Judging books by their covers

[anghara]

(inspired by reading this)

Am I in a very minor minority here?

First, let me make the dreaded confession - yes, I HAVE pre-judged a book by a cover - we ALL do it - it's that visual thang that's hardwired into the human brain. The cover is the first thing we see on a book, and come on, be honest, if a cover leaves you absolutely cold would YOU hold out any hopes that the book underneath it would enthrall you? Didn't think so. Dreaded confession two - I've been surprised and astonished any number of times when, being persuaded to read a book whose cover did not appeal, I actually found the book itself not only acceptable but often absorbing.

Yes, I can be shallow that way.

From under the author's hat, I await the book covers on my own books with anxious trepidation because I know first-hand of reactions much like the one I have described above. Some people who might have loved the book will never pick it up because the cover doesn't trigger their "pick me up" impulse. A recent reviewer of "Spellspam" bemoaned the cover because to her it would have meant that she would never have picked up that book if she had had the choosing of it - and she thought the cover was bad. There are people close to me who agree with her. There are other people who adore that cover. Personally, I think that the three books makes a nice set, cover-wise. But there you have it - there's at least one person out there who WOULD NOT HAVE PICKED IT UP if she had tripped over it in a bookstore.

Another case in point - "Secrets of Jin Shei" was written and conceptualised in my own head as high-concept alternate history or historical fantasy book, along the lines of Guy Gavriel Kay's "Tigana" - but it was marketed as mainstream, and given a mainstream-y cover. What did that mean - well - it meant that I was sliced by the double-edged sword of having potentially higher exposure (the book was shelved in the mainstream section, and while fantasy readers WILL be seen in the mainstream section mainstream readers would not be seen DEAD crossing the other way) but by the same token those people who would have picked it up and loved it as what it was originally intended to be may have never heard of it or seen it and might never have picked it up judging it by its mainstream-y cover, and those people who did pick it up based on its bookstore placement and its mainstream-y cover might have been deeply disappointed and even annoyed by the fantasy elements in what they believed to be a mainstream historical novel.

So. Slapping it on the counter and staring at it. Book covers. How do you judge books? Do book covers make a difference? To simplify the thing completely, the same book was published with a pink cover and a blue cover would it matter to you which?

Do unmet expectations, as based on what you were led to expect from a cover, ever sour your opinion on the author - who had nothing whatsoever to do with what sort of cover got slapped on his or her book...?

Comments

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

I judge books by their covers. It's kinda hard for me not to, and this despite being an artist and a graphic designer. (Actually, I can be seduced into buying a book by a really excellent cover. I got Rudy Rucker's Mathemeticians in Love based solely on Tor's art director, Irene Gallo, discussing the cover design choices at her blog.)

I also know a certain author who once told me he didn't want to be published by Baen because then he'd have to have a Baen cover and they've put out some fairly hideous covers in the past. (They are improving slowly.) To Baen's credit, their audience still buys the books, but I can't tell if it's because the covers or in spite of them.

I know that being an artist, I'm fairly picky about my artists too. I really would rather brush my teeth with battery acid than have Luis Royo or Darrell K. Sweet illustrate my cover, while I would cheerfully sell body parts to have John Jude Palencar or Tom Canty or Stephen Martiniere on the cover. (I dislike Royo's women, and Sweet's art has gotten progressively sloppier in the anatomy over the years. His covers to Brook's Shannara books at least featured humanoids that were roughly consistent in size and anatomy. His cover to Jordan's sixth Wheel of Time? Rand is too big, has shoulder issues, and the women are in weird poses and at differing proportional sizes while looking like they occupy the same general area, ie...not receding in the distance.)

So yeah, damn straight I judge books by their cover. Fortunately I have been able to overlook that on occasion to find a really excellent story lurking between the pages of an iffy cover.

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

Well, I usually don't purchase the book based on its cover. It helps to have a decent cover, but it's not the selling point for me (although I will sometimes go out of my way to get a book in a particular cover if I really have enjoyed it).

I usually get put off at the blurb/summary on the back, however, on occasion I have purchased a book thinking it seems great by the sound of its summary, and been horribly disappointed.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

Yes, but what makes you pick up any PARTICULAR book in a store in order to look at those back blurbs? Have you ever been so turned off by a cover that you wouldn't go close enough to the book to be able to peruse the blurbage? Have you ever been so taken by a cover that you bought it without even looking at the blurb...?

[kittygopounce.livejournal.com]

Hm ... I did pick up Decoy Princess on a combination of title, blurb and cover ... but I wasn't particularly impressed. The idea was much better than the actual execution.

Seriously, I honestly think I haven't ever bought a book based soley on my response to the cover art. I've gone back and purchased the book again in order to get the cover art I've liked ... but it hasn't put me off buying a book.

[kiya]

Titles are what catch me. I don't generally *see* more than the spine unless the title's already led me to pick it up.

[gryphart.livejournal.com]

(sorry about the accidental double post, the browser freaked.)

I'm with Pixelfish there - knowing that the publisher invested in a Palencar or Martiniere is a decided vote of confidence from them that they think the book will sell, and I have a fair chance of at least finding the book readable. If I see that they used someone like Todd Lockwood or, worse, some badly overpainted photomanipulation, I know the odds that I'll like the book are slim. If something is in any kind of pink cover, the publisher has just ensured I will diligently keep a ten foot distance between myself and the book.

It's not shallowness, it's knowing who publishers market to with which artists, styles, and colors - and the longer I've been painting, the more bad art and bad design passionately offends me. Tor consistently puts out superior covers to all the other houses, in my opinion, and it means I pick up their books a lot more often. I endeavor to reward the good stuff with my dollars.

[tropic-dm.livejournal.com]

I must admit that a catchy cover makes me pick a book up quicker than a so-so cover. If I hadn't already read some of Glenda Larke's work and known what a damned fine writer she is, I might not have picked up the australian edition of her last trilogy (Mirage Makers), but when I saw the Orbit covers of the same trilogy, I would have grabbed them without a second thought, and then gone on to be delightfully pleased at the story contained within.

I'll read blurbs too, but the cover has to entice me to pick up the book.

Unless I already know the author's work, in which case the cover plays second fiddle.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

So. Slapping it on the counter and staring at it. Book covers. How do you judge books? Do book covers make a difference? To simplify the thing completely, the same book was published with a pink cover and a blue cover would it matter to you which?

Book covers do make a difference, and of course, always have; if I could choose any one thing to spend money on in the publishing process (and, being an author, I can't), it would be the cover.

But it's not always about just the art -- it's the whole design. We have marketing flags buried in the backs of our brains from long years reading in various different genres, and those flags are twigged by the covers we do see. I know a lot of people don't like Sweet or Royo -- but they work as marketable artists for a certain style or type of book; you would never use them for a mystery or a romance, though.

I'm not different; I'll pick up a book with a striking cover because the cover has caught my attention.

Conversely, I'll pick up a book with a truly, truly hideous cover, for exactly the same reason -- it caught my attention.

Getting the attention is half the battle; the back cover blurb and perusing some part of the book itself sometimes does the rest. It's not word of mouth, but a lot of times I'm in a store, I don't have word of mouth guiding me, and because I'm looking, what I see guides me.

[miketo.livejournal.com]

Book artists come and go, depending on what's the fashion of the moment, so I don't choose or reject based solely on cover art. (Like Pixelfish, I can't stand Darrell Sweet -- his covers scream "schlock!" from the get-go.) I've got some older paperbacks from the Sixties that are great stories, with terrible and often unrelated cover art. It may be a data point, but it's not heavily weighted.

Author blurbs and back-cover text are weighted more with me. I've instantly put down books blurbed by authors I can't stand. If back-cover text leads with cliches or has unpronounceable proper names in it (especially those with weird apostrophe usage or diacritic marks), I put the book down.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Even after years in the industry, I totally judge books by their covers.

Cover designs are--or should be, or started as--code for the sort of book inside. They indicate genre or subgenre.

Art directors will try new things, but if a book with a new sort of cover does well, then other books that the publishers think will appeal to those readers will get a similar cover treatment. Paranormals with sexual themes get the half-head or shadowy body part because of the Laurell Hamilton novels that went over to that design. Leather-clad women seen from the rear are code for paranormals with lots of butt-kicking, because the first Kim Harrison had that sort of cover. The doodle-font, cutsey-line-drawing, minimalist cover for chick-lit comes off The Devil Wears Prada. I don't know who originated the "flowers or fields = women's litrachaw" business, but it's a clear trend. (Though fortunately a failing one, as those covers are BORING and many people already think litrachaw = boring. People do not buy books they think will bore them.)

It happens in all genres: men's thrillers have giant type on the covers and little else; usually a dark background in red or black. Mystery novels with cartoonish, bright-colored illustrations are cozys. Nasty thrillers will be red or black, often with yellow lettering, and often with dripping blood somewhere.

The problem (for readers) arises in the publishers categorize differently from readers. Or possibly (probably) publishers deliberately code a book as part of a hot-selling subgenre, even when the book is only marginally in that subgenre. Then the readers start to feel that the coding doesn't work. Eventually that perception is completely true.

At that point, the book with the unique, eye-catching cover that has some indication of the contents, but isn't readily subcategorizable, starts to sell better. All of the examples I gave above were once new and fresh. They're just not new and fresh anymore, and yet their subgenres are still doing well.

Art directors must (and of course, do) come up with new ideas to convey each genre or subgenre. Unfortunately, they are not the only person making the decision. Sometimes the art, marketing, and editorial people are all sympatico and can work well. Other times there are, shall we say, politics interfering in the process.

And of course people are fallible. Sometimes everyone at the pub house loves a design, but they have utterly failed to gauge the readers correctly.

To (finally!) answer your question: unmet expectations don't make me think badly of the author, since I know full well that he or she almost certainly had zero to say about the cover. However, if I'm expecting one book and get a different book, I may dislike it when I might have enjoyed it if it were "correctly" labeled. (It's the reason I don't like lhassi: it looks like a milkshake, but it's salty. The taste is fine, but the mental disconnect is just too much.)

[shvetufae.livejournal.com]

There are sweet lassis, too. ;)

[cindy-pon.livejournal.com]

alma, great topic, and also on the
forefront of my mind as they are settling
on a final cover for my debut.

within the book stores, i *absolutely*
judge a book by the cover. it has to
be different or pretty or eye-catching
in some way, or else i will not pick it up.
and i refer to books of other genres or
by unknown authors.

we were discussing this on a historical
fiction forum and the ever popular half a face
or headless historical cover. one author
said her book sales picked up four fold
when her cover was changed to the trendy
headless one. !! not only do readers judge,
but bookstores judge by what has sold previously.

it's a nutty business.

and two fantasy readers recommended
jin-shei to me from a spec fic forum. =)

[cindy-pon.livejournal.com]

and yes, i only ever judge a author
by her story and prose.

[shvetufae.livejournal.com]

Hi! I wandered by and wanted to comment on this.

I am a visual person and love a pretty, colorful cover. That will make me pick up a book and sometimes even tempt me to buy it. However, once I've picked it up, the jacket copy had better sound interesting, because if not, it's going back on the shelf.

I tend to read mostly YA, and I'd say the majority of the covers there are doing an excellent job of saying, "Pick me, pick me! I'm beautiful and interesting and fun!" Whether the actual stories live up to that is something else, of course. There's nothing like expecting the story to match the cover, both in content and in quality, and not having it happen.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

Do you find that YA works on a different set of signals than an adult book,or not? Just curious, having written both - and I'd love your take, if you have the time and/or the inclination, on my three YA covers (you can find them at www.worldweaversweb.com) and your opinion as to whether they work as come-hither YA covers or not. I've had SO many widely varying responses to those covers...

(oh, and welcome to my LJ!)