‘Never judge a book by its cover’

We all know and repeat that saying. I often wonder why, since it’s a completely null statement! As idealistic as it would be for us to follow this mantra - it’s simply impossible. Aesthetics inform our choices on most, if not all, of our purchases. Think of it this way, are you going to pick up the plain white bin that looks cheaply made or the steel bin that looks nice and quality-made for your kitchen? Most of us would choose the nicer looking bin.

Unfortunately, this thinking applies to books as well. 

Just the other day I was browsing in a high street bookshop, after having spent so much time away from brick and mortar stores it allowed me to survey the bookshop with a fresh perspective (from studying for a Publishing degree). Firstly, I was far more drawn to decorated and quality covers than the books that did not! One of the books I saw had a cover that had clearly not had much thought put into, I avoided it. 

Then, more importantly, bookshops are designed in a manner which sells covers… not books. Large displays with books faced up, shelves lined with the books facing out, books in the windows proudly displaying their covers. Simply put, a book without a good cover is placing itself at a major disadvantage instantly! Booksellers give more space to titles that have attractive covers, this means that the cover is very important to booksellers and their decisions surrounding the organisation of their shops. 

Booksellers clearly feel a good book cover is important and so do book buyers. Ask any book lover what their pet peeves about books are and more often than not, bad cover design will be one! For me, I hate covers that have photos of people on them, covers that don’t much across a series, and covers that use the movie poster! I’m sure I’m not alone there…

Beautiful book covers are loved. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve bought a book, purely because the cover is so enticing! My book buying habits have even been influenced by social media. I’ve followed sections of social media such as bookstagram, booktube, book Tok, and book Twitter ever since I first made a social media account. These content creators usually discuss books that have a good design element, after all no one wants to ruin their instagram feed with an ugly photo!

With all that considered, it baffles me that any publisher would publish a book for trade with a poor cover design! I think it is about time we were all far more honest with ourselves and came out with the cold hard truth:

We all judge books by their covers.