Buy Me! Some Thoughts on Book Cover Design... by Rosalie Warren
‘Buy me!’ yelled the cover. ‘This book is for you.’ One of my all-time favourite covers - and books What is it about a book cover that makes you want to read the book? Like much of advertising – for, of course, that’s at least partly what cover design is about – the process is shrouded in mystery to many of us mere authors. You can often see which bits of you a particular cover is getting to – part of it is genre and sub-genre information but I think there’s more to it than that. Those new(ish) style moleskin-like covers have the feel of ‘quality product’ about them, perhaps with the attendant ‘you’re worth it’ and ‘you deserve it’ connotations which, even though we can see what’s happening, are hard to resist. Some book covers have tactile appeal – ‘Stroke me!’ – and of course, once you’ve checked to see if anyone’s looking and then run your finger across the front cover and received the thrill, it’s difficult not to take a respectful peep inside or at lea...