Submitted by Battlepikapowe4 t3_10nrpqr in books

I've noticed these "stickers" advertising for their respective adaptations on two book series I want now. The Witcher and The Wheel of Time. They are annoying, to say the least. But surely, once the shows have ended for a while, those advertisements wouldn't be printed on new prints, right? I don't think any publisher would want to keep printing them if they're no longer getting paid for it.

What do you all think?

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weirdgroovynerd t1_j6aj5yo wrote

A bit off-topic, but once an author wins a prestigious award, all their books will highlight this on the cover.

So it looks like every book won that award.

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RideThatBridge t1_j6ak1w9 wrote

>Nobody does

Sure they do-lots of people who aren't avid readers but love a series get drawn in and buy the book, even if they never read it. It's a marketing tactic that wouldn't have carried on for years if it didn't prove profitable.

I don't like those covers, and especially hate when a book cover gets changed to the actors that are in the movie or TV show.

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Mmm_bloodfarts t1_j6amuke wrote

I bought the witcher bookset, in the pictures there was no advertisment, once i got them, they all had ads, every single book, box included, fml!

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Doggo_Is_Life_ t1_j6asug9 wrote

I was quite upset when The Witcher had Netflix plastered all over their content and books. I recently learned (on Reddit actually) that there is a new hardcover set with beautiful artwork not tainted by the advertisements being done by Orbit. You can check them out here. I recently picked up the first 2 at my local B&N.

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Griffen_07 t1_j6awng2 wrote

They do eventually. My copy of Lord of the Rings was printed 5 or so years before the movies. It has a soon to be adapted banner on it. I think it took about a decade for the movie covers to die out. However, now they all have Ring of Power stickers.

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sekhmet1010 t1_j6b0a3z wrote

The paperback italian Lord of the Rings covers have recently been changed to show an image from the new RoP series on Prime.

Not exactly a sticker, but man are they fucked up looking. What sort of book cover designer or marketing person thinks that that looks okay!

No book needs a sticker/image from a series.

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VoltaicSketchyTeapot t1_j6ba9co wrote

I work in a print shop.

The problem isn't the stickers. It's that the people buying the stickers don't understand that adhesives and paper matter.

It's the same with price tags and sale stickers. It's all well and good until you try to peel off the sticker and it doesn't come off cleanly. In a perfect world, the people buying the stickers would purchase the correct sticker stock for the application so that it's always easy to remove.

When done correctly, stickers are always better than the movie/tv show tie-in cover.

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LeahBean t1_j6bbvu6 wrote

The Netflix sticker on my Heartstopper book turned out to be a permanent part of the cover design. I thought the stickers were bad 😡

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Raus-Pazazu t1_j6bs6rd wrote

Fret less about the cover and more about the contents. I may admire a particular cover, but I don't buy a book for looking at the single outside page. I buy it for what's inside. Slap whatever you want on the cover that helps the book sell. Or don't. It would be impossible for me to care less about it. The cover is not the story being told. It's a sales device. Sometimes artistic, sometimes not.

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ColaEuphoria t1_j6bsk4m wrote

I have a copy of "soon to be a major motion picture" Dune. 🫠

I'm okay with advertising that fact because, hey, it does draw sales. I just hate it when it's literally part of the cover art so it can't even be peeled away.

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cliff_smiff t1_j6btfjj wrote

Idk. I only read unfilmable books.

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NotStupidTurkey t1_j6bwa6d wrote

I purchased Dune around when the movie was coming out and it had a sticker on it advertising it. I removed the sticker thinking that there would be nothing under it but oh I was so wrong.

Turns out not only did the book have that sticker but under it was the same advertisement but printed on the cover. I have no idea why they added that sticker if it was already on the cover but it gave false hope.

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Battlepikapowe4 OP t1_j6ce0pf wrote

Sure, we care about the contents far more than the covers. But having to look at an ad each time you pick up the book again to read is infuriating. On top of that, some books you love so much that you want to display them fully on your shelf. Good luck doing that with the sticker being such an eye sore.

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pagemarketer t1_j6cmlqc wrote

The publishers don’t get paid to run those “ads” on books. Normally they request the use of it from the film/tv company as it drives sales of the books, and the film/tv doesn’t mind the extra exposure.

In theory they’d stop using the sticker once they release the new official tie-in artwork cover to the tv/show when it’s out. However, when it’s a series, that new cover usually only applies to book one so the rest of the books with often still get stuck with the sticker!

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gustasilvab t1_j6ct2ev wrote

Arrbooks challenge: not to make the same thread every single week.

Difficulty: impossible!

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BookishBitching t1_j6cywlc wrote

It's cheaper to print that way, so probably not, especially with the recent exponential increase in paper costs. Don't worry, I hate them too 😤

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Raus-Pazazu t1_j6d1o1f wrote

My suggestion then is to simply read more books. That way you can find less trivial things to be infuriated about. This may come across as me being sarcastic. It's not meant as such. Stickers or whatnot on books is really such a inconsequential thing.

Call the publishing company directly. Tell them you'll pay them an additional hefty amount to have a copy of the book in question reprinted without the sticker or logo. They can, and for a high enough fee most certainly will reprint you your own copy, because they're not going to stop printing them with stickers if it makes them more money through contracts with movie and television promoters and helps push overall book sales. If displaying the book that you love is of such significant importance and such stickers or logos are really ruining the aesthetic to such a massive degree as you make it out to be, the additional few hundred dollars should be money well spent.

The other option is to not sweat little things in life. Be Zen about it and say fuck it, it's no big deal.

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ActonofMAM t1_j6d5x3t wrote

If the 'sticker' seems to be helping sales at all, and/or if it would cost anything to revert to the pre-sticker cover, you're probably out of luck.

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Battlepikapowe4 OP t1_j6dpwlh wrote

But I'm not, though. Maybe I wasn't all that clear. At the moment there's the two fantasy series I listed who don't have paperback editions without the sticker. I've got plenty of other series on my TBR list, so I can just wait with those two until they get new editions. Or until I can comfortably afford the hardbacks.

The content's not in question, because I'm still going to read those books at some point and I've never read them.

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Aristocraticraven t1_j6fek4d wrote

Award/prize stickers, adaptation advertisements (and tie-in covers!), book clubs, etc. all annoy me, too! I honestly go out of my way, even if it means paying more, to find copies without those stickers printed on the cover.

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