They say you can’t. They say you shouldn’t. But we all do it. Don’t we?
I know I do. Scanning email newsletters, browsing the “Other Customers Bought” on websites, walking past table displays and shelves in my local book store, I can’t help but make instantaneous decisions about a book based on the cover.
I love book covers. I love being part of the book cover process at Carina Press (Aideen O’Leary-Chung manages the process…but I get to review each cover during the design stage). Opening up a cover email from Aideen is always a little spark of excitement in my workday…especially if it’s a book I read during the acquisition process. Will it match the tone of the book? Will it be imaginative, exciting, compelling? Will it intrigue potential readers enough to encourage them to buy the book? Will I love it!?!?
My favourite moments are when the cover artist has so beautifully captured the essence of the book that I literally have nothing to say. Not every cover hits that mark on the first try, but we’re lucky to work with cover artists who are patient, creative, and amazingly talented. Sometimes, I honestly don’t know how they do it!
But, back to being judgmental (hey, I admit it). I was thinking the other day about how the cover of a book isn’t the only factor in how I choose a book to read. Many times, it’s because a friend or colleague recommended the book…and how many of the books I absolutely adore, I never would have glanced at twice if it weren’t for a strong recommendation.
So now, I present to you: books that are better than they look (according to me!).
Lamb by Christopher Moore
This cover just seems odd and doesn’t fit the book. Yes, the book is satire and incredibly funny, and yes, it’s the Gospel as told by “Biff” Christ’s childhood pal….but this cover just looks childish to me. It also makes Biff (on the right) look goofy. It certainly doesn’t convey the clever wit and delightfully cheeky writing contained within. If it weren’t for an old friend’s recommendation, this one wouldn’t have even been on my radar.
Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follett
I had to search for the cover of this one the year it was passed along to me by my favourite teacher ever (Mrs. Armstrong – Grade 10 English!). Bright yellow with a weird gargoyle on the cover? Um. Ok? Doesn’t really imply the sweeping saga that is held within. I read this book over and over again (so many times that I had to buy a new one to give back to Mrs. Armstrong). I still have this yellow version on my bookshelf, and I still think it does the book a great injustice.
No One Lives Twice by Julie Moffett
Ok, truth time. I read this book as part of the acquisition team before it even had a cover, and I LOVED it. Lexi was smart, geeky and full of awesome. The book was part espionage, part love triangle, part mystery, and all-around fun. When we developed this first cover I liked it, but didn’t love it. It somehow didn’t capture the essence of the book – with no fault t all to the cover designer, who worked diligently to follow the brief they were given! When it came time to release the second Lexi Carmichael book we took the opportunity to correct our mistake and gave the series a brand new look…which I think captures the tone of the series in a much more clever way.
So, how about you? Do you judge a book by it’s cover? Have you ever been wrong like I was?
I may not be popular for saying so, but I love J.D. Robb’s Eve Dallas series but I don’t think the covers match the stories. It took my mom giving me a stack of books to read, a stack that included one of these books to get me to read it. In fact, I’d read the entire stack and left that one but ran out of things to read. Since it was the only book in the house that I hadn’t consumed, I picked it up and I was instantly hooked.
I cannot take a book with a cartoon cover seriously. Cannot. (If I dig around in my memory I’ll probably find a reason for this, but I’m too busy reading or tweeting to bother. *g*)
When I used to buy paper books, I based most of my decisions on the cover. I would browse the book store and look for covers that were pretty, unusual, or conveyed a mood that intrigued me. Then I would pick up the book and read the blurbs (endorsements, back cover, small excerpt on the first page, etc), and the first page. If all seemed interesting, I would buy.
However, now that I buy digital books, the covers are less important than friend recommendations, reviews on Amazon, descriptions on the Carina Press website or Facebook page, excerpts on blogs, and prior experience with the authors. Tiny little cover graphics are almost irrelevant to me now.
Rather like Ms Bookjunkie, cartoon covers cause me to pause. But like you, thankfully there were enough ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahh’s’ I gave it a try.
Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse series.
Another strong dislike, but thankfully the reminder above to NOT judge a book by its cover steps in, are computer graphic covers. I just don’t like them. Not sure what my strong aversion if from, it’s just there.
Thankfully, I’ll read the back anyway and if the blurb grabs me, I will just ignore the cover.
One other cover peeve. If the cover shows a person w/ a distinct hair color and I begin the book and Sally/Max have an opposite color…I wonder how well the artist and author spoke, or how well the publisher/editor/agent truly tried with said book.
Some books, it really doesn’t matter. The hair color is vague or maybe changes etc. But some stories zero in on ‘flaming red’ or ‘midnight black’ or “corn husk yellow’…in that case, JIMHO it needs to match the cover.
Gee, I’m reading my own comment and thinking wow, how picky.
This is interesting… I’m not a big fan of the new covers in the series. I’m just not into silhouettes on books covers. My copy of No One Lives Twice has the original cover which I love. When I saw the silhouette covers originally, I thought they were old covers. I’m more into real people being on book covers. I guess I’m picky when it comes to them.
Even though I do read exclusively ebooks now, and generally select based upon others’ reviews or from the synopsis, I do like a nice cover, even if it’s just a little itty bitty picture on a screen.
I remember when I use to buy hardcopies, those embossed covers used to really impress me, but now I’m easily (and cheaply?) satisfied with an attractive cover-boy (must be a sign of the aging process..).
Having said that, there are a few covers which are just plain dreadful, and even they have a gloriously funny purpose, although probably not what was intended originally.
Dana – good call on the Sookie Stackhouse series!
Jennie – we can’t win ‘em all! I think that’s one of the most challenging things about covers (or any ‘creative’), is that it’s so subjective and personal. I happen to love the new covers. And you know, there might be people who love the originals for Lamb and Pillars of the Earth, too.
I guess my point was that even though we DO judge a book by it’s cover, sometimes appearances can be deceiving…
Covers are less important to me if I already know (and love) the author. They could put no cover at all on an In Death/Eve Dallas novel, because I’ve read all books in that series and pre-order/buy them blindly now — don’t even look that much at the blurb.
Covers of books from authors not on my auto-buy list are very important. If I’m not attracted by it, I don’t even look at the blurb. Though to buy it in the end, the blurb has to win me over.
As for NO ONE LIVES TWICE, I think the new covers are better suited. If I look now at the first version, I see why people may think it wasn’t quite right (way too much YA — and it’s not YA). So the second version does the better job… and I designed version #1.
I’m a cover junkie. If I don’t know the author or haven’t gone looking for a specific book on a review/buzz, then the cover is the only thing I look at first when browsing. Too many books and too little hours in a day to click through unless the cover grabs me.
btw, although I love the new designs for the Lexi series, the original cover was good enough to grab me while browsing
Not about covers but:
My 9th grade English teacher said his favorite book was Pillars of the Earth and so I read it. I loved and still love that book, but you are right, the cover stinks. I have the same yellow covered tome on my shelf as well, a little worse for wear.
I will pick up a book if the cover is eye-catching, but a terrible cover has never stopped me. I do like that ebooks still get some nice covers. I do appreciate the effort.
absolutely – we all do it, and it’s important that a book gets a cover that does it justice. I’ve been banging on about this – particularly with gay fiction/romance – for years and year. Thank goodness many of the publishers have taken the readers’ gripes on board, and the quality of gay covers are improving–getting away from the terrible Poser covers or all naked covers–which just reinforces the wrong supposition that so many have that gay romance or gay fiction is about sex and nothing but.
My first cover for Frost Fair was pretty naff–there was no way anyone would have thought it was a historical
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm113072346/frost-fair-erastes-paperback-cover-art.jpg
but when I had it republished, the cover really reflects the story.
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm113764604/frost-fair-erastes-paperback-cover-art.jpg
With print books the cover is itreas own advertising campaign. If you on a bus or train or in public it should shout “look at me, I’m interesting why don’t you buy me too?” but – as was happening with many gay covers – many people either wouldn’t take the book out in public, or worse, they’d put a spare dust jacket on the book – all that does is make more sales for Rowling or someone else!!!
Carina’s cover for Muffled drum was stunning–I don’t know WHERE they got the images from, especially the battle scene. I’m really looking forward to what they come up with for A Brush with Darkness.
Covers are soooooo important.
I’m not a fan of the books (no mud-slinging, okay?), but the cover of Eclipse was what kept drawing me back to the Twilight books. (And no, they weren’t really on my radar until then.)
I am a huge Kelley Armstrong fan, but the original hardcover art for Bitten is just…odd. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to represent a character or what, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the book.
Another one that still throws me are the covers to Nicole Peeler’s Jane True books. I have a love-hate relationship with those covers. 1) They are eye catching, in large part because of how different they are from most UF covers. 2) The artwork really captures a lot of pieces of the story, to the point that when reading book 1, I’d flip back to the cover to see if a character/piece of plot made it on (the answer always seemed to be yes). 3) They fit the tone of the story. …But… *every* time I look at them, my brain wants to put them in the kids (or at least YA) section and they definitely don’t go there.
As an author, I love when a cover really speaks to the book. However, because (in general) so many don’t, it’s made me a lot more careful about picking up books by new authors. I wish every publisher was as conscientious about making sure cover art fit the story as Carina is. It would make my reading selections so much easier.
(In the spirit of full-disclosure, I also loved the original cover of No One Lives Twice, but once it was mentioned, I can certainly see the YA angle.)
When I read hard/paper copies, I basically just judged by the cover. I missed out on a lot, until I started going online and buying ebooks. Now I do not look at the cover as much as all of the reviews, pimping, recommends for a book. I did *just* purchase NO ONE LIVES TWICE, however because I really like the new covers for the series- looks more like Chuck, and I adore that show, and less like Rori Gilmore with men holding guns (not for me). I guess I shall see how my impulse buy judging from a cover will work out
Danielle – Chuck was our inspiration for the new covers! Both Aideen and I are big fans of that show.
I hope you’ll love the books as much as I did.