Thursday, 3 January 2013

Nonsense.

There's a website that posts pairs of covers the owner feels are suspiciously alike. It sports the pairing below and I reached it from a website where someone was urging George Martin to litigate...

I have to call bullshit on this.



Shock horror! Fantasy book covers and they both show kings on thrones. Whoever heard the like? Next they'll be having hooded men on the front. My advice is for every author with a hooded man and sword combo on the front cover to sue all the rest.

I mean, the king on a throne motif is such a novel one - I just can't think of anyone ever using it befo-- oh...


circa 1978.

One can probably plot a fairly unbroken line of king-on-throne covers between that one and these:


(2008)


released 2013


nuff said.

Posted by at

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous3 January 2013 at 14:47

    Sadly, people will always compare stuff like that. No one will ever be fully happy about covers and similarities in simple concepts and whatnot.
    Your cover's cooler anyways, in my opinion. Just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Longasc3 January 2013 at 15:10

    Well, I am glad that Apple doesn't have a patent/copyright for guys on thrones. Because then you would be in big trouble. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen3 January 2013 at 16:11

    Sadly, some people have nothing better to do then come up with non events like this and I am betting that you could probably find a king on a throne on the cover of at least one fanzine a year going back forever and also, remember the Star Wars VI poster? Jabba the Hut on a throne and Leia on the floor?

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  4. Angel4 January 2013 at 00:32

    The world of literature is built upon things that are similar to other things. From book covers to entire story lines. I didn't hear anyone urging Disney to sue the makers of Avatar because their story line was a thinly-veiled rip-off of Pocahontas. What a load of rubbish.

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  5. DRC4 January 2013 at 05:20

    In literature there's no such thing as an original story. Everything's been done. It's just a new version of the old, just as Angel pointed out with the similarities between Avatar and Pocahontas. I suppose the same can be said for covers. But new is good. new is fresh.

    I confess to writing a blog post a little while back moaning about a cover. The actual cover itself was stunning. The only quirp I had with it was the fact that the artist had given the protagonist a saggy chin when he was supposed to be a lean mean fighting machine. It failed to portray how he was in the story which, sadly enough, irritated me to the point of posting about it. He was, however, a clichéd hooded figure, but I didn't suggest suing anyone for stealing ideas... :) The book itself was amazing and I felt so bad after my rant that I had to point this fact out...lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark Lawrence4 January 2013 at 05:42

      now I have to know what book!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6 February 2013 at 06:15

      I am the only person who thought this was a joke? That's not even the original cover, its just Sean Bean sitting on a throne he never actually sits in.

      Delete
  6. Peter Newman5 January 2013 at 08:23

    I think it's a mark of your success that you regularly draw the attention of the stupid. :)

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  7. Jordan6 January 2013 at 06:55

    I don't know if a t.v. poster used for a re-released book cover should even count as a book cover. Yours is better anyway. And can we please bring back covers with naked chicks on them?

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  8. Rob6 February 2013 at 06:58

    At least there was no sword on your cover. Now THAT would be grounds for legal action.

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  9. Dave6 February 2013 at 11:23

    How ridiculous. Haha I love the comments on the original post though, If there was people agreeing with him I would be getting worried.

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  10. Anonymous21 February 2013 at 01:42

    It's just the publishers trying to make aa quick buck.

    1.Fantasy is about king on thrones on the cover artwork (if there is a sesxy girl on it like Conan cover, even better)
    2. This reminds me of Games Workshop trying to ban the use of space marines in scifi genre.

    By that logic someone should take legal actions againts every fantasy author that featured orcs and goblins in his/her work after Tolkien.

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  11. ssas9 September 2013 at 06:55

    I don't think you've actually arrived as a fantasy writer until you got a cover with somebody on the throne. For my next series, though, I'm actually hoping for an empty throne... :D

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  12. FantasyBookReviewsToInfinity9 September 2013 at 08:18

    It's the same thing with movie posters really... it's because that is what people expect on the cover. You see a book with a guy on a throne. You think, hm - this book might be about a guy who is either already on a throne, or wants to be sitting on one. Or maybe you are like me who only exclusively reads books that have people sitting in thrones on the cover.

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  13. Unknown9 September 2013 at 09:00

    Caught red handed! Not only does your book contain swords and the odd throne, your protagonist has a head! Shame on you!

    ReplyDelete

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