Blogging Reflections:
Thoughts on Book Covers
[Bimonthly feature from Bookshelf Reflections]
I’ve been looking for an excuse to expand on this topic! You may remember I posted a top 10 list of Books I’m Judging by the Cover. I mentioned a little bit of my thoughts in that post, but now I can tell you a little bit more.
Covers are really important to me; I’m not going to lie. It’s very, very hard to not judge a book by it’s cover. There are so many books out there for our consumption; there have to be explicit signals to make people decide to pick up the book and read the back cover. If a book doesn’t have an appealing cover, people are rarely going to flip it over and see the plot summary.
Browsing for books on Goodreads, at Barnes & Noble, or on review sites, covers that catch my eye are the ones I’ll most likely purchase. I really enjoy graphic covers with beautiful typography, or some of the new contemporary YA covers with typography placed over pictures. I think covers should match the book’s plot – that goes without saying. Some covers (especially fantasy ones) can be a little cheesy and cheap… If it looks like the author, with no graphic design skills, threw it together in Paint on their computer, I probably won’t read it. It sucks, but at least I admit I’m being superficial, right?
Overall, there are certainly more to books than the covers. There are definitely great books out there with hideous covers. There are also shitty books with gorgeous covers. The only way to really see what’s going on inside a book is read it – no matter what drives you to read it.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Thanks for joining Blogging Reflections! I really DO try not to judge a book by its cover, but let’s be honest here… we’re all going to pick the pretty cover over the ugly one anyway. ;__;
Exactly! If someone were to hand me two books, one with a pretty cover and one with an ugly one, I would read the one that sounds more interesting. But going to the bookstore and having thousands of books to choose from means I’m automatically drawn to the pretty covers!
Ah, yes, self made covers! I hate those. Sure, there are some really good ones, too, but most of them simply look cheap! A professionally made cover is not that expensive. Just pay someone to do it for you and the better the cover the more likely it is that someone will pick up your book!
Exactly!! If it looks cheap, I’m going to assume it’s not a very good book — and that sucks! because it could be a great book. Even just having a friend who does graphic design make it for you would make all the difference haha
I’ve actually created a post regarding my thoughts on this topic (: I think that everyone, myself included, judges a book by its cover, regardless of if they insist that they don’t! With all of the books that are out there, you are definitely going to pick out the book with the most eye-catching cover. You’d spend hours looking otherwise! Especially with the rise of e-books and buying online, with most sites (like Amazon) using a grid format of cover and title, with no description until you click!
If you’d like to read my post, it’s here – http://wp.me/p4Dssh-bg. Feel free to delete the link if it’s against your rules! (:
I’ll definitely check out your post!
I totally agree though – you’d spend so much time looking around the store if you looked at every single book out there. I also think covers should be designed with the book in mind; the cover should reflect the content of the book!
[…] a Goodreads shelf called “Cover Love” for this reason! I’m a firm believer in judging a book by its cover; the cover should successfully convey the book’s story and grab the reader’s attention. […]
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