I have never made any secret of my interest in book design or cover art, and now here comes Bookseller Chick with two really great, in depth posts (maybe more to come?) about the way cover art actually acts on (or fails to act on) potential book buyers.
The first post deals with the topic more generally and includes examples of what works and what doesn’t seem to attract browsers. She’s got the cover for The Illuminator up as an example of what works. I snurched the jpg you see here from her — apparently this is a resdesign. Let me say, this is the kind of cover I’m drawn to personally and which I find interesting in a variety of ways, so it’s good to know my instincts are at least somewhat in tune. Now if the publishers would only catch on.
The second post — you’ll find the link at the bottom of the first — deals with romance covers. A topic that is often taken up by the Smart Bitches, but which is addressed by BSC from a different angle. A really useful angle. If only the publishers would pay attention.
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I am reading this book right now. Funny you should post the cover, because that’s the reason I picked it up. I was drawn to it, then read the blurb on the back and decided I wanted to read it.
Interesting…I just purchased “The Illuminator” at Target, mostly because of the cover. I was drawn to the cover and my interest was confirmed by reading the cover copy. I was reading “Fire in the Sky” at the time and the stillness of the woman on the cover brought Hannah to mind and I tried to imagine a similar cover based on her stories.
Frannie
Yep, it’s part of an ongoing series of what (I think) sells books from my box seat in the trenches. How ongoing, I have no idea.
Hit post before I added that the nonfiction half of the dissection is up.