While scrolling through the recent posts on Tor.com, I came across a review for a book in the 2008 Hugo nominees. Apparently, they have reviewed three others before this one (this was the first that I saw since I am relatively new to the site). But these aren’t ordinary book reviews; instead, they are only reviews of the books’ covers. I found this a bit surprising, and even disappointing.
The old adage has always been don’t judge a book by its cover, and yet this is exactly the sort of thing the site is asking its visitors to do. I am not naïve enough to believe that people don’t judge books by their covers, but I would expect that a site created by a publisher would focus on the quality of the writing, and not the art on front.
I was fortunate enough to have a great deal of input on how the cover would appear for my first novel, but I don’t believe that to be the norm for most beginning writers. Cover art is tremendously important, I realize that, but it is not the most important part of the book. In the eyes of a reader, amazing art on the front of the novel will not make up for a bad story. Naturally, the argument is: you have to attract the reader before they’ll ever pick the novel up. But isn’t that what a review of the text is for? In my opinion, a review of cover art is a step in the wrong direction.
Click here to read the article.
You know, I was thinking of mentioning the problem of cover art on my blog. It's a reality, I think, that people just browsing in a bookstore will pick up a book, look at the cover, turn it over and read the back and then... put it back on the shelf. This in spite of the fact that we've all been deceived by book covers before. Aside from recommendations, there just isn't a lot to go on when deciding whether or not to buy a book.
Lately I've been reading Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker Series, but if I didn't already know of the author's reputation, I never would have read it, because frankly I find the cover art very unappealing, and there are so many other books to choose from, that I would have likely skipped this series. And this series is exactly the one that has had me thinking about cover art recently.
I know, it's a sad state of affairs, and you were lucky in that you had input with the publication of your own book. (By the way, Young Arcan and the Garden of Loc looks very interesting; I may have to add it to my list of books to read.)
Posted by: diane gallant | August 08, 2008 at 08:21 AM
Sad to say, I base a lot of my book-buying choices on cover art. It's what spurs me to pick the book up in the first place, and from there I read the cover and decide if I'm going to buy it. So while you can't tell a book by its cover, you can be attracted enough to look a little deeper.
KJ
http://interminablewriter.wordpress.com
Posted by: KJ | August 10, 2008 at 02:32 PM