Book covers are bizarre little monsters. Maybe they have to be because they straddle so many different roles. A cover has to reflect a book’s unique facets, but it also has to fit into the standards for a genre. It has to have aesthetically interesting qualities, but it also has to make readers want to… Continue reading When Book Covers Fail Characters
People say that old maxim ‘never judge a book by its cover’ frequently, but of course everyone does judge book covers. Both in ebooks and in physical copies, the cover is one of the first things a reader sees. Readers use the cover to make instant assessments about a book: is this a genre I… Continue reading The Audacity of Judging a Book by Its Cover: 4 Highlights from Recent Publications
Book cover design is often grand, but sometimes publishers don’t get it quite right. Take for example the case of Nnedi Okorafor. Nnedi Okorafor is an extraordinary science fiction writer, and she has the Nebula Award to prove it. Before she was quite so lauded, however, she had a strange and terrible interaction with her… Continue reading When Book Covers Get Characters Wrong
People usually respond in one of two ways to the phenomenon of judging a book by its cover; they mourn man’s shallowness, or they consider a book’s marketing potential. But how much does the look of a book matter? How do people feel about book covers? And how do those feelings relate to the scores… Continue reading What Happens When We Judge a Book by Its Cover?
Kristen Twardowski 