The Article Summed Up
Covers, Reviews, Impressions
Undercutting and Supporting
Closing
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Introduction
Although hardcopy books might seem to be disappearing from the lives of many as more and more people get ereaders, the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" still has some currency. Yet, as books make the transition from paper to screen, their covers could become a thing of the past.
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The Article Summed Up
An article from NPR Books came to my attention through a Google Alert of mine.
The article posits that, in the past, books could sell based on their covers alone, while now ebooks aren't bought because of covers, but because word of them gets around or people read reviews.
However, Chip Kidd, an associate art director with Alfred A. Knopf, has no fear for the future of book covers. Kidd's theory is that hardcover books, the focus of his work, have always been luxury items, and that they will endure as such in spite of publishing's ongoing transition into the digital world.
Included with the article is a short recording that summarizes and expands upon it.
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Covers, Reviews, Impressions
As much as reviews or mentions by friends might help to make books attractive to online readers, covers can really make or break a book.
Even if you've seen a book a few times, a really powerful cover can grab your attention with every pass. And as much as a review can help you to make an informed decision about a book, a book that's bought because of a review is a book bought based on reason rather than instinct. A book's cover can evoke a more visceral response, which can lead to stronger feelings both during and after reading it.
In fact, buying a book based on it's cover (along with a quick peek inside, perhaps) can make the experience of reading that book more enjoyable.
Instead of knowing what to expect from a writer's style, a book's story, or it's characters as you might after reading a review, peeking at a book's cover and blurb gives you a more nebulous impression of a book. The difference is like that between the impression a person whom you're meeting for the first time but have heard about before and the impression that someone completely new to you leaves.
Maybe you don't remember the book's title after an initial encounter, just as you might not remember a person's name, but if a cover and a peek at the text leave any impression at all you've just formed something that reading that book (once you get around to that) can cause to grow and change with more fluidity than a first impression from a review or word of mouth.
Now, the same could be argued about word of mouth or a review. These things also leave you with a first impression of a book comparable to that which you're left with after meeting someone for the first time. But the major difference is that in this situation your first impression isn't really your own. Instead, it's pre-formed based on what you've been told or read.
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Undercutting and Supporting
Of course, it could be argued that this talk of varying extents of first impressions (first and second hand) and the effects that they have on your perceptions of a book is just splitting hairs. This is a valid argument, though, and now my English degrees might be showing through, having first impressions that are entirely your own - and therefore based on a cover rather than a review or word of mouth - will lead to a richer personal experience of the book.
But perhaps the extra personal element that covers bring to books, just as their durability, is something that makes hard-copy, hard-cover books luxury items.
In a world that's constantly socializing the individualized experience of seeing an entrancing cover and knowing you must buy that book might just become another selling point for books that are read off of paper rather than a screen.
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Closing
Tomorrow's Annotated Links will carry today's literary focus forward, while Friday's search for the salvageable in Alien Apocalypse may take a different turn. Be sure to check back here to find out!
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