By: Katie Borders
Opinion Editor
It is a truth universally acknowledged among the bookish community that printed stickers on books are criminal. Yet, despite publishers facing eviscerating backlash from readers, they have made no changes. .
It is one of the worst feelings as a reader to go to the bookstore to buy a highly anticipated read, pick up the book, and see a “soon to be a Netflix original” sticker printed onto the book’s cover. It truly ruins the aesthetic of the book, makes it look tacky, and I almost always end up putting the book back and reading it online. I just can’t get past seeing a beloved book plastered on the front cover with ugly advertisements for Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon Prime, or some other film company.
Additionally, although publishers use printed stickers on book covers to increase hype and spread awareness about upcoming film adaptations of books, the pain truly nevers ends, as once the film adaption comes out, the printable sticker goes from “soon to be a Netflix original” to “Now on Netflix.” Publishers must stop this cycle , and instead use other forms of advertisements to promote film adaptations.
Publishers have the ability to advertise and promote film adaptations using other methods, like putting removable stickers on the book covers instead of printing them on. From personal experience, I’d even say that I notice the advertisement more as I painstakingly attempt to peel a sticker off a book cover without leaving sticky residue, than if the sticker were just printed on. Another (less expensive) method publishers could use is having the “soon to be a Netflix original” advertisement online next to the online book cover, so that whenever people search up a book title, one of the first things they would see when they hit “search” is that the book they are looking at is “soon to be a Netflix original”.
Regardless of where or how publishers decide to promote advertisements, printed stickers on books have to go. What’s the point of a book having a pretty book cover, if it is to be covered up by an ugly “Netflix original” sticker? Publishers put money into painstakingly paying an artist to come up with an eye-catching cover, knowing that it is important for the successful marketing of a book. And yet, it’s baffling and frustrating to see that publishers will cover up the book cover with a hideous sticker, just because it’s cheaper. I speak for myself and many others in the booklover community when I say that irremovable stickers are the worst and other, less ugly and lazy promotion methods should be used instead.