that have been coming out that are really unique and beautiful! I guess it just depends how you look at it.
This is so cool, never really noticed this! At least its just the theme that's similar, and they didn't use like an exactly identical stock image or something.
I'm okay with covers having a similar style, but I don't like it when they look so much alike that it can be confusing. You have some here that are too close to each other for my tastes. I wonder too how much the cover artists know – do they know that they're creating something very similar to another cover? Or is there some funky vibe that seems to come at similar times? It would be interested to get to chat with the artist and publisher to see what they say.
Great job on identifying these covers that look really similar! Those motel signs ones definitely, and the Fixer one too!
Wow, some of those are waaay too similar! Kissing in America made me do a double take, and so did The Fixer & Take The Fall!
Bold cursive font is so on trend right now. Both covers you choose for that category have a starry sky as well!
Bold cursive font is so on trend right now. Both covers you choose for that category have a starry sky as well!