Judging a Book by its Cover.

You hear the phrase all the time: “don’t judge a book by its cover” it’s used in conversational speech to say that looks don’t always matter. But in our society of mass media via the internet, television, and press it’s hard to say that looks don’t matter. The fact of the matter is if the cover of a book doesn’t look good or doesn’t appeal to a reader, chances are they won’t end up buying that particular book.

Now, this is not to say that the cover of a book is paramount to the sales of a book, but it is a very important factor. Jill could be the greatest author ever to grace the world with her writing presence, but if her books are nothing more than scraps of paper thrown together and stapled she cannot expect anybody to buy it, let alone read it. Skipping over a book, however, because its cover art is not something that makes you say “wow, what great art!” is a great way to miss out on a fantastic book.

The argument can be made that if a book were truly great, then the author should have the resources available to get some great cover art for the book. Surely somebody who is a great writer should have a great artist commissioned to make their cover art for them?

So, the question still remains: Can a book be judged by its cover? Or should it be judged solely on its literary merit?It's an age old question, and one that will never be answered in our age of visual media. But if you want to see some really great book covers click here