Comments on: Cover talk

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:44:42 +0000

I agree! Though I almost always like trade paperback covers more than even the hardcover ones, if they are, in fact, different–don’t know why, but it seems to be true.

By: D. C. DaCosta

D. C. DaCosta — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:29:54 +0000

Holy cow, Emily! Sounds like a classic case of putting lipstick on a pig.
I wish I had that writer’s creative team working for me. Bad or not, that book SOLD.

By: emily

emily — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:04:37 +0000

YES!! I have bought a book because of its cover. It is a current romance, from a very small publisher, with a beautiful cover. BUT the writing is sooooo bad. I threw it across the room and sold it to half-price books.

By: Kristin Laughtin

Kristin Laughtin — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 20:20:26 +0000

P.S. I laughed heartily at the six-year-old’s interpretations of Animal Farm with its frenemy farm animals, Fahrenheit 451 with its flaming robot, and Wuthering Heights with its sad tree. My biggest laugh, though, is reserved for Slaughterhouse-Five, both because it is my favorite book and because I had not seen that particular cover before.

By: Kristin Laughtin

Kristin Laughtin — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 20:16:40 +0000

I think anyone who says they aren’t affected by covers is lying. They’re designed to appeal to our psychology and aesthetic tastes, to intrigue us and to help us categorize each one by some sort of genre, story type, intended audience, etc. Perhaps if books ever went truly digital and no covers were attached at all, then they wouldn’t be a big deal. But the fact that we still design covers for e-only releases speaks a lot about the fact that we use them to help us make decisions on a book.

Heck, there have been instances where I paid a few bucks more for a trade paperback or hardcover simply because I liked the cover that much more than the mass market.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:43:53 +0000

Great post, Rachel!! Love this.

By: Joelle

Joelle — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:31:10 +0000

My husband and I have a funny story about book covers. When we were first dating, it was a long distance relationship, and books came up in a conversation. I couldn’t believe he’d never read (or heard of) Nevil Shute, one of my all time favourite authors and influences. I chose what I thought was his best book, Round the Bend, and sent it to my (to-be) husband. When he got it, he took one look at the cover and thought, “Is this woman nuts? Why would I want to read this?” The reason he thought this is because Nevil Shute is out of print and I’d picked up a used copy of the book, from the sixties with a total pulp fiction cover on it. It was of a Polynesian woman in a sarong with a strapping man standing behind her looking all smolderingly at her. I knew the book inside and out, so I hadn’t even noticed it! He read it anyway, and I like to think it’s one of the reasons he fell in love with me…my good taste in books (if not covers!).