{"id":"4833","date":"2020-10-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/?p=4833"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:20:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T20:20:59","slug":"horror-book-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/horror-book-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"Which One Won? Horror book covers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Chandrima Das, the <g class=\"gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"4\" data-gr-id=\"4\">author<\/g> of deliciously frightening stories, <a aria-label=\"recently asked (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/books\/book-covers\/which-book-would-you-buy-EVUAXS73\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ek-link\">recently asked<\/a> a group of literary fiction readers on PickFu to vote between two horror book covers for her book <em>The Talking Dead: Four Terrifying Tales. Based on True Events<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Option A features a headless man holding a balloon with a hat on it. This creepy image is made spookier by the weirdly fun title font. In Option B, the headless man is gone. In his stead, there&#8217;s a blood-red cover with a centered title in a classic font, with deeply creepy skeleton moths hovering around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2-640x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Horror book covers - Option A\" data-id=\"4876\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2.jpeg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=4876\" class=\"wp-image-4876\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2-640x1024.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2-188x300.jpeg 188w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2-768x1229.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2-960x1536.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-a-talking-dead-2.jpeg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead-640x1024.png\" alt=\"Horror book covers - Option B\" data-id=\"4874\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=4874\" class=\"wp-image-4874 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead-640x1024.png 640w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead-188x300.png 188w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead-768x1229.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead-960x1536.png 960w, https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/option-b-talking-dead.png 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Can you guess which one won?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:200px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>And the winner is&#8230;Option A! With a score of 74 to Option B&#8217;s 26, there&#8217;s no doubt which of these horror book covers the author should go with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s find out why these fiction readers preferred the headless man in a suit. <\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"its-whimsical-in-a-horrifying-way\">It&#8217;s &#8216;whimsical in a horrifying way&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Respondents loved the mix of whimsy and creepy in Option A. The headless man is unsettling, but there&#8217;s also room for levity. Humor, even. Something more complex and nuanced than a slasher horror book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Said one respondent, &#8220;This cover calls to me as being more creative. It is whimsical in a horrifying way. The other cover seemed too generic and was way too red.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another added, &#8220;The picture makes it look like a thriller without being too scary. Option B&#8217;s picture is too dark and disturbing.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-headless-man-is-just-plain-eyecatching\">The headless man is just plain eye-catching<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>One young male said, &#8220;The headless man looks really cool and spooky.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another male said, &#8220;I was captivated by this book cover as soon as the page loaded.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s definitely what an author wants <g class=\"gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Style replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"14\" data-gr-id=\"14\">to h<\/g>ear. Complexity and uniqueness are both excellent traits for horror book covers to have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As one respondent said, Option A &#8220;looks different than what you can expect in general. I think the balloon as the head is a nice touch. I would definitely pick this book up to find out more about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"silence-of-the-lambs-already-took-the-moths\">&#8220;Silence of the Lambs&#8221; already took the moths<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever seen the movie poster for <em>Silence of the Lambs<\/em>, you&#8217;ll recognize the disturbing moths on Option B. This made the red cover a lot less unique to PickFu respondents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One male said, &#8220;I&#8217;d be more likely to pick [Option A] up rather than the moths because I would assume the moths were a <em>Silence of the Lambs<\/em> connection.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another added that Option A &#8220;seems more interesting and less like a knockoff of <em>Silence of the Lambs<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, the moths have been taken. To many, they&#8217;re no longer original. And combined with the red cover, the effect is simply too much for some fiction readers: &#8220;[Option B] is too creepy for me and would give me nightmares just having the book in my house with that picture.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"horror-book-covers-key-takeaways\">Horror book covers: key takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Literary fiction readers want something scary and weird yet unexpected in a thriller\/murder book, and that&#8217;s what Option A&#8217;s cover delivers. Plus, it doesn&#8217;t borrow themes from a widely known (and feared) film, giving readers an impression the author may not have meant to give. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can we all agree that pretty much any of us would pick up Option A if we saw it in a store? That cover, with that title, is a perfect combo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you need help finding the perfect cover for your thriller? <a aria-label=\"hriller? Create your own PickFu poll (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/pickfu.com\/ask\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ek-link\">Create your own PickFu poll<\/a> and test your ideas with <a aria-label=\"an audience of fiction readers (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickfu.com\/blog\/audience-targeting\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ek-link\">an audience of fiction readers<\/a> for quick, meaningful results. <\/p>\n","protected":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chandrima Das, the author of deliciously frightening stories, recently asked a group of literary fiction readers on PickFu to vote between two horror book covers for her book The Talking &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":""},"author":"9","featured_media":"4878","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":"","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":"","_editorskit_reading_time":"0","_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":"","_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":["21","15"],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Which One Won? 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