From Sprayed Edges to Box Sets—The Book Trends We're Obsessing Over

In this episode of Reality Writes, I'm sitting down with The Tech Guy to talk about the book trends shaping what readers are buying, collecting, and obsessing over right now. We cover cover art cycles, the love-hate relationship with movie tie-in covers and glossy finishes, the return of box sets, the stunning (and sometimes messy) world of sprayed edges, hidden Easter eggs under hardcover dust jackets, chapter illustrations making a beautiful comeback in adult fiction, and the growing world of special editions, cookbooks, graphic novels, and escape rooms expanding beloved series. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Listener Messages

Ellie Alexander 0:05

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Writes. I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we talk about all things bookish, writer-ish, and whatever else is on our mind. And uh today we're gonna lean hard into the bookish stuff, aren't we, Tech Guy?

Tech Guy 0:22

Uh yeah, we are, and I am super excited. I love this stuff. Um as if there weren't already enough reasons to love books, some of the things we're gonna be talking about are some of them are a little wild, but some of them are just fun and they make they make reading even more fun. So I can't wait to get into it. But before we do, I just want to remind all the darlings out there if you're if you like Reality Writes, uh share it with a friend, family member, a loved one, and be sure to follow us so that you're notified of new episodes. Um, and again, another plug for the send us a message link in the show notes. If you have a question that you want Ellie to answer, if you want to tell us how much you love the podcast, tap that link and you can send us a text message and we will reply back. Uh, you can also send us a voice message too. So waiting for somebody to do that, and we'll maybe play your

Why Book Trends Take Over

Tech Guy 1:18

voice on Reality Writes.

Ellie Alexander 1:20

You can do it. You can do it. Be brave, be brave. I think this might be the episode because today we're gonna talk about book trends. Um, and I know we love some of these trends, and there are probably other trends that you darlings know that I'm not even in the loop on, and maybe the tech guy isn't either. So um I'll be eager to hear your thoughts.

Tech Guy 1:41

I'll probably be the last one to be in on the trends. That's I'm just I'm just gonna put it out there. Yeah. So yes, I would love to hear from the darlings if there are other trends that I should be in on because I I I want to be, I want to be part of it.

Ellie Alexander 1:58

You want to be there under the seat. Yeah. So we're gonna talk about today a lot of the most popular trends that we're seeing in the market today. And I always think it's interesting how things kind of ebb and flow and shift over time. And once you see one trend start, then they tend to just take over. And I'll dive right in with one particular example of that, which is cover art. And I have seen this over the course of my entire professional writing career. So the thing that comes to mind first off is historical fiction, women's fiction set post-World War in England. I was on a kick for, I don't know, a good what, decade there where that I read so much historical fiction.

Tech Guy 2:43

I it was getting hard to find books for you for gifts for birthdays and Christmas and everything that you hadn't read. So thank you to all the indie bookstore owner owners out there that we have relationships with because they saved my bacon and found books that uh you ended up loving that I wouldn't have uh been able to come across on my own.

Ellie Alexander 3:06

And the way that they found this is because the cover art for all of them looked the same. You could always see a visual of a woman in the 1940s, 50s period dress from behind on a dock at a direction.

Tech Guy 3:21

You're looking over her shoulder.

Ellie Alexander 3:23

Looking over her shoulder. Uh-huh. Never, never see a face. It's always this like long shot. Like you knew right away. Don't have to read the back cover. You don't even know anything else. That's for Ellie. You're picking that up for me. Um, in the mystery world, I think over the last four or five years, the Thursday Murder Club was so wildly popular. Richard Osmond, I love that series myself too. But it was kind of the first that sort of broke out of the mold because it's it's cozy, right? It's your traditional kind of mystery. But it was

Cover Art Signals Genre Fast

Ellie Alexander 3:55

that red, black, and white graphic cover. And, you know, I think for the next two years, every other novel in the mystery world looked like that because it's like, oh, here's the trend. It's working. Readers instantly then, darlings, you see something like that and you know, like, okay, I I kind of probably have a good idea what I'm getting when I pick up those books.

Tech Guy 4:17

Yeah, yeah. That uh similar thing happened in the rom-com uh world with like the past the pastel blues uh and pinks um especially. Uh and and that kind of took off. Um there is one thing about cover art though that I I have been seeing that is controversial um in the reader world. And I I so I want to I we haven't had a chance to talk about this, so I want to know what you think, but but I've seen some uh reels and stuff online from readers who are really upset when they have a book that they like and it's going it's being made into like a streaming show or whatever, and they put the bug on it. It's the the little graphic is called a bug. They put the bug on the cover that's like soon to be a Netflix original or whatever. And and from what I've been seeing, readers are like, that ruins the book. Like it just ruins it.

Ellie Alexander 5:15

Yeah, I hate that. I absolutely and I almost never want the book cover of the movie image.

Tech Guy 5:22

Oh, yeah. That's you know, no, no, that is yeah, that's too much. I know, I know, and it and I I have yet, and I'd love to hear from the darlings out there, but I have yet to see a book that it has then subsequently been made into a series or a movie where the the series or movie style cover is better than the original book cover was. Yeah, yeah. It might be a hot take, but I I just I haven't I'd yeah, I'd love I'd

Movie Tie-Ins And Matte Debate

Tech Guy 5:55

love to have somebody show me one that that was better.

Ellie Alexander 5:59

No, in fact, you read um Project Hail Mary on your Kindle. Uh but we were at a small bookstore in Half Moon Bay and they had a paperback copy, which I always prefer, but the only paperback they had was the movie version. And if you remember, I hesitated to buy it because I'm like, oh, I don't know. Like I don't usually love it. Went, but I bought it anyway. It's fine.

Tech Guy 6:22

Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 6:23

Yeah.

Tech Guy 6:23

And it and it was great. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 6:25

And it was great. I like it if a cover gets redone like artistically, but I don't like just a crossover like straight up right from the movie. It's not for me. And I definitely don't want the bug on it. No chance. Take that off my cover.

Tech Guy 6:40

Well, and one thing that I've noticed too, it when that happens is a um, and this again, I'm not I haven't full of hot takes today, but uh, I'm gonna come out and say it. I'm a matte guy. I don't like glossy covers. I don't like them.

Ellie Alexander 6:55

Yeah.

Tech Guy 6:55

I don't I don't like them. And what I see happening is if a book is published with a matte cover and then becomes turns into some sort of streaming or or movie or whatever, that version of the book is always a glossy cover.

Ellie Alexander 7:10

Always glossy. Why? Yeah, it doesn't make sense.

Tech Guy 7:13

I don't know. I don't know. And hey, no shade, no shade to the darlings out there that like glossy covers. I'm just saying, me personally, it's I'm I'm Matt all the way.

Ellie Alexander 7:22

I'm with you a thousand percent. Nobody wants to.

Tech Guy 7:24

I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna get a t-shirt that says I love mat and just it'll confuse people. It'll be like, Wait, what? I don't okay, yeah.

Ellie Alexander 7:32

Yeah, especially with the E on the end, but you know, it's all good.

Tech Guy 7:36

I know, yeah. A couple of T's in there. Yeah, it's great. Uh what's next? What's the what's what's another trend besides

Box Sets And Shelf Display Puzzles

Tech Guy 7:42

cover art that's right?

Ellie Alexander 7:43

This trend has been around for a long time. Um, and um, I feel like it's starting to make a resurgence again. And this is box sets.

Tech Guy 7:52

Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh well, I it's making a resurgence with your readers because we get this question all the time like, when are you gonna release a box set? When are you gonna do a box set? And it's like it so I box sets are cool. Um, I've seen some amazing box sets. Well, we have uh like I have visual aids for those watching on YouTube or any of the video podcasts, but uh we've got our our Narnia box set, which is you know, it it's cool, it's got it's got some neat art there and everything, which is blurry, but uh um what I don't understand about box sets though is all the work goes into it and like these these wonderful artists like make this incredible box set and then you put it on the shelf and it all the art goes away.

Ellie Alexander 8:40

I know, yeah.

Tech Guy 8:42

Because it's it's in it's it's on the back, it's on the sides and it's on the back, it's not on the front, unless you you put just the box set side facing out. Um explain that to me.

Ellie Alexander 8:56

I don't know, and maybe darlings out there will help us with this because that's always been my question too. I'm looking up on my shelf and I have Betsy Tassie Tib from my childhood series that I have in a box set. I have a lot of like younger series in box sets. I think they're harder to do. Like one of the reasons, like with Bake Shop, like I'll move so anyone um watching can see like it's it's a lot of books. Like that's a giant box, and we've talked about this. And also because the size of the books has changed, the format over the years, like it that's hard. But yes, like logistically, how do you position a box set on your shelves? I genuinely want to know.

Tech Guy 9:35

Yeah, I do too, because I like I said, I I I love the art and the design that goes into the creation of the boxes themselves, but then it just seems weird to hide the books to show the art, or vice versa, right? And so then you're you're paying for something that is being hidden by in theory all the other books on your bookshelf. Um exactly. But they do make a cool gift, I will say that. They do.

Ellie Alexander 10:03

And you get all the books at once, yeah. Well, and like um at Mystery Fest every year, Paddington has always sold collections of the bake shop because inevitably there will be readers who are like, I just I want the whole thing and I want you to sign the whole thing. So and then they've offered a discount, which is really nice. And so I also understand it if you're like walking away with an entire series. Again, I think it's slightly easier to do with Narnia, where you have like a concrete, like it's a small number, it fits in a box. But yes.

Tech Guy 10:31

Right, right. Well, and in the these particular versions were like the small mass market paperback size, too, which also makes a difference because if you've got the larger hardcover books, that's uh it's a big box.

Ellie Alexander 10:43

It's always a good problem to have though, in it from the publishing side of things, like when you start to have special editions and things like that come out, which is going to happen with the bake shop. Uh, it means that like the books are doing well and they're they're getting seen by more readers, you're getting a whole new print run usually. So that's always popular, I think, with books like Narnia that are like standing the test of time. Um,

Sprayed Edges As Art Or Hassle

Ellie Alexander 11:07

to tag team off of your point about how you display the box set, the next thing on my list is sprayed edges. We know that sprayed edges have been wildly popular in the last few years. And I'm curious about that because if you're doing that for display, do you display them the opposite way on the shelf?

Tech Guy 11:29

And for the darlings out there who don't know, and I mean, you haven't been to a bookshop lately if you don't know, but um because they're they're everywhere. Um Ellie's talking about like the the um I've got a great example here of my uh Charles Dickens Christmas stories, and the pages actually have I'll pull it back. I know it's amazing. It's like Fezziwig and and you know, the ghost of Christmas present and everything painted right on the pages themselves. Um the artwork on some of these is stunning. And I've seen I've I'd like I binge watch creators online that do this by hand, like drawing. Uh I've seen some amazing like uh Lord of the Rings uh series um edges where illustrators have done just incredible artwork on the pages. But you've told me there's some drawbacks to this too that you've heard of.

Ellie Alexander 12:25

Yeah, I mean, for me, one of them, and like this is a known fact, darlings. I I'm a slob. I mean, I'm not a slob in terms of like my physical appearance or my space. I'm actually very tidy if we compare our two offices. Like you have way more messiness than I do.

Tech Guy 12:44

But um I would, I would, I would disagree when it comes to keyboards and monitors.

Ellie Alexander 12:50

Um well, that's different. Yeah, that's yeah.

Tech Guy 12:53

Um I don't other than that, yes, you're right. Yes, clutter clutter, my middle name is clutter.

Ellie Alexander 12:58

Um not a fan of clutter here. My brain's gonna be. We are opposite, but I digress. I spill on myself, I do spill on my keyboard, I will have coffee and for two seconds, and it's all over the front of me. So some of the sprayed edges, especially, I mean, like your example of Fezziwigs. I mean, that's just gorgeous, lovely art. Like, I don't want to touch that. But like some sprayed edges now are just like one color, like a dark purple or a dark blue to match the cover with no other art. I just feel like I'm gonna get that ink all over my hands as I'm reading. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.

Tech Guy 13:43

I think you've said that you've seen people who've said that the like it does, you know, if you I don't know if it's the oil in your fingers or maybe people are sweaty while they're reading. I don't know. There are probably people out there that read when they work out. I'm, you know, hey, to each of their own. If the paint comes off, yeah, that could be a problem. Um big problem.

Ellie Alexander 14:03

And then, you know, if you dog ear like if any of the paint, I mean, I do also dog ear readers. Yeah, like I know. Obviously, you can't do that with this kind of edition, but um, yeah, like yeah, this this would ruin that for sure.

Tech Guy 14:18

Yeah. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 14:19

So the question in this book trend is it just to collect it then, not necessarily for the reading enjoyment. It's like, hey, this is a book I've loved. It's a special edition. I want this on my shelf like you, with a Christmas carol done. Like I bought that for you, no notes immediately when I saw it. I was like, oh, a tech guy needs it.

Tech Guy 14:37

Yeah, no, I mean, I'm a huge Dickens fan, huge Dickens fan. And it is a beautiful book. Um, I almost feel bad reading it, honestly, because it just the illustrations inside are beautiful and everything, too. But I am a huge fan of sprayed edges when they're done well. It's like a cool Easter egg for a book. You know, they're they're very cool. But going back to your original question, I don't know how you like is it just for you to enjoy and no one else to ever see? Because you'd have to put the book on the shelf backwards. And I don't know, maybe people do that. Uh maybe that's how you do it.

Ellie Alexander 15:11

You could like or stack them flat and have the spine spacing out. Yeah. Tell us the links in the comments. I want to hear.

Tech Guy 15:17

Yeah,

Dust Jacket Secrets And Bonus Chapters

Tech Guy 15:18

for sure.

Ellie Alexander 15:18

I mean, let's talk about collectible covers.

Tech Guy 15:22

Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 15:22

I mean special Easter eggs undercovers, perhaps. You want to talk about that?

Tech Guy 15:27

I'll use a a recent love of mine, which is the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. You know, they the the books themselves are the covers are are very cool and colorful and everything. And with the the dust jackets, um, they're they're really cool. But one thing that people may not know is that if you take the dust uh jacket off, the books, the hardcover books actually all have sayings uh like embossed on the cover itself. Um and they're they're quotes from the books, um, and they they look incredible, but it's kind of like a hidden Easter egg uh that you wouldn't know about unless if you know, you know. But um I didn't know until I accidentally the dust jacket came unfolded on this book while I was reading it. And I was like, no way. And so then I had to look at the rest. And sure enough, they all have hidden secrets.

Ellie Alexander 16:20

They all have hidden secrets on that front. With if you are a collector and you follow book trends, if you have a dust jacket, do you take it off and remove it when you read? Is one of our questions.

Tech Guy 16:31

That's a good question. Yeah, they can take a beating. They're they're pretty fragile parts of books, um honestly. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 16:39

And now that you say that, I'm looking at the hardcover of that book, and I was like, uh-oh, I feel like I'm gonna ruin this one.

Tech Guy 16:46

So well, it's funny you should mention that because I was just looking at this after I set it down after showing the darlings, and I'm looking, there's some creases up at the top corner on the front, and I'm like, now I have to buy a new copy. So um yeah. Great.

Ellie Alexander 17:03

Great.

Tech Guy 17:05

That's gonna bug me.

Ellie Alexander 17:07

I know, I know. Sorry. I was as I was reading it, I was like, I should probably take this dust jacket off. Um, I like my books well loved, darlings. Like even books that I've read again and again, like I'm rereading I Capture the Castle for like the umpteenth time, and that book is just very well loved, let's say. Okay, but on that note of special editions, so the Bake Shop Mysteries, you may or may not have heard this, darlings. The next book in the series, The Pumpkin Vice Cafe, which comes out in September, is switching to trade paperback. So it will have a little cover glow up and it's going to be in a different size. And in advance of that, my publishing house is re-releasing a special edition of Meet Your Baker, the first book in the series. It too will have a new cover, a glow up. It'll be in the trade paperback uh size. And I wrote like a special introduction. So they add for these special editions like a few bonus things, like my friend Gigi Pondion had a special edition, and I think she did a bonus recipe or like a small short story. So you might see things like that in a special edition where the content of the book and like the bones of the story, like all of that is the same, but you get maybe a foreword by another author or extra little teaser content, which is really fun.

Tech Guy 18:30

Yeah. And that's something, again, to go back to one of my favorite topics, uh Dungeon Crawler Carl. Um, I did not know because I read the first book in the series, uh, the ebook version originally. And it wasn't until I was like on book three that I learned that uh I had switched over to the paperback and I learned that there are extra chapters in the back of the printed copies only. And this is like additional content. It has to do with the way that the book was published and Matt did him in self-publishing, but then traditionally published too and and writes for that stuff in any way. It's in the printed version because the publisher wanted that very thing. They wanted something that was unique to the printed copy that they were releasing. And so if you haven't gotten the print copies, you might

Chapter Illustrations And Maps Return

Tech Guy 19:20

just want to go do that. That's all I'm saying.

unknown 19:22

Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 19:23

Okay, here's another trend uh that I'm seeing like matriculate into things like the mystery, which are little chapter illustrations. You would see this more historically in uh fiction for younger readers. But last year, my Mysteries and Mocktails book club here, we read How to Murder Your Employer, uh, which was fabulous. If you need a fun, twisty, uh slightly dark mystery, and you hate your job. This is a good one for you. But um it had uh chapter illustration. So, and um, even halfway through the book, there's like a map of the murder campus. And um, I'm seeing this a lot. I capture the castle, the re-release of that book that I'm rereading myself every chapter, and even like the different sections when you're in part two, part two, part, part two, part three.

Tech Guy 20:14

Um part two, part two.

Ellie Alexander 20:17

Part two, part two. Um, all have lovely illustrations included. And I think that's such a sweet trend.

Tech Guy 20:23

Yeah, it's a it's a nice little surprise when you I mean, you always, I don't know, maybe this is just me, but when I finish a chapter, I'm like, you know, there's a little surge of like, oh hey, I got through that chapter. I'm gonna I got am I awake enough to go on to the next one? Whatever. But you you turn the page and you see that little illustration, and you're like, oh, well, now I I need to I need to read more to find out what this is about. When you started talking about this, my mind immediately goes to Harry Potter, of course. Um said like with the younger readers and stuff, that was the those books had great little um chapter illustrations in them. You know what other series has them that are that's super cool in the in the print version? Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Ellie Alexander 21:10

I'm sensing a theme today.

Tech Guy 21:13

No, they're really cool. They're they're small, but they're very they're very cool. Uh, and they they always have to do with like the pages that are coming. So it's it's a fun little little surprise.

Ellie Alexander 21:23

Okay, well, I think the last but certainly not least of our favorite book trends um are like all the bonus special editions, um, extra content. So like I'm our collections look very different, but I'm looking at like this is my copy of a Jane

Cookbooks Escape Rooms Graphic Novels

Ellie Alexander 21:45

Austen Escape Room. Um, so this is taking all the content from a well loved series, right? And you're turning it into something new. Or another example of that might be this is the Bridgerton cookbook. So you have a cook. Book based off the books and now a TV series as well. Um, graphic novels are part of that. I think that this trend is obviously happening with big name series, but I've also seen friends of mine in kind of smaller space creating a special edition, a cookbook, a graphic novel, an illustrated version of their book just as a way to bring readers into that world, which I absolutely love.

Tech Guy 22:26

Yeah, they're they're almost so it's it's almost like taking that content and spinning it off into other activities. So you can keep your love of that that content, that series like going beyond just the covers of the the books in the series for sure. Um, you know what other series is getting the graphic novel treatment?

Ellie Alexander 22:45

I don't know, darlings. Let's take a wild guess here. What could it be? Drumroll?

Tech Guy 22:52

Dungeon crawler Carl. I know. I I mean shocking, right? Yeah, no, it is. It is. Uh first first book is is out now, first volume.

Ellie Alexander 23:03

It's so great. Yeah. And like you said, it's just a way that you get to expand that world or maybe like do a little dive into an escape room or a cooking or a graphic novel, all related to the same characters, stories, et cetera, which is so fun.

Tech Guy 23:18

Yeah, yeah. It it is fun because I don't know about well, I know you personally, but I don't know about other darlings out there. But it when when you do get into a series as much as I am into Dungeon Crawler Carl, you don't want it to end. But you know it's gotta end, right? It it has to end at some point. And so it is fun to get these other touches, these other touch points where you're able to actually enjoy the content, keep up with the world, the characters and everything outside of just the stories themselves. And I, for one, totally appreciate that.

Ellie Alexander 23:52

I do too. And there's so much creativity, and I think anytime you're just expanding a reading world, it's a good thing. So I have no notes. Um, and I love all of these trends that that there are these

What Trends Are We Missing

Ellie Alexander 24:05

new themes. And I'm super curious to you, darlings, as we wrap up this episode, what trends are we missing? Like, what have we not seen?

Tech Guy 24:13

Yeah, what's coming next? Right. I mean, we we've covered several of them here, half dozen or so. Uh, I want to hear about the others because, like I said, I want to be, I want to be on the end of these trends. But I also I I really do want to know for the box set owners and sprayed edge book owners out there. Like, how do you display them? How that what's your favorite way? That that part I am just I'm dying to know.

Ellie Alexander 24:38

Yes. So leave us a comment on that, or better yet, send us a voicemail and we'll play it on the next episode.

Tech Guy 24:44

That's right. That's right. All right. Well, that covers book trends for this week. Uh I can't wait to hear from the darlings and see what else we're missing.

Ellie Alexander 24:53

Me too. All right. Till next time.

Tech Guy 24:55

Until next time.