History CoversAlwaysLie / Literature

* The ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries'' averted it in its second edition, but the first cover for ''Soul Thief'' is guilty not only of depicting the main character wrongly, but also the blurb in the back of the book, which somehow turned a ParanormalInvestigation story into ParanormalRomance, complete with a bunch of {{Incredibly Lame Pun}}s. The last book in the second edition also shows Dora with a {{Katana|sAreJustBetter}}, while her sword is clearly described as being European-styled.

* ''Literature/SkylandersTheMaskOfPower'': Gill Grunt is featured prominently on the cover of ''Spyro versus The Mega Monsters'', but he's merely a minor character in the book.

* One tie-in storybook based on Disney's ''WesternAnimaton/BrotherBear'' shows a ''still alive'' Sitka alongside Denahi in the background, with Kenai and Koda in the foreground. In the actual movie, Sitka dies at the very beginning due to a bear attack, and his death, by prompting Kenai to kill the bear that killed him, is what resulted in Kenai [[KarmicTransformation being turned into a bear himself]], as Sitka obviously wasn't happy with the idea of Kenai killing the [[spoiler: mother]] bear.

* Possibly in the wake of the [[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]] craze, a lot of books with slightly similar themes have been reprinted and released with covers that try to arise the image of the story being a similar supernatural romance thing, featuring close-ups of beautiful girl faces, pseudo-poetic titles written in elaborate letters and so on. This also includes certain German rereleases of Literature/TheVampireChronicles by Creator/AnneRice. One particular instance is [[http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516NkqZk23L._.jpg this cover]] for what is supposed to be ''The Vampire Armand''. Not only has the title, which roughly translates to "The Scent of Immortality" almost nothing to do with the story as such (while earlier editions just had a directly translated title), the only woman that the female face on the cover could allude to, Bianca, has a rather minor role in the book, which tells about Armand, obviously a male. Germany has a few more of these instances for newer released Vampire Chronicles editions, but this one really sticks out.

* ''Literature/TheReluctantKing'': The omnibus e-book's cover has Jorian (who in the book is described as having long hair and a mustache) with short hair. Worse, beside him is a woman who's clearly meant to be Yargali, who's literally whitewashed. She's described as having skin that's so dark it's nearly black, with the character on the cover Caucasian looking

** The cover of ''Terror on Troll Mountain'' depicts the titular troll as a kaiju-sized monstrosity with GiantHandsOfDoom about to crush the protagonist. In the story itself the troll is as tall as a tree, but nowhere ''that'' huge.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'': On some covers, Eilonwy is depicted as a redhead even though she is described as golden haired in the books.

* ''Cam Jansen Mysteries'': A kid-lit mystery series, with similar things to the "Three Investigators" example. On the cover of ''The Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones'', we see the skeleton of a menacing giant ''Tyrannosaurus''-like dinosaur turning its head at Cam and her best friend/assistant, who are naturally terrified that this fierce dead animal is staring right at them. The actual mystery in the book has less to do with malevolent undead dinosaurs and more to do with some thieves stealing a few of the vertebrae from a near-complete fossil of a ''Coelophysis'' (Cam gets involved when her class goes to view this fossil on a field trip), hoping to sell them back to the museum curators. Woop-dee-do.
*** ''Coelophysis'' is a predatory dinosaur, but much smaller and skinnier than ''Tyrannosaurus''.

* On some covers of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' Eilonwy is depicted as a redhead even though she is described as golden haired in the books.

* [[EnforcedTrope Done as a deliberate joke]] with the covers of the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels, which are intended to resemble propaganda posters. Of particular note, Cain is always depicted using a bolt pistol when he actually [[BoringButPractical prefers laspistols for their larger ammo capacity and ease of recharge]] (it's saved his life a number of times).

* The cover to ''The Dangerous Days of Literature/DanielX'' features the titular character holding The List; the problems is that it is depicted as a literal paper list, whereas in the book it is actually stored on an alien computer system. Granted it is mentioned that The List’s appearance can be altered, but it still never appears as an actual paper list in the book.

** In general, covers for ''Literature/TheGunslinger'' tend to depict Roland wearing a hat, but it's mentioned very early on that ''had'' a hat but lost it. It's likely that this is for the sake of evoking his resemblance to Creator/ClintEastwood's "Man with No Name" persona.
*** This isn't the fault of the artists. This line does not exist in the first edition of ''The Gunslinger'', and in fact that version makes frequent references to Roland grabbing his hat or putting his hat on. Other books mention it as well. The line is, for some reason, inserted into the revised, expanded version of ''The Gunslinger'', but still ignored by the other volumes and it's probably best that the reader ignore it as well.

* Some of the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books have covers by Josh Kirby that really don't reflect what characters look like, or depict scenes that didn't happen (he was very fond of covers that showed the entire book happening at once). Some examples are Granny Weatherwax as a stereotypical hunched-over warty WickedWitch when she's actually a handsome older woman who sometimes ''complains'' that she doesn't look like that. Or [[Literature/{{Pyramids}} Pteppic]] wearing a MartialArtsHeadband for no good reason and curly-toed slippers that just look impractical for an Assassin. Or Twoflower, who wears glasses, which the ignorant Morkporkians saw as him having four eyes, ''literally having'' four eyes. Not to mention the Librarian, an orangutan, being depicted visually as a ''chimpanzee''.

* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse''

** A minor example: The 50th Anniversary "The Monster Collection" reprints each have an image of the monster on the front. The problem is that the monster on the cover is always the New Series version, even though all the novels featuring monsters from the classic series were originally published long before the New Series existed, and in the cases of ''Illegal Alien'' (Cybermen) and ''The Scales of Injustice'' (Silurians) the specific versions of the monsters (Second-Doctor-era Cybermen and Fifth-Doctor-era Silurians) is a plot point.

* The first couple of books in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' "Chronicles" series have pretty accurate covers. But Caramon and Raistlin are never in a forest together at any point during ''[[http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv194/midasqq/Books/spring.jpg Dragons of Spring Dawning]]''--as a matter of fact, they get separated early on and stay separated for most of the book. And when they ''are'' in the same place at the same time, Kitiara ''isn't'' there. In ''[[http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dlnovel/885510000 Dragons of Summer Flame]]'', Tanis and Usha never meet one another, [[spoiler: and never will, since Tanis dies in the middle of the book]]. Similarly, the three characters standing together on the cover of ''[[http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0786926945.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg Second Generation]]''--Palin Majere, Steel Brightblade, and Gilthas--never cross paths during any of the five stories in the book.

* The title character of ''Literature/EllaEnchanted'' is described as having black hair, yet the covers of almost every edition give her medium or light brown hair instead, which Gail Carson Levine [[https://gailcarsonlevine.com/blog/2010/08/04/cover-musings/ has complained about.]]

* ''Literature/PraefacioOfBlue'' features its protagonist, Kyle, smiling as he confidently wields his sword. [[DysfunctionJunction He spends most of the novel wracked with intense doubt]] [[CrapsackWorld and despair from the kind of world he lives in.]]
* In ''The Extended Phenotype'', in [[https://thoughtsonx.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/richard-dawkins-on-genetic-determinism/ the chapter denying genetic determinism]], UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins comments on how he uses slides from the covers of a French and German edition of his ''The Selfish Gene'' as an illustration of what he was ''not'' trying to say in that book. They feature figures representing humans presented as robots or marionettes.

* [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oT9HgbSGO64/ThyCehixsII/AAAAAAAAAn8/BJRzYsmgkf8/s1600/Firestarter7.jpg This]] cover of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'' draws the focus to a large pair of eyes, presumably Charlie's. However, the eyes on the cover are green and it is mentioned ''many'' times throughout the book that her eyes are blue.

* Behold! [[http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/01/dantes-inferno-reprint/ The new cover]] of Dante's ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]''! Yes, that's the book itself. Apparently, Dante's classic journey to the afterlife involved wielding a [[SinisterScythe wicked scythe]] to slay the denizens of Hell with while wearing leather pants sans shirt to show off his muscular pecs. This is a special case of a lying cover, as it's ''perfectly accurate''-- for the [[VideoGame/DantesInferno video game]] that was InspiredBy the poem. ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' not only "approves" of this tactic but offers an [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/15/ additional suggestion]].

* Apparently done the opposite direction to normal in regard to ''The Gatherer'' by Owen Brookes. Inside the dust jacket is a description that makes it sound like the highbrow sort of horror. On the back of said dust jacket is an excerpt of a scene in which the villain {{Gorn}}ographically mutilates some girl's breasts.
* Literature/GhostsDontEatPotatoChips: The original cover does nothing to convey just how realistically and supernaturally frightening the story is, and gives a false sense of Great-uncle Jasper appearing more human than he is.

* Somewhat invoked with ''Grand Theft Childhood'', since at first glance the title and tagline makes it sounds like a book meant to reinforce people's beliefs that [[MurderSimulator video games are destroying our youth]]. While in reality, the book '''inverts''' NewMediaAreEvil and is actually about how video games often help children more than hurt and how politicians and the media are essentially using it as a scapegoat.

* The cover of the paperback edition of John Meyers Meyers' ''The Harp and the Blade'' has a starburst shoutout thingy that says "A fantasy of Druidic England!" The story takes place in France, there are no Druids, and the if there is a fantasy element (that's debatable) it used only at the very beginning to set up the main character's dilemma.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

* The cover of the current version of ''Literature/HighMagicsAid'', as well as the description on the back, seem to imply that it's a typical fantasy novel that just happens to have the appeal of having been written by the founder of Wicca. In the actual book, there are only a very few cases in which actual magic appears to have been used, and Witchcraft is mostly depicted as a persecuted and misunderstood religion.
* ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'': Some editions of ''The Amber Spyglass'' has an ornate spyglass on the cover, which fits the title but not the story: in it, the eponymous artifact is a far more primitive device made of two sheets of resin fastened together so the user can look through them.
* The Italian cover of ''Homegoing'', a science fiction novel by Creator/FrederikPohl, features an odd [[http://www.tecalibri.info/P/POHL_ritornoC.htm shark-shaped starship]] which does not appear in the book (compare it with the [[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/frederik-pohl/homegoing.htm original cover]]). Furthermore, the tagline reads: "They're the Hakh'hli. They're aliens. They feed on human flesh". Purchasers fancying a sci-fi-horror story were utterly disappointed, as the aliens in the book do NOT feed on human flesh (they breed their own alien animals).

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' is an interesting example. The cover design is fine, but the choice of blurbs on the back paint a somewhat... um... ''misleading'' picture. "Funny, moving, sexy..." and "a love story..." are not the first descriptions that jump to most readers' minds when thinking of this book, and absolutely no mention is made of the novel's most memorable facet: it's [[CosmicHorrorStory really]], ''[[MindScrew really]]'' scary.

* ''Literature/JamesBond'':
** Penguin Publishing released ''Quantum Of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories'' around the same time that the film ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' the film was released. In the book's defense, it makes no indication that it is a movie tie in - however, ''Quantum of Solace'' the ''Bond'' film and "[[Literature/ForYourEyesOnly Quantum of Solace]]" the ''Bond'' short story are only similar [[InNameOnly in their titles]] - the plots of each are completely different. As ''QOS'' is not a ''Bond'' story of any particular note, choosing it for the title of the book that collects all the ''Bond'' short stories in one place seems quite arbitrary, and was obviously done to tie into the movie.
** To be fair, Bond movies based on the short stories rarely have anything to do with the story beyond sharing the same title--''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', for example (in [[Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights the original story]], Bond wasn't even a character, although he was referenced once in passing), ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', and others.
* At least one edition of Creator/BruceCoville's ''[[Literature/MagicShop Jennifer Murdley's Toad]]'' has a cover depicting Bufo, the toad in question, ranting to Jennifer, who on this cover is depicted as an attractive-looking blond girl. The problem is that, in the book itself, Jennifer is specifically described as being... well, not as hot as the girl on the cover, to put it mildly. The illustrations in the book, for the record, depict Jennifer as looking fairly unattractive and chubby. It's possible that the girl is meant to be Shara, who is in fact described as blond and attractive; even so it still fits, as Shara is a secondary character who only directly reacts to Bufo a handful of times.

* The cover of ''Literature/JuliasKitchen'' by Brenda A. Ferber makes it seem as if the book is going to be some sort of happy novel focused around the enjoyment of cooking or, perhaps, a cook book filled with delicious recipes [[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51SlQeG9IwL.jpg because of the exaggerated comic book art style featuring a rosy-cheeked, smiling woman who is baking cookies]] when in reality, the book is actually a TearJerker about a girl learning to cope with the death of her mother and little sister due to a house fire and trying to get on good terms with her distant father who is also devastated of the tragedy. He, however, isn't very close to the main character [[ParentalFavoritism as he was to his younger daughter whom he had a much stronger bond with.]] The way the book talks about death and the process of coping is awfully realistic for the young audience it's targeted to, and there are a lot of depressing moments in the story (with the protagonist even finding out that her father secretly had wished that she had been the one to die in the house fire rather than her younger sister). While things do improve at the end of the novel, with the protagonist taking over her mother's famous cookie business and getting on better terms with her dad, still, the cover totally doesn't fit the mostly depressing atmosphere of the book at all since the story ''hardly'' if ever, talks about cooking other than it being something the protagonist's mother was passionate about due to her owning a well-known cookie business, which makes the cover ridiculously misleading for those thinking that this is either a book that teaches its readers easy recipes they can make or a light-hearted read, which it can very easily be mistaken for such. It's ''not''.

** Most covers portray the EvilTwin Diabola with black hair, in total contrast to her angelic sister Angela's HairOfGoldHeartOfGold. In the actual book, however, Diabola's hair is "puce," making her an EvilRedhead. Only the French edition's cover makes her a redhead, but it also gives her green skin like [[Film/TheWizardOfOz the Wicked Witch of the West]], which she doesn't have in the text.

** Most covers portray the EvilTwin Diabola with black hair, in total contrast to her angelic sister Angela's HairOfGoldHeartOfGold. In the actual book, however, Diabola's hair is "puce," making her an EvilRedhead.

** The cover of the 2004 HarperCollins edition shows Angela happily dancing ballet, while Diabola sits in a hunched, sad-looking position, clutching a teddy bear and glumly side-eyeing Angela. It creates the impression that Diabola is a sympathetic {{Tomboy}} {{Goth}}, who suffers from being TheUnfavorite compared to her goody-goody GirlyGirl sister. Diabola is actually a CompleteMonster, while Angela is no goody two-shoes, but genuine IncorruptiblePurePureness.

* The original cover to ''Literature/{{Stray}}'' depicts an illustration of Pufftail as a scraggly, sad-looking cat. This fits the dark tone of the book and fits his life as an abused stray. A revised cover uses a cute stock image of a kitten instead.