Monday 31 August 2009

Annoyed Beyond All Reason

I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it really does. This is the Australian cover for the new novel by Australian crime writer Tara Moss.



I've not read anything of hers, nor am I likely to, and this is again due to various embittered prejudices of my own. But this damn cover isn't helping. Why? Because, though it's a work of fiction, Tara Moss is on the bloody front. You see, she used to be a model, so HarperCollins figure why not splash her good looks everywhere they can. What kind of model?



Ah, a gorgeous, international model.

I know I'm not the only one annoyed by books being promoted or even published because of the attractiveness of their authors, but this seems a particularly egregious case. It doesn't help that you can't enter a bookshop in this country without a full-size cardboard cutout of her lurking round every corner.

Of course, feel free to attribute this bitterness to the fact that I tend to look like someone who just fell through a window, and this is only sometimes due to actually falling through a window.

6 comments:

Marc said...

What I find possibly even more annoying is that the cover blurb on one of those covers isn't by a book reviewer, but Hugh Jackman. The actor, not a book reviewer by the same name, as a quick googling just confirmed for me, as the two appear to be friends. The whole thing would be insulting, except I have to assume that these things actually do sell well?

Brian Busby said...

Full-size cardboard cutouts, national bestsellerdom... I had no idea. Is our loss your gain? Or is it the other way around? Moss is forgotten in her native land. Indeed, Amazon.ca offers only one of her books (and appear to be down to the last copy). Now, normally I would bemoan such a thing, but in this case...

JRSM said...

Hugh Jackman? I didn't notice that. Argh! They sell like crazy, at least in Australia--and she seems to do pretty well in the US as well. Well done, Canada, last home of sanity!

Anonymous said...

The covers with the "model" are pretty distasteful. Add the fact that both of the hooker-like covers are almost carbon copies of each other, except the lower one seems to highlight the author's boobs a lot more.

Who actually stands like that? It looks like someone is poking her in the back with a branding iron, like-- "Get those boobs out there, missy!"

Hooters sell books!

Deb said...

I freely admit that I haven't read and will never read these books, so take my comment with a large grain of salt, but isn't it as unlikely that Tara Moss actually wrote these books as it is that Hugh Jackman actually read them?

Steerforth said...

It works for me ;)