Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: geeky
  • Music: Scissor Sisters, "The Skins."

A book by its cover.

I am essentially a magnet for books. It helps that I crawl through used bookstores like it was some sort of an Olympic sport, regularly raid the collections of my friends, get a lot of books mailed to me, haunt science fiction convention dealers rooms, and basically take every opportunity to get my hands on the written word. I try not to consider how many books I have, except on those occasions where I'm forced to try putting them back onto the shelves.

Some of my books are pre-cover ARCs. (There are two kinds of ARC. Some, like the ones for Rosemary and Rue, are essentially mock-ups for the finished book; they have front covers, they have back covers, and they look like books, except for the big "NOT FOR SALE" printed all over them. Others are basically bound manuscripts, with plain heavy-paper covers, and look more like the spec scripts that sometimes show up in specialty bookstores. I don't know if there's a technical term for these, so I just call them "pre-cover ARCs" and have done.) These are always interesting, because it means I'm reading them based on nothing but the back cover blurb.

How much does a cover matter? We're always told not to judge a book by its cover, but how much does the cover really matter?

It matters a lot.

The book I just read (which will not be named, because dude, you do not slag on other people's cover art; it's simply not okay) was in a genre I'm fairly fond of; I have an ARC not because I was asked to do a pre-review, but because the book is already out, and so the ARC got shoved off on me. No objections here, as I always buy books that I enjoyed in ARC—I consider it my part of the social contract. "I liked your book when I saw it in an advance form, so here is some money." Much like buying a book I enjoyed when I got it from the library. Anyway:

I had actually seen this book on store shelves, and totally failed to notice it in any meaningful way, because the cover was so non-appealing. I glanced at it, shook my head, and glanced over it. I didn't even realize I'd seen it—when I finished the ARC, I went to the bookstore, hunted down the book, and was gobsmacked to realize that it was "oh, that one." I would never have given the book the credit it deserved, judging solely from the cover. Which would have sucked.

(I realize that giving a positive, if vague, review, and then failing to name the book, is really annoying. I promise to review the book later, when it no longer auto-associates with my kvetching about its cover art.)

Covers matter. Covers matter a lot. More and more, I'm coming to realize that a good cover can make all the difference in the world between a book getting snatched off a store shelf that same book only getting read when somebody shoves it into your hands.

What covers do you especially love, or hate?
Tags: book promotion, contemplation
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  • 81 comments

alexwearspants

May 15 2009, 02:32:53 UTC 8 years ago

Hmn. I remember how striking the cover of Graceling was - but mainly because the book didn't live up to the cover. Oh, and though I haven't read it yet, Dull Boy's cover is fantastic. It's plain, simple, iconic. I loves it. I also love the old-school Terry Pratchett cover art. Though to be fair, I hated it when I first read the books as a tween. I beleive I've come to love them so much because they're unique, and they're Pterry. They sort of suit. I also do love the newer covers by Paul Kidby, but that's not so much because of any fantastic eye-catching quality but because he draws the characters like I see them in my head, so it's like free fanart with your book. ^^

Comics and graphic novels have their whole own world of tropes and bonuses and issues too......

But honestly? I find that I can get really, really frusterated with books with fantastic covers - because they're the ones that catch my eye again and again (which, I know is what they're meant to do) but when I've already considered the book and decided it wasn't for me then, as unfair as it is, I resent the distraction. But hey. They got a job to do... ^^

seanan_mcguire

May 19 2009, 00:03:06 UTC 8 years ago

That makes sense.