"never judge a book by its cover" the saying goes but i thoroughly disagree. I was thinking on this subject after an afternoon in a public library. I doubt usually have any specific books in mind when i go to the library but rather pull them out at random. if i like the title and the cover design i will often not even bother to check the blurb before adding it to the pile to check out. While this might cause me to miss out on some good reads, in my experience a good book will have a well designed and executed cover.
The cover is an expression of the publishing houses faith in the book or so it seems. Books predicted to sell well will have a striking modern cover while the ones we've all picked up only to discard after the first chapter usually can be picked out by cheaply made graphics and paintings on their covers. while this is certainly not all inclusive and always correct it can be seen in several books.
Recently I picked up a copy of an old favorite of mine, Tithe by Holly Black, and was amazing to see it with a totally new cover. One which was printed on high gloss paper with luminescent embossing and what appeared to be a custom designed font. It's success, and other books by the same author, had prompted Simon & Schuster to give the entire series updated covers to help market them to a new audience.
Many books published in the last decade are getting face lifts and marketed to a new generation and not just Young Adult books. Atlas Shrugged is one of the most popular books of the last century and one of the only that continues to sell more copies each year than the year before. It is once again a hot read as economic troubles in the book and in society begin to match up once more. It has many different covers constantly evolving to entice new readers...
so next time you go to the library or Barnes and Noble, go ahead-judge a book by its cover
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