Comments on: Poll: Would You Pay Extra For Interior Art?

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:22:13 +0000

Disagree strongly with Jon Smith. Pulp books work better with interior art.

By: Jared

Jared — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 05:32:56 +0000

I remember the interior art reading through the History of Shannara series. I really missed that in subsequent series, and I’d be more than willing to fork over just a little more in order to experience it again. It helped me to visualize the characters better and brought the story more to life for me.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:30:33 +0000

I just recently read MEG: Hells aquarium by Steve Alten, this book describes many prehistoric fish in great detail, but even so, the small illustrations helped me immensely to bring his sub-oceanic world of monsters to life in my mindseye. Being a Terry brooks reader now for over 20 years and having read the world of shannarra, i feel i know that world well enough not to need illustrations. still, if he chose to include them in future books, it would be a welcome addition, just saying, not necessary.

By: Jon Smith

Jon Smith — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:45:26 +0000

Some books do not require interior art (i.e. pulp books, etc) but a good story can be greatly enhanced by the addition of some. On the other side of the coin, too much can be just as detrimental. The artwork in the first three books definitely enhanced the story for me and so I feel that it struck just the right balance between the two extremes. On the e-book discussion, for me e-books will never replace printed books. They do provide a welcome addition to my library in that it is much easier to carry a reader on a plane or similar venue than to carry your autographed first edition book or reference material or whatever. I sincerely hope that both continue to be well utilized.

By: Jaeger Hemingway

Jaeger Hemingway — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:38:56 +0000

I remember reading the Elfstones and Wishsong with the interior art in it. And seeing just a scene for the chapter added to my idea of how to view the story. Working about the pic that would leave up to and after that section.

Interior Art does bring the Author’s general concept to mind, letting the reader get that glimpse of what he or she wrote. I paid a normal cost for Elfstones that has not changed for paperback pricings. So the placement of art through the book might not really change the cost of it. In some instances, it would make the chapter look alittle longer and fill out the last page of it. This is compared to maybe being 2 to 5 sentences long..

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:05:05 +0000

I wonder if interior art will become more common in physical books as e-books become more popular. Presumably, we’ll get to the point where physical books are collector’s items while the e-book file is the cheap equivalent of a mass-market paperback.

By: L.B. Conahan

L.B. Conahan — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 04:06:04 +0000

Some years ago, at a book-sale, a rather strong musty smell led me to discovering a Swedish book of palms that was over two-hundred years old. To put it mildly, it was beautiful. From the sumptuous binding to craftsmanship of the text itself; I had most certainly never held anything like it before. Even when I was growing up I can remember reading many books with small pieces of art to spark my imagination therein.

However, there are many people that say this these types of things can ruin a story for them by taking the image that their imagination has created, and replacing it with something someone else had envisioned. So, if we are careful and considerate of all readers, I feel it could add much more to the artistic beauty of literature. And good art will always have value.

By: William L Snyder III

William L Snyder III — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:21:31 +0000

interior art not only enhances the experience it also personalizes the novel because it brings the authors concepts of the story to the novel.