First impressions are so striking that bad ones are almost impossible to overcome. And for booksellers and publishers, there is nothing more important than making a good first impression on readers browsing the shelves of their favorite bookstores. A bad or an underwhelming dust jacket on a new book immediately limits its potential audience to only the most informed readers - those who go out of their way to keep up with what is in the book publishing pipeline at all times. A good or striking dust jacket, on the other hand, will catch the eye of many a reader who would have otherwise just passed a book by.
That said, of the books I read in 2015, these are the ten that I think did the best job (in reverse order) of presenting themselves to the reading public:
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| 10. Striking in its simplicity but an eye-catcher nonetheless |
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| 9. Immediately makes the reader want to know more |
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| 8. Stunning graphics for this submarine mystery |
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| 7. Colors and tones perfect for a novel about Bangkok's mean streets |
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| 6. Faux record label captures spirit of the times |
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| 5. Kinsella is all about baseball nostalgia and so is this cover |
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| 4. Certain to capture the eye of To Kill a Mockingbird fans |
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| 3. What book nerd won't pick this up for a look? |
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| 2. How is to to grow up in funeral home? Just look at the cover. |
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| 1. All about the fading of the Old West. Perfect, perfect cover. |
A nice assortment. I like how they all manage to be really different and most of them do seem to hint at what is inside.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that good cover design adds a significant amount to publishing cost, but it seems like money well spent to me. I can't count the number of times a cover got me to stop, pick up a book...and buy it.
DeleteI found this at Book Riot in an article about their 10 best literary Ted talks. This guy clearly loves his job.
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0nI65jgHG9o
Thanks, Kaye. I've only listened to one of those, so I'll take a look at the other nine. I appreciate it.
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