Saturday, July 21, 2012

A Book by Its Cover

One thing I miss when I read a book on my Kindle is getting to see the book cover. I used to roam the aisles of the bookstore and library checking the book covers to see if any spoke to me. And many times they did. It has been so long since I bought or checked out a book for its cover, though, that I would be hard pressed to recall which covers evoked that response. I thought about that today when I discovered a website that lists its writer's choices for the 50 Coolest Book Covers. 50 Coolest Book Covers

Recent book covers that I'm drawn to for some reason include:

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Daughter of Smoke and Bone


What about you? Do you ever buy books based on the cover? Do you have any favorite covers?

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2 comments:

  1. thyrkasJuly 22, 2012 at 10:25 AM

    I don't think I have ever purchased or taken a book from the library because of a cover, but I know I have often wondered about the relationship of a cover to a book. The cover of "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant comes clearly to mind as one that intrigued me and caused me to consider "What painting is this? Why is it used for the cover?" I imagine the process of cover selection has to do with the publisher's choice rather than the author's. Do you know anything about this, Vicki

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  2. Vicki T. GibbsJuly 22, 2012 at 11:10 AM

    Good question, thyrkas. Based on my experience, unless you are a Gresham or Patterson or some other mega-sales author, you get very little say in what your book cover looks like. You may be able to suggest some basic changes, but the publisher usually gets final say on what goes on the cover.

    I also notice there are trends in book cover. The original paperback covers for Jonathan Safran Foer's books "Everythng is Iluminated," "Extremely Loud and Incedibly Close" and "Eating Animals" have a very similar look.

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