Despite being told not to judge a book by its cover, the man on the street does exactly that when browsing in a book store. (I know I do.) A visually catching cover is likelier to entice him to pick up the book, read a few pages, and hopefully, buy the book. So it's no surprise that much thought and care goes into the design of a book cover.
Jane Sullivan of The Age looks at the tricky business of matching a book with its cover.
Jane Sullivan of The Age looks at the tricky business of matching a book with its cover.
Penguin has Jane Austen works in new covers for their Red Classic series. Very pretty color line drawings. Tempted to get the whole set although I already have Emma.
ReplyDeleteDrat these pretty covers.
(I ended up getting Nabokov's Lolita instead. Also Red Classic new pretty cover...)
What! I havent seen those yet! Must check them out next time I'm in a bookstore.
ReplyDeleteTed, this is one helpful post from The Age. In fact, I emailed it to my publisher friend, thanks to you.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, don't you notice that many local books don't have great book covers. Wonder why? Budget isit??????
Yes, I confess that I'm also attracted to good book cover :)
Good to know it was of help!
ReplyDeleteI don't think our local book cover designers lack the budget, or even the talent. Rather--and this is just an opinion--it's likely we lack the knowledge or understanding of what makes a good cover. The publishers overseas have an advantage that they can conduct tests as well as having decades of cover designing experience.
But not all our local book covers are bad. The Silverfish-published books have good covers, as does your book (no, not sucking up here :D).