Yes Virginia, people DO judge a book by it’s cover. A great cover stops a book browser in his or her tracks during a lap around the local book superstore and makes the book browser want to learn more.
That is why one of the most difficult aspects of book marketing lies in the cover design. An effective book cover will stop a book browser in his or her tracks and then, through color, images and typography, entice the book browser to pick up the book and, dare we hope, buy the book. That’s a LOT to ask of a single image, but it’s what your book cover designer MUST be able achieve!
Over at Smashing Magazine, in the post Excellent Book Covers and Paperbacks
Book covers are hard to design and nice to look at. An effective book cover manages to catch human’s eye and convey the idea behind the book on one single page. However, it’s getting even harder: to make a book really hard to forget, designers need to design the cover in a unique, creative and striking way. That’s not that different from Web where it’s important to build a sound information architecture upon a rather restricted design layout.
The post includes a lot of “old school” book covers of best selling books from the past.
Charlie Johnson over at the Graphic Design Blog also has a great post on 12 Remarkable Book Covers – They Will Make You Grab the Book.
When I can’t say it better, I quote…. he writes:
An expressive cover page does not let the reader forget a book. Attractive book covers play an important part in making a person choose a book, while wandering in a bookstore looking for an interesting book.
It won’t be wrong to say that majority of people judge a book from its cover. These covers help the readers guess about the storyline of the book, so it needs to be attractive and revealing.
He then goes on to display 12 FANTASTIC book covers that would stop any book browser in his/her tracks.
If there’s anywhere in the book publishing process to try to save a buck or two, it isn’t in designing the cover!
