Cover up: yes, perhaps you do judge a book by its cover

Hi, kids–I have all kinds of things I’ve been wanting to toss out for discussion/info/whatever, but decided on book covers.

Sophie Masson, a writer living in Australia, did a cool blog over at Writer Unboxed about book covers, how they’ve changed in the last 150 years or so, how some countries might view them, and what they’re meant to do.

From that blog:
For a writer, that first impression readers get when they see your book is of course vitally important too. But there’s another even more important consideration: what does the cover say about your book? Not just its Pick me, Pick me qualities, but whether it expresses what you feel to be the essence of your lovingly-crafted work. There’s nothing worse than being handed a cover which clearly demonstrates that the designer has no idea what your book’s about, or its emotional tone: and if that’s the case, that’s probably because the publisher has either not briefed them properly, or worse still, has completely missed the point about your book.

and

The cover is the face your book wears to the world, after all. And here’s an interesting conundrum—no cover on earth is going to save a boring book that readers dislike, that’s for sure. But there’s no such opposite guarantee. A boring cover might sink a good book, because not only will readers not pick it up in the shop, reviewers might also not notice it. That’s why emotions run so high over the issue.

So what the heck does this have to do with Andi’s spiel? Read on!

Yes, emotions do run high over the issue. I’ll take a moment right here and own that I have engaged in a few cover battles with publishers and, when I was working in publishing, with authors. I’d also argue that even today, with the rise of ebook sales, that cover images still have the power to make a potential reader look twice. Sadly, some make them look twice for the wrong reasons. Have you come across a cover while browsing, say, Amazon or B&N or some other legitimate ebook site and saw a cover that made you think, “What the *&^&^ IS that?” Or have you read a book and realized that the cover had little, if anything, to do with the story?

I’m in the camp that thinks covers are important. Yes, what’s between them is just as important because ultimately, it’s the strength of your story and how it resonates with people that’s going to get readers coming back for more. But a cover is your curb appeal, and can make or break an opportunity to invite a new reader in.

If you’re an author new to the game or one who hasn’t really thought about covers, go to bookstores (actual bricks n’ mortar) and look at them. Spend a couple hours looking at a variety of genres in fiction and also in nonfiction. See how the different covers in different genres evoke the story. Notice the differences between covers for fiction books and covers for nonfiction. Think about how those covers make you feel, and what they make you think about the potential contents of the book.

Now, for funsies, let’s do what author Sophie Masson did, with a different book. That is, we’ll have a look at different versions of cover images for one book, and see how things have changed over the years and which ones are best at advertising the story to you, the reader. After we look at the images, we’ll read the synopsis.

This is the 2011 reprint cover for K.W. Jeter‘s Infernal Devices, a classic steampunk tale.

source: Goodreads (resized here)

Let’s think about this. Steampunk, for those in the know, is an amalgam of spec fic, Victorian mores, and futuristic gadgetry set within a Victorian/alt-history context. Jeter’s cover (this is Angry Robot Books, based in the UK), attempts to evoke that Victorian flavor with a few things. Notice the title font and the author’s name font and how they’re positioned. Sort of 19th-century looking, like this. The figure is wearing a top hat and necktie. He’s formally dressed, as a Victorian-era (white middle-class) man might be. Beneath him is a mess of clockwork gears and mechanical doo-dads, signalling the technical gadgetry of the steampunk genre. See the border around the image? It’s ornate and busy, another tip of the top hat to Victorian styles, but it’s not so overwhelming that you stare at the border instead of the images within it. Your eyes are drawn to various elements, and you know right away that this is steampunkish, probably involves interesting mechanical things, and things mysterious because not everything in the cover makes complete sense. But it’s pretty, and draws the eye. It’s the sexy glance at you from the next table. You’re intrigued, now. What’s this about?

Now have a look at an earlier edition of this cover.

source: Amazon

At first look, you might think this is some kind of romance/thriller/family drama kind of book. You’d probably be able to tell that it takes place during the 19th century, but you might not know right off that it’s steampunk, alt-history, and time travel-ish.

And here’s the first edition printing:

source: Amazon

Hmmm. So what might this be about? It looks sort of like what a Jane Austen cover might look like if 1972 called and told her to meet in the parlor of Gunsmoke. Well, thank goodness for the subtitle! “A mad Victorian fantasy”! Well, what exactly does that mean? The Victorian-ish man in the image is fantasizing about something? That there’s a fantasy that will unfold in the Victorian era? This cover tells a reader that the book is “Victorian,” but it doesn’t tell the reader what sort of “Victorian” that might be, or what might actually occur in the book. It doesn’t tell you much of anything except the dude in the image is probably a musician of some sort and the look on his face seems to be suggesting that something is afoot. Keep in mind, this is the first edition, published in 1987.

Now, here’s the synoposis of this book, from Amazon:
HE INHERITED A WATCHMAKER’S STORE – AND A WHOLE HEAP OF TROUBLE. But idle sometime-musician George has little talent for clockwork. And when a shadowy figure tries to steal an old device from the premises, George finds himself embroiled in a mystery of time travel, music and sexual intrigue. A genuine lost classic, a steampunk original whose time has come.

Which one of the above covers best evokes this synopsis? I’ll leave that to you to ponder.

Hopefully, what our little exercise here has demonstrated is not only how important a cover can be at conveying information to a reader, but also how things have changed in publishing not only with regard to growth in certain genres, but in the technology available to create covers, and also in how the public conceptualizes those genres, and expects to see them portrayed. Our tastes do change, friends, but as a reader, if I were offered the choice of all three of those books, I’d go for the Angry Robot edition, hands down. I’d see that and think, “Wow. Cool cover. What’s it about?” And I’d turn it over (if it were in paper form) or scroll down for the synopsis. I would know right away that it’s steampunk, and what that entails as a genre and possible reading experience.

This is why covers are important, from a publishing and author standpoint. They’re advertisements for the story between them. ENTICE a reader. EVOKE the story and genre accurately. INVITE a reader in.

All rightie. Happy Friday, all, and happy reading!

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