Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Lookalikes of Lookalikes...

Some of you may remember that Sheri at Bookopolis posted a lookalike post about the similar covers to The Debs by Susan McBride and The Praire Bridesmaid by Daria Salamon.



I commented on her post that I’d found another similar cover, Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, which also features the red shoes, the white dress as in The Debs and the (nearly) missing head and torso as in The Praire Bridesmaid (although the composition of the cover is quite different):



Recently though, I found two other covers that are similar to the first two, though for different reasons:

Something Borrowed by Martina Reilly (aka Tina Reilly) has the pointed-in red shoes and the white dress of The Debs...



...while The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God by Timothy Schaffert has the poofy dress and the lack of head or torso much like The Praire Bridesmaid!


18 comments:

  1. It's amazing that you can find these. Do you do a lot of browsing in bookstores? I can't imagine finding these online.

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  2. I always think it's crazy when I see these kind of posts. Do the designers just pick from the same stock photo files? Or is it total coincidence? I've never come across any similar ones, myself.

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  3. Crazy how they keep on putting similar covers on books..they don't have any other eye-catching art??

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  4. I was going to ask the same thing as Nicole - how do you find all of these book covers? I love seeing them.

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  5. Unlike the previous posts (where the covers looked identical), here's it's pretty clear that each photograph is unrelated to the others, though the images are very similar. If the books have similar subjects, it makes sense. Still, it's most interesting to see these.

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  6. If a book cover is popular and catches the eye and the sales back that up then I guess it makes sense to base other covers on the succuessful one. What gets me are the ones that actually use the same picture but just different typesetting.

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  7. Nicole, I've actually mostly found these online, so far. The one exception was the second book in my last lookalike post. I actually don't go to brick-and-mortar bookstores very often anymore!

    Jeane, it does seem like publishers reuse the same stock photos (well, presumably it's different publishers, same photos), but when it comes to covers that look alike but aren't using the same photos (like these ones), I'm not sure what's going on...

    Serena, I know! I agree!

    Kathy, the short answer is I spend too much time on my computer!

    Anonymous Child, I got started on these "similar covers" posts because I'd actually come across a second book with a similar cover to one I already owned and it confused me: Was it possible I already owned this book? The cover looked familiar, but the story not so much...

    Yeah, that's what I figure too, Ti (about copycatting covers to popular books). Although I would think it would also lead to confusion, as I mentioned to Anonymous Child.

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  8. Great post Avis! I can't believe how many similar covers you keep finding. Keep it up, I love seeing new ones :)

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  9. What gets me about the last two you have posted is their strange choice in both cases to cut out in a semi circle where the dress meets the rest of the cover.
    Haaa...let's see about creating more artistic & artsy covers, yeahh!

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  10. Shows that a lot of people must have the same bright idea at the same time! Or they are simply copying...

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  11. I'm fascinated by the number of covers that are either exact or extemely similar. and amazed that people can remember them!

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  12. Goodness! This makes you really appreciate the unique covers doesn't it?

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  13. Thanks for letting me use the covers you'd found, Sheri!

    Brogan, those two covers thoroughly perplex me as they don't seem to make any sense anatomically!

    Lenore, it's hard to figure out which it is, although some of the copying must be inadvertent.

    Luanne, I keep covers that look familiar in folders on my computer until I come across another one that matches!

    Ladytink, yeah, it sure does, especially those that really suit the book (that are not just a fairly generic cover).

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  14. I love that you do these posts. I was just thinking about this the other day--well, not the grand scope of the phenomenon, but I came across two that I thought were very similar, though they had different "treatments": North of Beautiful and Evermore.

    Great blog, I just came across it for the first time today. I'm now a follower!

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  15. This just makes me laugh. With all the artists in the world, are you telling me they can't come up with some new, original covers. lol.

    I see some when I'm browsing that look like something else but then I can never remember what the other one was.

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  16. I don't know why exactly but I always enjoy these posts. I'm going to have start paying attention and see if I can find any.

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  17. Interesting. I wish I was as observant. I rarely notice these things.

    --Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

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  18. Melissa, welcome to my blog and thank you! Glad to hear you enjoy this type of post, as I am trying to do one every week. The two covers you mentioned were featured on Alea's blog, Pop Culture Junkie (here); she also does a series of posts on this phenomenon.

    Dar, Jenners and Anna, for me this has become a bit of an obsession! I have even found other covers that look like these ones, which I will post about next week.

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