Tie-in Cover Art Unveiled

[Westeros]

We’ve previously reported the fact that both the U.S. and U.K. publishers of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” have planned to re-release A Game of Thrones with a tie-in cover featuring a photo or photos from HBO’s series. Well, it looks like we’ve now gotten our glimpse at the U.S. re-release cover from Bantam Spectra, as you can see in this promotional PDF from the publisher. The cover—to be released in trade and mass market paperback—features Daenerys and her silver, the very first Daenerys image HBO ever released. This is marked “For Solicitation Only”, which implies it’s possible that it won’t be the final art… but we’re betting that it is.

Some other interesting details:

• It seems that some point HBO was mooting April 24th as the premiere date, as that’s what this PDF presently says.
• Paperbacks of the further novels in the series are being released with a banner on top citing the HBO series.
• The document indicates Random House (parent of Bantam Spectra) intends a full-court PR press, including television spots.
• HBO has advised Random House of a “multi-million dollar” marketing campaign in the run up to the April 17th premiere of the series.
• The re-release is due for March 22nd.

Tip of the hat to Olaf for the pointer!

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[Caligula_K]

Wow, what a horrible image choice. If HBO is trying to sell this series as "Sopranos in Middle Earth," and both HBO and Bantam with this new cover are thus trying to reach out to an audience which wouldn't typically buy fantasy, making the cover image a an elvishy looking blond woman with a white horse ain't the way to do it.

[Ran]

I updated my original post to note that there's that whole "For Soliciation Only" thing which might be taken to mean it's not a final, final cover. It may just be a mock-up and may not be the final art used.

That said, I think design-wise it's actually fairly strong, and one may find that the aim is to try and bring the book to a wider (read: female) audience than it has traditionally been. After all, they might suppose "As soon to be seen on HBO" is enough of a draw for hipster dudes who grew up on The Sopranos, and the trick of it is to get more women in on it.

[Caligula_K]

I updated my original post to note that there's that whole "For Soliciation Only" thing which might be taken to mean it's not a final, final cover. It may just be a mock-up and may not be the final art used.

That said, I think design-wise it's actually fairly strong, and one may find that the aim is to try and bring the book to a wider (read: female) audience than it has traditionally been. After all, they might suppose "As soon to be seen on HBO" is enough of a draw for hipster dudes who grew up on The Sopranos, and the trick of it is to get more women in on it.

But realistically, what female audience would that cover appeal to? Probably only women who are already fans of fantasy/paranormal romance. I can't think that any of my friends (men or women) who read, say, historical fiction, would be tempted to try AGoT based on that cover. Hopefully, like you say, it'ss not a final cover.

[Raskolnikov]

Hm I agree. The Dany cover doesn't really do much. Perhaps a more attractive female audience bait would be the one of Cersei sitting in a nice chair, looking all seductive and cunning. A game of thrones indeed.

[nihil]

Image aside, is it weird that they seem to have actually changed the title of the book for this release? "Game of Thrones," no sign of an "A" anywhere. I mean, I know that's what the show is called, but it seems strange to retroactively re-title the source material. Presumably all the subsequent books that get the tie-in treatment will also be affected; I imagine we'll see "Game of Thrones: (a) Clash of Kings" and I wouldn't be surprised if the "A Song of Ice and Fire" supertitle gets dropped entirely from the tie-in editions. Not saying this is a terrible thing, but it strikes me as odd - I can't think of another instance where a book has actually been given a new name as a response to adaptation.

edit: addition != edition

[Anya, Vengeance Demon]

Not saying this is a terrible thing, but it strikes me as odd - I can't think of another instance where a book has actually been given a new name as a response to adaptation.

It's happened before. The Daniel Woodrell novel Woe to Live On was re-released as Ride With The Devil as a tie-in with the Ang Lee film adaptation of the same name. I would imagine that it's standard practice when a film adaptation changes the name of the novel, but I can't think of other instances of that happening offhand.

[Olaf]

I am almost 100% sure that it is only a mock-up using one of the earliest released pictures from the show. The final art will be different.

However, I think it is much more interested that (on page 2 of the pdf) they more or less announce a complete redesign of all existing editions in the US. This time they are going with the UK cover artwork with one interesting exception. Instead of using the golden dragon head that Harper Voyager uses for A GAME OF THRONES, they use the silver sword that in the UK is to be used for A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Maybe they will switch covers around and use the golden dragon head in the US for ADWD?

[MirriMaz]

I like the Dany picture for the new cover, it's striking and I see how it would stand out in a bookstore. I also like that they are finally changing the US covers, they always looked weak in comparison to other books on the shelf.

I hate that they've taken out the "a", it's a part of the books name and IMO makes the titles more interesting.

[Ran]

They seem to have also released the image without the solicitation mark, so I'm thinking it is indeed the final art work. I've sent a note to Random House about it, but don't expect to hear back until Tuesday at the earliest (public holiday in the U.S. tomorrow).

Is that the U.K.'s dress? Huh, so it is. Interesting.

[Olaf]

I hate that they've taken out the "a", it's a part of the books name and IMO makes the titles more interesting.

Interestingly, they only left out the "A" on the Tie-In edition, but still included the "A" on the other repackaged new editions of the novel. They also only mention the mass-market and trade paperback editions as being repackaged. What about the hc editions? Will they retain the old art for the time being?

[Olaf]

They seem to have also released the image without the solicitation mark, so I'm thinking it is indeed the final art work.

Do you know where they released the artwork without solictiation mark?

[Ran]

Nope, but Werthead has it up on his blog.

[Olaf]

Nope, but Werthead has it up on his blog.

Yeah saw that just now. I'll go and ask him.

[MirriMaz]

Did they ever give a reason to why they removed the "A" from the title of the series?

[Ran]

I don't think anyone's asked, but I suppose they felt that it was extraneous when it was a series title.

[Ran]

Tend to think art departments have masses of customer survey and marketing data to help them pinpoint which image best suits their needs. I'm sure they had some reason to think that of all the art, the Dany image was the one that was going to best sell it. Just a guess it was aimed at expanding the female readership, with the belief that HBO is a magic word for potential male readers in a certain demographic. :)

As to the change, note that they drop the article only on the tie-in cover -- the reissue with the non-tie-in cover retains it.

[Brude]

These pages look like they might come from right out of the next season's Random House catalog, or it could be something put together by the PR dept. there, but is probably based on whatever is going to be in their catalog. When I worked at Scholastic I used to have input on these sorts of catalog pages and had to help edit the lines that pertained to my job there (Foreign Rights). A lot of times these catalog pages include preliminary art work and/or a fair number of errors (like listing Tom McCarthy as a director, which is no longer really valid - they probably pulled that info from IMDb). The catalogs are used to send out to bookstores, internally for reference and to give to buyers from other markets so they can see what we have to offer (foreign markets, audio, TV/Film, games, etc.).

Tend to think art departments have masses of customer survey and marketing data to help them pinpoint which image best suits their needs.

At Scholastic they would go through many rounds with the cover art, but it was all done internally. They'd get preliminary work from one or more artists, then at a weekly meeting all of the editors and the art dept. people would sit and discuss what they like best and why. Then it would go back to the artist who would tweak and next week or two they discuss it again. There wasn't really marketing data involved, near as I could tell (I wasn't at those meetings, but I always saw the notes and art updates from them). Sometimes it would take months to settle on a final piece of art for a book, and they'd even trash what they had if it wasn't working and start over with a new artist. On the other hand, sometimes they were very rushed to get something out and had to settle for the best they could get in a very short amount of time.

I'm sure they had some reason to think that of all the art, the Dany image was the one that was going to best sell it. Just a guess it was aimed at expanding the female readership, with the belief that HBO is a magic word for potential male readers in a certain demographic. :)

As to the change, note that they drop the article only on the tie-in cover -- the reissue with the non-tie-in cover retains it.

In this case, to a certain extent they are limited by whatever images, fonts and graphics HBO has given to them to work with. It might be that they are even forced to use the same artwork that HBO has decided to use for the promotional posters. At Scholastic we had tie-in cover artwork for things like "Inkheart" and a few others when I was there. All of the images and graphics came from the movie studio, so Scholastic had only a very limited amount freedom with what they could do. Then the studio had to approve the artwork before we could put it out. In many ways, the tie-in artwork is determined more by where it originates than with what the publisher wants.

[Werthead]

I took the image straight from the PDF. The FOR SOLICITATION ONLY banner is on a separate layer, so was not transferred over with it.

The fact that they are showing other US titles suggests that they are rejacketing the entire US range. I can try to find out more, but I suspect American fans who've been collecting each book as it comes out will be irritated with a second shift in cover art style in the series' history.

And yes, the UK cover of A GAME OF THRONES has a dragon skull on it, so it makes more sense to have it as the cover art for A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, I suppose.

[Brude]

I can't think of another instance where a book has actually been given a new name as a response to adaptation.

Before "Blade Runner" came out the publisher who had the tie-in novelization rights to the film wanted Philip K. Dick to write a new novelization based on the movie...which was based on his original novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." Of course Dick thought the idea was insane and eventually convinced the publisher to re-release the original novel but with tie-in art to the film. The book was released with the new title "Blade Runner," but had the original title in a parenthetical below the rebranded title.