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how does one look at this cover and think it's about "little docile asian girls having tea time"???? kinda weird wording imo

THE COVER DESIGNERS AREN'T THE ONES WHO MADE THE DECISION YOU IGNORANT SWINE! The publisher tells the designer what to draw! The author should have spoke to the publisher if she felt the cover was bad

I've been looking for a new Korean novel to read. I just finished "Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop" and I didn't know what author to choose next, so I will read this based on your description. You are right the English cover is not nearly as evocative as the Korean cover. I get tired off the cartoony cover art on a lot of American books in particular lately. But it even shows up on our murder mystery covers so an avid reader will probably pay more attention to the deacription of to recommendations.

The Korean version is an absolute masterpiece.

I like sci-fi and fantasy. Most of them also have covers irrelevant to the story. I've only seen truly appropriate covers for books by the most famous authors and even those are hit or miss.

I just came across your TH-cam channel. Very interesting look into the book! I will keep an eye on the upcoming videos.

I got into translated fiction 4 years ago, and this was one of the most recommended books when I started out. I liked the contrast with his friend - lack of emotion and being overwhelmed by emotion all the time. I like how you described the themes of empathy and apathy.

Sir. Calm yourself

As an avid light/web reader, if you made me pick between the two, I would choose the yellow one (second). The first one screams a story that is going to be dramatic and heavy, that requires heavy investment on your part (time and emotion). Not something I would read casually. The last one is inline with stories that are easy to read and may look innocent but can carry heavy topics.

The westernized cover is straight up lazy. The author should have called them out before it was even used as the cover

It ain't a situation like Andrea Sachs getting the manuscript from some Christian Thompson... Ha... A 'brief' isn't always precise and if we still don't know, 'clients' are mostly annoying so yeah... NOT a 'disgrace' or 'an insult' that the cover designer is responsible for... Cheers!

Absolutely agree. Which is why I love the German covers for 눈물을 마시는 새 (The bird that drinks tears) so much. It as a lot of details and as you read the story, you can slowly realize why those details are on the cover. They’re characters, places and hints at relationships or themes in the book. Having such an amazing cover made reading the book even more fun than it already was.

Maybe I'm a dummy, but I thought authors design their own book covers, since they know their books best🫣

If I had to learn the product of every client I worked for as a designer, I'd be unable to make a living wage. If the client doesn't provide a detailed enough brief, that's on them. Give me theme information, give me references, give me brief extracts of text, give me music that communicates emotion, but if you give me a whole book and ask me to read it, you can go right ahead and find another designer who doesn't value their time.

I disagree. The cover designer often draws what the client or publisher asks them to draw. They don't have time to read every single book, and even if they did read the book, they still have to draw what their client asks them to. It's like being mad at a baker when their boss tells them to bake a birthday cake instead of a wedding cake. You are mad at the wrong person!

The original cover with the text translated into English would have been perfectly fine, as it’s a great cover.

And this why the saying "Do not judge a book by it's cover" exists.

In my experience, the reading you want done is a good idea, it should be standard- but it doesn’t work in the current design framework. Even if someone did do the reading, if you receive a commission for a cover with specific aesthetic direction, and you go against those instructions to make something that better suits the book, the publishers simply don’t go with your design and you don’t get paid- artists have no control over that part. (There’s also the matter of publishers purposely trying to obfuscate and prevent people from reading the source material but that’s another matter entirely) Ultimately cover design should be a process that involves the author and the artist- If the author had been given a say in the North American cover it would’ve looked different! The problem is a lack of creative control from both the cover artist AND the author.

Love how you involuntarily(?) went into a Southern accent on "filmmakers" at 16:13

And now I also have to read Almond… 😂

I hate this so much and I have the feeling that this happens to mostly to non-western books. What always gets my blood boiling is seeing books of East Asian authors getting slapped on the most orientalist depiction of Asian people (usually a woman dressed in Kimono or Qipao with some green tea, and oh you see the red painted lips and white skin in the corner) Just Asian fetish on display 💀

It’s not the artist’s fault if this is the art direction. 🤷‍♀️ Do think there’s a big mismatch in vibes that the korean version is morose and American version frivolous. That should not happen.

A cultural perspective: In the US meeting for coffee is very much an activity women do with other women, in essence relationships among women. meeting for coffee is often what women do with other women who they have bonds with, friends, sisters, etc. This cover, two coffee cups together, is reminiscent of that and may be culturally understood here, and maybe not so much in korea.

Why couldn't the korean version's cover illustration be used with just the title in English instead?

As the cover designer and the author of my book I will make sure to read it before drawing the cover 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

As others have mentioned, cover design happens WAY before a manuscript is finished a lot of times, which means the designer only has the concepts given to them by the editor/author, but beyond that, it means a lot of folks from the publishing side who will be excited about seeing the cover also haven’t read the book yet. Different publishers do it differently, but also, they usually send cover concepts to the author as well. Sometimes sales will have final say because they know what sells in a market, but usually an author will see what direction the cover concept is going and has a say. Basically - yes, sometimes covers don’t give a totally accurate idea of the contents of the book, and that sucks. But it’s not the book designers being lazy, or even the fault of evil publishers. Sometimes it’s as simple as someone sticking with one strand of the cover concept and not the others, or else an idea to market the book to a new audience they hope to bring in for the author’s new book

I was coming to the comments to say that it’s not on the designer but rather the team at the publishing house, so glad to see plenty of people have done that already.

I feel like the author should have a say too what they envision the cover would be like. Not everyone has the time to read a whole book unless Ig you pay them to do so.

I thought we are not supposed to judge a book by its cover. Is it not true anymore? :)

Besides the actual point of the video, all I’m thinking about is how tired I am of this type of design in modern books. Like this limited to 2-4 colors doodle in your aesthteic notes esque style just feels empty to me even though I get there’s supposed to be symbolism and meaning here. There’s a lot of potential and genuinely profound book covers out there that it disappoints me this type of style is what’s trendy and profitable in books these days.

I read the English translation of Shoko’s Smile last year and loved it! But I agree the cover doesn’t fit the contents at all haha

Asians in Europe, especially Eastern Europe are so little talked about in purely European communities

I've been a book designer for both traditional publishers and self-published authors, and I can tell you that as much as I want to read every book I work on, I wouldn't have time to actually do my work. It's the publisher's/author's responsibility to give me a good synopsis of the story. But if I work under an art director, then it's out of my hands.

Hmm.. I think I recognize a trend here.

Book designers have to design for dozens of books every single month. Like other comments have said, it's just not possible nor productive to read every single one of them. It's also not the designer's fault, they just weren't given a good brief.

How did the publishing company approve it? Usually, the designers are given a concept and some ideas and would submit multiple drafts before the final cover gets chosen.

Why design a new cover in the first place?

"disgrace and an insult" is wild, buddy

They might not be able to read all of them, but they should at least get a good description/summary.

Not to mention...its literally the cheapest, half-assed, no-forks-given, lack-of-effort-ed, hack-job i have ever seen on a cover.

Should have kept the same cover.

Where can I get the book?

What a torture if the book is trash 😭

How about just the summary? Or a briefing from the author. We have no time to read everything we do graphics for. Unless they will pay you for your time to read a book. For me it's at least 2 weeks. My attention span is garbage

This is a plea to all wedding planners. i pay you almost nothing to plan the flowers for my wedding. I expect you to read my whole facebook history to find out my favorite flower. I could have briefed you but nah, i rather complain later. ITS THE JOB OF THE PUBLISHER! DONT BLAME THE DESIGNER. How dare you to expect anyone to speak korean.

Why couldn’t they just use the same cover?

Wait actually as you said that it’s about 2 women complicated relationship I got it immediately. That’s tea.

Extremely uneducated video. Cover artists are artists, not readers. The ones who decide what the cover should be like are the art directors and publishers. Complain to them if you must, but don't bad mouth artists 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Please read up on how book covers are made too. It’s not the artist fault usually the director or people above 💀 yell at them. -Someone who does art.

Are you going to pay the designer to read the book?