Do you have a really inane book-related complaint? I do! So I figured I could air my ridiculous grievance, you could air yours, and then we can all feel better! Now, buckle up, cause it is seriously next-level stupid, okay?
Yes, yes I am.
So, we all know that publishers have really been milking the cash cow that are special editions, right? Started out that a book box here or there had a fancy endpaper for an explosively popular book. Now every bookstore, book club, subscription box, talk show host, and airport newsstand has their own “special” edition of every book ever published, including the erotic historical sci-fi novella your Uncle Frank self-pubbed on Amazon to the shame of the whole family. It’s fine, I don’t even care about this, because I can just… not buy it, right?
Here’s where my (really stupid) problem lies: with all the fancy covers and sprayed edges in the wild, publishers (and Uncle Frank) want you to know they have said fanciness. But how to show the elegance that is blue sprayed edges on that big ol’ novel? Annoying Goodreads formatting that makes my shelves look janky af.
Guys. This is so minor a gripe, I cannot believe I am typing it out. But it makes me stabby, and I cannot help it. The perfectionist in me loves the neat, symmetrical rows of pretty covers. They make sense to my brain, from a mathematical perspective. Plus, I then save those covers and use them in my reviews and other posts to make my goofy site look equally harmonious.
DO YOU SEE THEM?! Ruining all the vibes!? They are not even the same size!!!
So yeah, not important. Not even almost important. But I guess I was wondering if this irked anyone else. And also, I wanted to know if you have any really silly gripes you want to share so we can all be weird together!
I started seeing those sideways pictures on Netgalley, didn’t realize the reason.
Duuuude they drive me mad 😂
Ha! I don’t have any special editions, so I dodged that menace. But my stupid gripe is the move toward this notation among some British writers ‘quote’ rather than this: “quote.” Just no!
Bwahahha that is a good one too! I do not like when authors skip the quotes altogether, talk about menaces to society!
I don’t mind it on Goodreads because I don’t use the pictures of my shelves there for anything, BUT when I was creating the Middle Grade Escapades website, I literally didn’t put the sprayed-edge version of the one book that has it because I thought it messed up the look of the whole page. So, yes, I have definitely thought this.
I am glad I am not the only one! It really does mess with the continuity. And frankly, I more enjoy when the sprayed edges are a fun surprise!
That does bother me too. I’ll admit I never put my books in a view like this before, but when I go to write my review or make my Can’t Wait Wednesday post, I don’t like seeing the book cover at an angle to show off the sprayed edges. Because then I have that big ol white box behind the book in my posts and I just don’t like that. I am not tech savvy. Not even close to it. So I can’t make my own graphics to make things look better or what not. I rely on Goodreads for good cover images and this is not a good cover image. I too love the sprayed edges and everything, it’s great, they look pretty on the shelves, but is it really necessary to show the edges off in the images like this? And omg, the 101 exclusive editions that there are for certain books kills me.
Yes, I have fallen victim to buying multiple at times. Fancy end pages, different bonus content for each store–that one kills me when it’s a series/author I adore! I almost wish at that point we could add the different covers or sprayed edges in just to mix it up a bit.
But yes, this cover image at an angle thing annoys the heck out of me too!
“including the erotic historical sci-fi novella your Uncle Frank self-pubbed on Amazon to the shame of the whole family”
🤣
So…I noticed the trend of course, but I never once noticed the reason behind it until you pointed it out…I’m so cover-blind LOL. After reading your post, I had a closer look and saw all those fancy edges and whatnot. Granted, most of those books seem to be in the fantasy genre, so that may be the reason why I never looked at them twice or really wondered why the covers were put at an angle in the first place…I don’t read fantasy, I don’t need the images for my posts…but yeah. I get that they suck (the images, that is). And for what? Do sprayed edges matter that much (or at all)? Geez.
At the moment, my biggest gripe is that more and more books aren’t made available for international reviewers to request on NG…the majority of them are “Wish for it!”, and I’ve never been granted a wish in 6 years. The same books are often available to request on EW, but go figure, we never get them from there either (or at least I don’t). OK, this is not what you were asking for, but there I said it 😂.
Lol I totally agree, Shannon! When that happens to me I try to see if there’s a different edition listed that’s just the facing cover and switch over to it or just use that image. Usually I can find one somewhere. Goodreads always has so many multiple editions for each book.
“… including the erotic historical sci-fi novella your Uncle Frank self-pubbed on Amazon to the shame of the whole family.” This literally made my day. This is too funny. I do not buy, nor would I buy, a special edition book. I don’t understand displaying the pages instead of the spine. I need to know what book it is I’m grabbing. And I have way more important stuff going on to to take up brain space remembering the book by the fancy artwork only.
Yeah, I do NOT like my book images resembling Amazon product photos like that. I want to see the cover. Nothing else.
But if we’re going for grips, mine is the “For fans of…” marketing BS because it never makes sense. Don’t tell me that if I liked Book A and Book B, I’ll love Book C. They’re different authors, different styles, different plots, and the marketing team has no idea what I loved about Books A and B. How very dare they decide that all books in the same genre are equally great and therefore if I loved two exceptional books, I’ll love this third, unrelated-but-has-the-same-publisher book. Stahp.
The sideways books bother me too! I make my own graphics, so I need a good-quality image of the cover. I don’t care what the pages look like! I’ve never bought a book because it has blue pages! Just give me the cover.
Hmm never really thought of it like that.. probably don’t look at my GR shelves that much. But I see what you mean.. especially those angled books.
I have to say that I did not notice, but yeahhh that’s kind of annoying. Just having tons of special editions in general kind of annoys me. LOL It’s not special anymore!!
Thumbnails should always be the same size – regardless of how they display the book! So yes, see your point, stop misaligning my book thumbnails. I’ve been irritated with the UBB plugin where the books are thumbnailed by percentage but not by actual size by size. So my grid looks off if I review a kids book or audiobook that has a square image instead of a vertical.
I’m not on Goodreads enough – or reading anything that garners the sprayed edges treatment – so I didn’t’ notice but I DO notice them int he bookstore where sprayed edges are all they display now.
I get it, they’re pretty, I even have a few, but it’s kind of out of control (IMO, of course). Like a poor, lowly book without them is relegated to the boring shelves lol
My pet peeve is all the illustrated covers. It’s not that I don’t like them but they have became SO similar that I literally can’t tell them apart or know if I’ve already read them. I don’t know if its a me problem and it’s how my brain works but it’s all a blur of pastel to me.
Ha ha. I knew nothing at all about this, but I’m sorry it bugs you so much! I also like symmetry on my physical bookshelves, but I’ve never thought about it on my virtual ones.
Thanks for stopping by my TTT post the other day!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
LOL! I have been spending too much money to buy these special editions. But I agree that it is annoying on the websites like that. Fun topic!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/01/17/author-interview-giveaway-michelle-sodaro/
Ha I don’t care about all the special editions as I’m visually impaired so can’t read physical books, but it makes it hard for me to select the right one on The Storygraph LOL! And I think it’s contributing to overconsumption, to the point a special edition is not that special anymore and the crowd is chanting “MORE”.