I love looking at cover designs and thinking about the role they play in forming a potential reader’s perception of the book. We’re all swayed by these designs, even if we wouldn’t want to admit it. Certain color palettes (bold primary colors or stark black and white, pastels or shades of gray, blue, green) evoke specific moods and emotions. Same goes for objects (a windowsill, a gun, a dish or glass, a flower) and animals (a bird, a lion, an insect) and people (a woman in a long dress staring off in the distance, a man in soldier’s uniform). Caustic Cover Critic writes thoughtful posts about covers. Here he notices a stock photo being used over and over on different books, and here he lauds the incredible artwork of Niroot Puttapipat:
Reading the Past is one of my favorite blogs about historical fiction. Sarah Johnson (@readingthepast) is a reference librarian at Eastern Illinois University and has written two guides to the genre. Her most recent post examines covers too–the difference between hardcover and trade paperback designs on several books written by men, including Brooklyn by Colm Toibin and A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. With each one, the figure of a woman has been added to the paperback design. Johnson wonders if this makes women readers more likely to buy . . .
Beyond the Covers is the blog for the California company The Book Designers. Here we get to see the evolution of a cover design through all the versions before the final cover is chosen. Check out all the ideas for Janet Gurtler’s The Weight of Bones. My favorite is this one, but the final cover is tbd.
Come on–tell the truth. Have you ever bought a book for its cover?
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