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RainbowToast2 t1_j8b4ax2 wrote

Don’t want to takeover the post, just to piggyback off the idea a bit, lots of people are saying their drawn to the cover art, so now I’m curious as to what it is about the artwork that draws you to look at it over something else? I start with the book title first personally. If a book has made it to a traditional book store generally the cover art is always going to be of high quality, so what about it makes you look?

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BEST_POOP_U_EVER_HAD t1_j8beoc0 wrote

I feel that certain types of books are associated with certain types of covers, and overall design choices.

For example, imagine three different covers. The titles of these books might be similar if not the same, and there's a picture of a woman on each cover. Depending on how the cover is designed, I can get very different impressions on what the book is like.

Cover A depicts a woman drawn in a pop-art graphic style and bright colours. She is smiling, fashionably dressed, and she's holding a pair of keys. I would think this is a lighthearted, romantic comedy type of book.

Cover B is a blurry photo of a women sitting alone in a meadow, next to a small shed. You can't see her well but she is dressed in 1950s clothing. I would assume this is a more "reflective" book, more likely to be sad than Cover A.

Cover C is a black and white photo of a woman in a business suit and there are sunny side eggs laid over her eyes. This makes me think the book is more likely to be experimental than A or B. Maybe heavy on irony.

These rules are not 110% obviously but with so much to choose from on a shelf, the brain makes shortcuts when it can. And unless a book cover is really poorly done (suggesting the publisher didn't think it deserved more care) I don't necessarily make assumptions about quality when I do this-- just what I might be in store for, content wise.

I think publishers know people have different assumptions about certain types of covers too. You don't want to put two violet eyed badasses holding swords on the cover of a fantasy book with a post-modern bent, wherein all sword fighting is only done in surreal, ptsd-induced traumatic dreams.

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