Reusable Cover Art

This is kind of fascinating: a gallery of reusable (or at least reused) cover art--the same picture popping up on book after book (or, sometimes, after book after book after book). I suppose the quick thought is that the publisher is just cheap or lazy, but I'm willing to explore a different option--the idea that the publisher wants to deliver an affirmative message: don't worry, this book really is like those other books that you knew and so loved. You know exactly which niche you are in, just like the colored of the plates in Paris wine bars used to tell you much you were paying for your tipple.

Or, I suppose, like Sequels. Don't think of it as Wuthering Heights; just catalog it as Difficult but Fascinating Guy #13.

Tis interesting to find out, though, that that most reusable of all reusable cover arts is Lord Nelson's mistress.

H/T: Tom McMahon.