"Don't judge a book by its cover."
As librarians and avid readers, we know the literal truth of this time-worn phrase. How many times have you discovered a perfect gem hiding beneath the plainest library binding? Or found that underneath the flashy illustrations and bold typography on the jacket, the book just never lived up to your expectations? Yet, no matter how many times a book cover has tricked us, it's hard to ignore the impressions that form when we pick up a book for the very first time and gaze at its surface.
I, for one, confess that I can be (and often am) a sucker for an arresting image, an unusual typeface, or an interesting layout. Whether I'm processing new books at my library or browsing the newest titles at my local bookstore, I'm always curious to see how publishers are packaging their wares and if I can spot any common trends in the industry.
Recent Trends
Here are a few recent trends that I think deserve mention:
Cartoon Covers
Recently more and more publishers have featured original art by well-known cartoonists on book covers. Perhaps the most striking example of this trend is Penguin's Graphic Classics series (not to be confused with the Graphic Classics imprint of Eureka Productions, which retells classic literature in graphic novel format). For their series, Penguin has repackaged literary classics with new cover illustrations by graphic novel superstars such as Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, and Charles Burns. I was working in a bookstore when the series debuted in 2005 with Chris Ware's inventive new cover design of Voltaire's Candide—we sold more copies of Candide in a month than we had in the past five years! The visual appeal of these covers helps attract new readers to older works we sometimes have difficulty "selling" to patrons. If your worn and tattered copies of The Jungle, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Dharma Bums and other classics are already on their way to the weeding pile, why not replace them with these editions, which will breathe new life into your classics sections and help introduce them to new audiences?
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Other recent examples of cartoon cover art include: Houghton Mifflin's Best American Non-Required Reading series, which for the last 4 years has featured covers drawn by cartoonists Also consider the work of Charles Burns has done for numerous publishers (most recently his cover for The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith and The Learners by Chip Kidd), and Peter Bagge's new cover illustration for the paperback version of Neal Pollack's Alternadad.
Return of the Pulps
The seductive siren lurking in the shadows. The chiseled, steely-eyed detective stands, with his gun drawn and ready. The weird creature from a strange planet. These lurid and titillating images, which adorned the covers of pulp fiction paperbacks in the 1950s and 60s, are making a comeback today as numerous publishers, from The Feminist Press to Tor/Forge to HarperCollins, use retro pulp-style covers to sell fiction in a variety of genres. HarperCollins' Hard Case Crime imprint - a mix of reprints of classic detective fiction from the pulp era and new work by today's mystery masters including Ed McBain and Lawrence Block - is one particularly successful example of this marketing approach. The vivid cover art perfectly captures the grit and menace of the hard-boiled detective fiction found on its pages. At Seattle Public Library, fans of this genre snap these titles up like candy the moment they're put out on display.
These covers appeal both to older readers who bought pulps when they were first published and those new to the books, who discovered them through Pulp Fiction.
The Book as Art Object
McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literary journal founded by author Dave Eggers (A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius, What is the What), has made quite a splash in the publishing world with its unpredictable and highly original graphic design (i.e., Issue 19 was a cigar box full of articles printed as loose ephemera, Issue 16 was a tripartite clothbound book that included a story printed on a deck of cards and a pocket comb). It's not surprising that they've also pushed the envelope with the cover design for books in their literary fiction imprint, McSweeney's Rectangulars. Featuring bold colors and strikingly original illustrations, cover art is printed directly (sometimes embossed) onto the clothbound book - no dust jackets required. These books are things of beauty that appeal strongly to readers who enjoy books for their aesthetic value as well as their literary merits.
McSweeney's growing influence on book cover design and packaging can be seen in other recent hard covers, such as Susana Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu, in which the cover art was embossed directly on the cover, sans dust jacket.
Being aware of these trends can help us in our readers' advisory practice. As mentioned, replacing an old copy of a worn classic with a new copy that has a striking, up-to-date cover design can work wonders for its circulation. These books are also great for face-out treatment on the shelves; and you can use them in book displays to make them more attractive and eye-catching. You might point out a few books with comic covers to your hardcore graphic novel fans. In some cases, they may even assist you in a book talk as a tool to grab the audience's interest. But in the end, remember that cover art is merely a kind of visual shorthand to the reader, and one that can be deliberately misleading. A hideous cover can often be overcome through a heartfelt and enthusiastic book talk or online review; but the coolest covers on earth will never take the place of a careful and thorough readers' advisory interview. So, my advice is don't judge a book by its cover, but let those covers work for you!
Abby Bass is a Teen Services Librarian at Seattle Public Library in Washington, where she provides readers' advisory to patrons of all ages. Before receiving her MLIS at the University of Washington, Abigail worked as a bookseller and events coordinator at Bailey/Coy Books, a local independent bookstore, for over four years.