Comments on: Judge A Book By Its Cover

By: Cover Matters: SILVER PHOENIX | Uncreated Conscience

Cover Matters: SILVER PHOENIX | Uncreated Conscience — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:50:32 +0000

[...] Recently there have been rumblings in the blogosphere about the re-jacketing of Cindy Pon‘s book SILVER PHOENIX that have been brought to my attention. Reactions have been mixed, from outrage to support, with many bloggers pointing to the re-jacketing as yet another example of publishing cover racefail (the first being Justine Larbalestier’s LIAR and the second being Jaclyn Dolamore’s MAGIC UNDER GLASS). [...]

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By: I'm Korean and I'm Okay | Uncreated Conscience

I'm Korean and I'm Okay | Uncreated Conscience — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:36:04 +0000

[...] Oh so many reasons. I’ve written before on the need for a cultural conscious shift because the way “people like me” (a loaded phrase in itself) are represented in fiction [...]

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By: katiebabs

katiebabs — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:22:03 +0000

Someone is not doing their job correctly if the wrong information about a character’s race is being handed over to the designers of the covers, which in turn they create a “white cover”.

Someone needs to take responsibility because if this keeps happening over and over the public will get fed up, the readers won’t buy the books and the publisher may go out of business.

The time for making excuses needs to stop and action must happen now.

Bloomsbury USA looks like fools for allowing the Liar and Magic Under Glass to have “white faces” on the covers when their main characters are the total opposite.

Shameful and sad.

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By: Nathalie Mvondo

Nathalie Mvondo — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:38:46 +0000

Bloomsbury issued a statement:

“Bloomsbury is ceasing to supply copies of the US edition of Magic Under Glass. The jacket design has caused offense and we apologize for our mistake. Copies of the book with a new jacket design will be available shortly.”

The link is here:

http://www.bloomsburykids.com/books/catalog/magic_under_glass_hc_306

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By: Name (required)Peta Jinnath Andersen

Name (required)Peta Jinnath Andersen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:20:29 +0000

I’m happy to see persons of color taking this on – while I respect Larbastier’s efforts, amongst others, I can’t help but wonder about the lack of media from non-white authors.

Jaclyn Dolamore addresses the cover issues on her blog, here.

It is heartening to see novels about people who just happen to be minorities popping up. Until recently, it felt as if every cover with a person who looked even a little like me (I’m half-Indian) was tied up in racial issues. (Lots are also about belonging, but working out who you are and where you belong is what being a teenager is about, isn’t it?)

Thanks for the great post.

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By: Nathalie Mvondo

Nathalie Mvondo — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:54:41 +0000

JJ, your post is fantastic and I enjoyed your practical approach and analysis. I will definitely recommend it.

It seems so obvious that a majority of people would not buy a book based on the skin color on the cover. I wonder if saying it loud would make a difference to publishing houses, and contribute to the shift in consciousness you mentioned. It doesn’t hurt to try. Here is a link: http://www.petol.org/bc4all

Thanks again for your post.

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By: I Have a Dream… « Multiculturalism Rocks!

I Have a Dream… « Multiculturalism Rocks! — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:43:44 +0000

[...] view as well: click here. An in-depth analysis by St Martin Press editorial assistant S. Jae-Jones: here. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)A Must-Know Blog About YA Lit: Reading In [...]

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By: TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter

TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:22:20 +0000

[...] Tweets about this great post on TwittLink.com [...]

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By: Kristan

Kristan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:23:10 +0000

I don’t really have anything to add, so I’ll just thank you for a very eloquent post about such a difficult topic. It’s a shame to see these things happening (especially to a debut author – I can only imagine the heartache!) but hopefully by not shying away from these issues, by discussing them publicly and intelligently, we can find ways to remedy them.

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By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:23:46 +0000

In YA, it seems even more important to avoid these stereotypes. The world that I was born into is not the world my young nieces were born into. I hope that by the time they’re old enough to read YA, these issues will have been overcome. I don’t want them growing up in a world where white is the default, or where booksellers feel they need to segregate books with minorities on the cover.

In my own work, I try to avoid mentioning race and rely on physical description instead. Race is so impersonal – it evokes a cardboard cutout image rather than a breathing character.

Shouldn’t the editor be responsible for giving the art dept. a physical description of the protagonist, rather than just a blurb? Even the wrong hair color is jarring to a reader.

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