This week’s question at Booking On Thursday is:

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

For me, book design goes a long way to influencing my selection of a book from the shelf for personal reading, but it doesn’t actually have anything to do with my reading enjoyment once I’m into the book - that part of the experience is all about the writing. But I do know, firsthand, the importance of cover design, format selection, font and illustration choices, at the initial publishing level. When I was a sales rep - the first time - there were many occassions, during sales conferences, when editors and publishers held up a new book’s cover design and we reps would all either retch or cheer, depending on the impact the design had on us. We were sort of the front line of reaction, if you will. Sometimes those publishers actually listened to our opinions, too, redesigning covers if we didn’t like them. Other times they didn’t. The thing is that if sales reps really like a cover design, and the whole book as a result, they can sell way more copies into bookstores than if the book has a so-so cover. I can remember several instances where I latched onto a book precisely because of that initial positive reaction I had upon first seeing the cover - and I was able to translate that feeling into strong sales, in some cases, and over several seasons - not just during the season of first release.

So, definitely, a book’s cover design is extremely important, and publishers are very aware of the effect a bad design can have in attracting readers.