NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: And Other Fairytales

By Writer X

I can still picture my fifth-grade teacher. Her name was Miss Fox. She had super-thick glasses, hair pulled back into a black cinnabon, and I’m pretty sure she was about 150 years old. Whenever she’d lead us to the school library (single-file, boy-girl-boy-girl, no talking), she’d say, “Remember: Never judge a book by its cover.” Of course, at age ten, I took her literally. Still, I never imagined Miss Fox was wrong about anything until I entered the world of publishing.

When it comes to selling books, Mrs. Fox got the axiom backwards. What she should have said was “A picture is worth 1000 words.” That’s because people buy books based on book covers all the time. Publishers, in fact, bank on it. They don’t invest in artists, publicists, sales and marketing people for pleasure or change the cool original title of your book about twelve different times before it gets printed just for the fun of it.

Unless you’re a well-known author with a ridiculously huge audience, the book cover (also called cover art) is important. If you’re a debut author, it’s absolutely critical. Your publisher knows this. And you will come to understand the power of the book cover, especially when your publisher is in the business to make as much money on your book as humanly possible, even though the odds of that happening often don’t work in your favor.

Don’t believe me? Go to your favorite bookstore as I recently did. Buy yourself an iced coffee and a snickerdoodle (warmed, if possible) and find yourself a comfy chair pointed toward front of the store. Stack a couple of well-placed books in your lap so you’re not mistaken for a stalker and asked to leave. Then leisurely observe the people who peruse the front displays. Unless a customer is entering the store for a specific book (most do not), here is what you’ll see:

Customer A walks through the door. Not sure yet if she’s looking for a spicy romance, a sci-fi or something more literary. Like most customers, she stops at the front display, the one where publishing companies actually pay the bookstores (It’s called “book real estate.” Really. I’m not kidding.) to position their books as close to the entrance as possible, preferably on shelves that are eye level to most customers (unless you’re a midget). Customer A glances across the display and does the scrunchy face because there are so many books competing for her attention. Visual overload. After a few seconds, she’ll pick up the following: Books with covers that reach out and grab her by the collar. Figuratively. If she picks one up, chances are she’ll open to the inside jacket or read the “hook” on the back of the book that provides a clever hint of what waits inside. With any luck, she’ll open to the first page. If the first line of the book is killer, as I’ve discussed in previous Commentarama posts, chances improve that she’ll take the book with her to the coffee bar at the side of the store and skim the first few pages and hopefully make the decision that she cannot leave the store without buying it. And somewhere in the Universe a writer is very, very happy, a publisher breathes easier, and an angel gets his wings…

So, how does a book cover reach out and grab a reader? I have a few ideas about what works and what doesn’t work. Book covers, like the books themselves, are very subjective. As I’ve said before, what one person likes, another may hate. It’s frustratingly like art: You may love Picasso but hate Rockwell. Or vice versa.

That said, I firmly believe that less is more when it comes to book covers. In other words, book covers that are too busy (e.g. too many graphics, too many colors, too many everything) usually do not generate that emotional response that you need to attract someone to your book. If a potential customer has to think too much about the cover to even care what’s happening between the pages, he’ll pass over it for something else that looks more intriguing.

The less is more philosophy works better for book titles too. I’m kind of partial to one-word titles, and they happen to be very trendy at the moment, particularly with genre fiction. Example: SWIMSUIT by James Patterson was a bestseller this summer. Now, the author also happens to be James Patterson. He could simply put his name on a book cover (and usually does in 30-point fonts) with blank pages and still sell books by the truckload. But, I really do love the title. It spoke to me. It was simple, edgy, summery, and mysterious all wrapped up into one. I definitely picked up SWIMSUIT at the bookstore and read the jacket. Side note: I ended up reading the whole thing in the bookstore on one very hot Phoenix August day. It was a quick, yet fun, read. Definitely beach-worthy.

Long book titles, on the other hand, can be dangerous, unless they are insanely clever. There’s a better chance of finding long titles on non-fiction books than fiction books. Example: STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE sold well. Personally, I thought the book was hilarious and the title did not disappoint. However, I did see a long title for a young adult book recently. It was called THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY AND THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA. Not a particularly clever title, in my opinion, but the author, Trenton Lee Stewart, is a bestseller. His fans will most likely recognize it as part of a series and buy it.

A couple of truly bad titles that I’ve seen recently include TRUE COMPASS (non-fiction) and HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY (literary fiction). First of all, why would Ted Kennedy or his publisher want the words “true” or “compass” anywhere near the book cover of someone best known for driving a woman off a bridge? And leaving her for dead? Now, his book will sell because he is a Kennedy but will it sell enough for the publisher to make a profit over and above his seven-figure advance? Time will tell.

With HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY, this tells me next to nothing and did not generate an emotional response from me at all. That said, the book was written by the bestselling author of THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (a super-cool title), so I guess she can call her book anything she wants. Still, HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY wouldn’t have been my first choice. It sounds like a geometry problem, despite its interesting and simple cover art.

In short, a book cover and its title must convey emotion, a sense of the story, and a sense of the genre (if it is genre fiction) all wrapped up into one. That is no easy feat. And it’s why much time, money, and effort is spent to get it just right. For those of you who self-publish and who do not have a publisher’s marketing department at your disposal, give your title and book cover very serious thought before you print your first copy. It could mean the difference between selling a truckload and disaster.

What kinds of book covers and titles entice you to open a book and, ultimately, pull out your wallet? Have you ever judged a book by its cover? Unless you’re Miss Fox reading this post, I’ll expect a yes.