Cover Envy: Sloane Crosley's The Clasp

Here's another (in my opinion) improved hardback to paperback cover design change.  Sloane Crosley's first novel, The Clasp, a comedic treasure hunt/mystery romp, comes out in paperback tomorrow (June 7), and the cover is quite different.  The hardback cover was well-designed, if a bit simplistic and flat (and slightly self-published looking) at first glance.  It was printed in three different bright colors, and the design was actually quite cool, with a gold chain snaking in and out of the letters.  The publisher clearly pulled out all of the stops for this first novel.  The paperback is more to my taste, and hugely different from the hardback cover.  I like the bold yellow and off-kilter font, and I love the background to the text, which is a close-up photograph of a traditional tapestry with bright embroidery added to it.  The background reminds me of the work of Richard Saja's Historically Inaccurate embroidered punk toile de jouy, which you can check out here. Edited: I just found an article on EW.com that says the background art was indeed designed by Richard Saja!  No wonder I love this cover so much!  Another small update (6/7/16): I just got a copy of the paperback, and the cover is embossed!  The text and all of the embroidery are actually raised, making this an even cooler cover.

Paperback cover

Hardback covers

Here's the Dutch cover that the EW article refers to.  Note the toile de jouy!