Different Science Fiction Books That Got The Same Cover

[Robert Zwilling]

How many times has his happened?

This is one of several different book covers for The Three Stigmata OF Palmer Eldridge. This is from 1975, it was originally published in 1964.

This Dune cover is from 1968, it was originally published in 1964-65 with a very different looking cover.

 

[Pyan]

Not SF, but...

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Apparently it happens if the author doesn't own the image they select, especially if it is a stock photo, then it can be used by someone else who likes the same image.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This seems to be pretty common. Here's a 1963 anthology and the first edition of Larry Niven's debut novel (1966):

Note the mirror image.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

That gives maximum savings for the cover expenses.

 

[Danny McG]

Note the mirror image

Amazing, I'm gonna sit and reflect on that

 

[Toby Frost]

To round off the trilogy there really should be a book called Infinity World (aka The Time of Infinity on the World of Ptauus), consisting of stories about the people of Ptauus getting angry about the plundering of their world's images by August Derleth's publishers. Or vice versa.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I can see why it would make sense to reuse a cover if you were selling in a completely different market. The Bruce Pennington painting at the top of this thread was used on books either side of the Atlantic long begore the internet shrank it to near nothing, in cultural terms, so there would be very little chance of confusion.
I often see familiar UK art on the front of cheap French SF books from the 70s and 80s. Again, very little market overlap.