Monday, November 18, 2013

Mailbox Monday and the Book Blogger's Dilemma

What's the best way to photograph books?  You want to be fair to the authors, book cover artists and designers, but you also want a decent, eye-catching photo.

 This is a snazzy picture of my new books, but it only shows the top book cover!


This shows most of each of the book covers--but does the photo draw you in?


Here's a classic way to highlight books for Mailbox Monday.  However, it shows only the top cover, and the book spine poetry aspect of this particular stack is definitely lacking.

When you have only a couple of new books to showcase, it's fairly easy to show the covers, but you need to be more creative with a larger stack.  What's your approach to this dilemma?  ;)

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These are the books pictured above, which I received in the mail from agents and authors:

Freedom Fries and Café Crème by Jocelyne Rapinac
Almost Always by Bobbi Reed
House of Miracles by Ulrica Hume (featured in my last MM post, but I've included it again because it happened to be "hanging out" with my newest books)

Please stay tuned for my reviews of these books.


Created by Marcia from To Be Continued, Mailbox Monday is a fun, social meme that's been "on tour" for the past few years.  This weekly meme needs a new home; if you're interested, please contact Marcia.  November’s host is Crystal from I totally paused!

What new books have you added to your shelves recently?

32 comments:

  1. I don't play Mailbox Monday often, but when I did I put my books in my mailbox and took a pic of them. It is difficult to find a way to show off each book, so I usually just do the book spine of all the books and put the one with what I think is the most interesting picture on the top. When I review the book, the cover will be shown then.

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    1. When I post a review, I also showcase that particular book. Gigi Ann, thank you for taking the time to leave a nice, detailed comment! :)

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  2. I just do the boring stack but, you're right, it doesn't highlight the great covers. Freedom Fries and the Cafe Creme sounds really good!

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    1. Kathy, you get so many books each week that you have to stack them! And your photos are always good. Thanks for stopping by! :)

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    2. I don't usually participate in mailbox Monday so this isn't a problem for me, but I do like all the pictures...each one has their own advantage.

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  3. They all look good. Love your display...very creative.

    ENJOY your books and your week.

    Link to my post is below as well as a giveaway.

    BTW…Stop by for a FUN giveaway too: GIVEAWAY

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Mailbox Monday

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  4. I may be the last person in the blogosphere not to have a phone with camera, so I just use the book cover provided by Goodreads!
    I'm intrigued by the Freedom Fries, well by anything sounding even remotely French, lol

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  5. I usually grab and link to the covers on Goodreads.
    Short Leash sounds like a good memoir!

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    1. Mary, I find "regular" cover images for my reviews, but for MM posts, I try to photograph my books.

      I'm looking forward to reading Short Leash.
      Thanks for stopping by, Mary!

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  6. Great post. I usually grab the amazon book image for each book. I usually only have one book though! I like the variety each blog provides.

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  7. I usually grab the images, and display each of them, linked to Amazon. Not as exciting, however. Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.

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  8. Freedom Fries and Café Crème has such an adorable cover! I hope the story instead is just as good.

    As for the photos, I normally lay them all out in a row (or several) to get the covers as each. Most often there's only 1 or 2, which makes it easy. But when it's a crazy big week, it does get difficult fitting them all in.

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  9. I think that photo number two works best.

    Freedom Fries and Cafe Creme looks like it would keep me hungry throughout the read.

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  10. As a visual person, I need to see the pretty covers, so I like the one that shows them in the best light:)

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  11. Great post Suko! I agree, it's hard to find a way to take a great shot of books and showcase each cover. I like to take a few pics from a few different angles for my Mailbox posts. I like that first shot, it's artistic.
    Great cover on Freedom Fries and Café Crème. Happy reading!

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    1. Thank you, Naida! I now take nearly all of my book photos with my phone! :)

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  12. As you can see on my blog I show just one book at a time... No problem for me !

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  13. I know the importance of being creative but in my opinion you can't go wrong with the stack format - whether it be books stacked one on top of another or side by side. But then I would say that asI love the idea of book spine poetry and if I'm being honest have been known to be put off a book by its cover - wrong of me I know but there you have it.

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  14. I just upload each book cover image, but I think either a photo that shows all the covers or even just the spines is fine. :) Happy reading!

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    1. Anna, I admire the way you set up your MM posts, and the amount of care you put into them each time. Enjoy your reading this week!

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  15. I don't play but I would normally lay them out side by side and take pic looking down so you can see all the covers.

    Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net

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    1. It's a super fun meme, Lainy! I never did it until a book arrived from Botswana. Then I had to play! :)

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  16. I only read ebooks (and don't often link up with these memes any more!) but I really like the first photo... even if it's less "informative". You could always include more than one shot :)

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  17. Love all the covers this time :) They are all so gorgeous, so Christmasy :) I hope you enjoy them all :)

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  18. I like the cover and the story of Freedom Fries and Cafe Creme. I can picture myself back in France! Nice set of books. I do like the second presentation of the books.

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  19. I missed your post on book photos last week.

    I've been posing my books with flowers and on tables and benches in my garden while the weather was nice. I try to display at least half the cover and pose them different ways taking quite a few shots. The neighbors probably think I'm crazy if they are watching.

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    1. Leslie, you are a wonderful photographer! I know what you mean about posing books--I take quite a lot of shots myself (with my phone). :)

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  20. I haven't done a Mailbox Monday in ages but I really like the middle photo or the stacks. I guess it depends on how many books you get. I've got Short Leash to read as well. I'm looking forward to it.

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  21. Hi Suko! Just stopping by to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

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  22. Taking photos of stacks of books is fun, but I like to highlight every book I get with it's book summary. It's my way of helping the publishers and authors advertise their books. :-)

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  23. I usually just do it the easiest way aka (the lazy way for me) and stack them all up. Ha! But I am also usually a bit pressed for time so I'm going to use that for my excuse. I hope you enjoy all of these!!

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