Tayari's Blog: The Untelling in Paperback

Comment #1, by XENIA

pretty...congratulations!

Comment #2, by Courtney

Tayari- Very nice. The quote's even better! =)

Comment #3, by Judy

Still a good cover, but now readers know at a glance that it's a story about a young black woman. This might catch the eye of some readers who might otherwise not stop to read the back cover. So perhaps this is a marketing ploy. Is it?

I'm glad they didn't remove the flower. That gives it so much class and sophistication. And what a great quote! I'd be curious to know how you feel about the cover, since it seems authors have very little input on that.

Comment #4, by Tammee

I'm not usully a fan of covers with people on them, go figure, but I think it's really pretty. I'm a cover whore, and I would pick it up! :)

Comment #5, by j

...seems an obvious marketing ploy to me-- and one that will work to get readers who [someone at the press assumes] not only need it 'spelled out', but also pictures drawn for them! since it is already out in the world dazzling people behind/between the original, demure, inviting cover; i think this is a brilliant move. the quote will also help. and it's true, too!
...it is, however, a pity that we are not more literate-- that is, familiar and practiced-- around literature and other cultural and intellectual production that 'certain' books and 'certain' authors would not so often be sort of 'pre-figured' by photography and graphics.

Comment #6, by Vickie Beene-Beavers

Hmmm...I'm excited that this is coming out in paperback but I don't really like this new cover. Actually, I wasn't too fond of the hardback cover so this definitely isn't an improvement. If you are not a amateur horticulturist or plant lover, most people would not have picked up that this is a Magnolia--a southern bloom if there ever is one. So now you have this harlequin arabesque-looking imagery with an unidentified flower sharing the same space. I think it's a little too...trite. It's a little surreal almost. I mean you have a black woman standing in the woods dressed in white staring into the horizon. I think it could easily create an impression that the story takes place outside of the states, i.e. Carribean, Africa, etc. Which isn't bad when you are just trying to get people to notice YOUR book from across the room within a sea of displayed books. But when the first 10 pages mentions Atlanta, will people be apt to buy it when they are disappointed it's not what they expected--a ghost story? Did the artist even read the book? If s/he didn't, I think that should have been the first assignment. It looks like they read a review and let their imagination (or lack there of) run its course. I'm not really impressed. But if the cover sells books for you then if you like it I love it....