Although there certainly is wisdom in the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover,” the fact of the matter is that readers do judge books by their cover art and design. The long and short of it is that cover art is monumentally important and can mean the difference between a bestseller and a commercial flop. I’ve spent the majority of my life in the book industry – as a bookstore manager, a published and self-published author, and a book reviewer – and I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times: a mediocre novel with eye-catching cover art sells like hot cakes while an extraordinary book with a forgettable cover comes and goes unnoticed.
But it brings up an intriguing question: what exactly is good cover art?
The answer is actually quite complicated. There are many variables involved: design trends, culture, genre category, etc. What might be hot at one moment – like tattooed, weapon-wielding heroines in paranormal fantasy a few years back – might be considered passé the next. A cover that may appeal to American readers may not be popular with readers in the UK or Europe. It’s interesting to compare the oftentimes extreme differences in cover art philosophy – take Unholy Magic, for example, the second book in Stacia Kane’s stellar Downside saga. The American version is decidedly dark while the UK version has a distinctly romantic feel to it.
We can talk about demographics and what images are trending until we’re blue in the face but for me it’s simple: if a book is merchandised on a table with dozens of other titles, will my eye be drawn to it and, more importantly, will I pick it up?
A book that is never picked up will never sell.
But here’s where I – and I’m guessing others as well – get counterintuitive. Let’s revisit the recent invasion of tattooed heroines on paranormal fantasy book covers for a moment. Publishers released covers like those on Devon Monk’s Magic to the Bone, Elle Jasper’s Afterlight, and literally hundreds of others because marketing studies showed that is what readers in a particular demographic were drawn to – the covers were attention-grabbing and because of the formulaic imagery, readers assumingly felt a sense of familiarity with the covers: they knew what they were getting. That’s all well and good – and just for the record, I absolutely love some of this “trendy” cover art: Patricia Briggs’ River Marked, Marjorie M. Liu’s A Wild Light, Adrian Phoenix’s A Rush of Wings, etc.
But for me – a hardcore reader for decades who is more than familiar with these various trends in cover art philosophy – I tend to go in the exact opposite direction. I refuse to be a bibliophilic sheep. Instead, I seek out innovative cover art: designs that are audaciously unconventional and imagine genre fiction from a different perspective. If the cover art is wildly original, chances are the narrative will be too, right?
This fascination with unconventional cover art goes back almost 50 years – some of the trippy and at times mind-blowing science fiction/fantasy book covers that I discovered when I was a kid are still just as powerful today: Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood's End, John Varley’s Titan, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World Is Forest and A Wizard of Earthsea, etc.
I’ve said it before dozens of times but I believe that this is a revolutionary era in genre fiction. The boundaries between genre categories are blurring into nonexistence and the genre-blending novels being released today are offering up audaciously innovative storylines with virtually no creative limits to a much-expanded reading audience. And, thankfully, some publishers are complementing these unique storylines with equally unique cover art and design.
Yes, there is still a lot of formulaic and trendy cover art out there – and there probably always will be because of the aforementioned reasons – but the past few years have seen a rise in wildly innovative, singularly unique and downright stunning cover art in genre fiction.
Here are a few of my recent favorites:
The bottom line is this: innovative cover design, whether we realize it or not, is going a long way to freeing genre fiction of its stale stereotypes and dusty conventions. People behind the scenes like Lauren Panepinto, the creative director at Orbit Books (whose work appears numerous times above), should be applauded for their remarkable work and oftentimes underappreciated contribution to the evolution of genre fiction.
Have you ever picked up and read a book just because of the cover art? What’s your favorite unconventional cover?
Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for the last two decades and has written thousands of reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and BarnesandNoble.com. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
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I do appreciate fantasy book covers that buck the scantily clothed heroine or dynamic action hero model, but that alone won't entice me to purchase a book. I have to either know the series/author, read favorable reviews or read a review I trust, (like one of yours Paul). I'm not 'cover' blind, but that alone won't get me to buy a book. OK, so there have been rare occasions when a cover and title of a book entice me to buy it under circumstances where recommendations are listed inside or on the back cover of the book, but I've regretted some of those purchases.
Sometimes I love graphic covers, like Feed and Deadline, but I'm not attracted to pure design covers. I prefer the physical depiction of an object, landscape or person. I don't mind distortion, but a vertigo inducing design graphic is not my cup of tea. (Nonetheless if I read a good review or liked the author, an the eye-crossing cover wouldn't stop me from buying the book.) Here are some covers that particularly appealed to me in the last year or so:
