The Importance of Covers, or What’s in a Name?

by Sarah Raplee

Whilst working on ideas for the title and cover for our upcoming anthology, Judith Ashley, Diana McCollum and I have discovered how easily titles without covers can be misinterpreted. Which is one reason we need cover art: to help set the tone and genre of the story in the reader’s mind.

Just for fun, I’ve put together a list of real titles of tv shows, along with alternative descriptions that fit the titles about as well as the real shows’ descriptions.

See what you think!

Lab Rats – Two children rescue a group of what they think are rats from a testing laboratory, only to discover the “rats” were created from fertilized eggs to which Labrador retriever genes were added.

Two Broke Girls – A transvestite buddy comedy.

Under the Dome – A creatively-daring new show about the three parts of a genius inventor’s personality, portrayed by three actors, who vie for control of his thoughts and actions inside the man’s bald head (which looks like a round video game parlor.)

Merlin – A nature documentary about the life cycle of these fascinating birds.

Game of Thrones – A royal trivia game show.

Warehouse 13 – A historical drama about the early days of the Longshoreman’s Union.

Lost Girl – A romantic comedy-adventure about a beautiful martian stranded in the Wild West during the California gold rush.

Mad Men – A documentary series about insane men throughout history.

Continuum – Real-time news coverage of Congress in action.

Longmire – Medieval travelers lose their way in a seemingly-endless marshland and must depend on one another in order to survive.

Can you think up a fictitious show for one of these titles?

Falling Skies

Downton Abbey

Elementary

Psych