Judging a Book By Its Cover – Cover Design and Why It Matters.

Posted on April 25, 2013 in Uncategorized

It is often said by marketers and even editors in publishing that the success of a book depends on its cover as much as its content. Increasingly, as physical books are given less shelf space in disappearing book stores and online discovery becomes more of an issue for publishers, a good book cover is seen as an essential part of ensuring that it reaches the right audience, and hopefully those who might pick it up as an impulse buy! The process of generating and selecting a cover has, it seems, always been fraught, with publishers, authors and agents often at loggerheads over a design, but this is simply a reflection of the dual role publishing plays as both a business and a cultural enterprise. Authors and publishers are also finding that digital publishing is allowing them to build a more direct relationship with readers and cover design is an important part of managing this process.

A good cover design has to have two main components: the first is that is has to be clear, easily understood and give an appropriate indication of the tone, content, level and intended readership of a book. This is especially important with children’s books. Secondly, a cover design has to be attractive, signalling to readers why they might want to buy this book and giving an indication of the faith that the publishers have in the title in the creativity and often expense that has gone into producing it. The cover design also contributes to the positioning of the book in its wider cultural context, with signifiers such as the author’s name, title, and publisher’s colophon or logo, often conforming to a visual code that places a title firmly within a certain genre or market. It is the interaction between every element of the design however, towards one marketing message and/or artistic vision that matters the most and is arguably unique to our industry.

One of the most effective covers released this year has been the Penguin reissue of George Orwell’s 1984, as part of its new series ‘Great Orwell editions’ published in January. Designed by David Pearson, the cover brilliantly encapsulates the novel’s central anti-censorship message, as well as successfully combining the iconic Penguin paperback cover format, with a new and innovative approach to the relationship between visual design and textual content. The really brave aspect of this cover is the way in which it obscures those features that are often assumed to sell the book: the title and author’s name, in order to enable the immediate visual impact of the design to pique the reader’s curiosity. This conscious decision to allow the design to speak for itself shows that the publishers have understood their target market and found a way to reconcile the cultural capital of Orwell’s most famous work with the commercial realities of modern paperback publishing.

George Orwell’s 1984 published by Penguin Press

Faber’s newest edition of The Bell Jar also released in 2013 however features perhaps the company’s most controversial cover in its 84 year history. The design uses colour and typography in such a way that it has led many to believe that the publisher is attempting to position the novel in a new, more lucrative and, they believe, inappropriate marketplace. According to the company’s paperback publisher Hannah Griffiths the cover was an attempt to revitalise a backlist title so that it might find a new readership that implicitly might be put off by Plath’s reputation or a sense of literariness in its presentation. Nevertheless, the edition has alienated Plath’s core readership and damaged Faber’s established reputation for negotiating the competing demands of art and commercialism. It is particularly dispiriting that it is a female writer’s work that has been subjected to such a treatment, when male writers of Plath’s rank including Orwell, have recently benefited from innovative and appropriate updating. Both covers show that there is a constant reciprocal and sometimes antagonistic relationship between literary works, cover design, publishing and the consumer marketplace. Publication history is played out in cover design in a way that reflects and feeds into questions over the function of publishing, but these arguments, particularly in the light of the impact of internet bookselling on covers, suggest a vibrant future for book production in whatever format.