Judge A Book By Its Cover: Part I

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Much wise. How knowledge. What profound.

Or is it? That’s right, here I set out to show that this element of common parlance is not what you thought it was: in fact, it’s one of the most subversive and terrible pieces of everyday advice offered in the modern world.

I assert just the opposite. You can, and should judge a book by its cover. Of course, it’s a metaphor for character, and many other things (which I would like to explore sometime as well), but let’s examine its root with a book itself.

Before we get into it, I’ll make a disclaimer: The following are general principles, which means you can probably find exceptions. Some covers I rate as bad may still have some redeeming elements, and some I rate as good may have room for improvement. That being the case, and this being No Quarter November, I will not hold back nor qualify my evaluations if I don’t feel a particular need to.

Another element to consider when judging a book cover is the binding type of the book: is it hardbound? Clothbound? Paperback? This will affect what style of imagery is best suited to its cover. The differences in binding will not be a focus here, however, and the majority of the books included are paperbacks.

The very first principle is that the cover must be suited to the content of the book. What does that mean? It means that not any cover should accompany any topic or argument. Remember that a cover exists to represent what lies behind it. If you can put the same cover on just any other book, just changing the text, then it is a bad cover. Briefly, thought should go into the choice of imagery and formatting.

One thing that annoys me about Chesterton books is that nearly every cover is just the title superimposed on an arbitrary photograph of the author. I am confident that one of the last things old Gilbert would have wanted is his rotundity plastered on the front of every book he wrote. There is no distinction; the cover of any one would do just as well for every other. As the Apostle wrote, brethren, these things ought not to be so!

Assuming content is suited, what else makes a cover good?

Photography should be generally avoided. It is a cheap-looking way to avoid creative design. A particularly good or tasteful integration may work, but these are rarer than not. If it is a photography book or location guide, a photograph would be an excellent cover (remember, suited to the content)

Stock images should be avoided. Especially of people. The most atrocious violators of this are textbook covers.

Drawing/Sketches/Engravings tend to make excellent cover imagery, evoking historic book illustrations done by woodcuts. Self-consistency with the historic medium is naturally pleasing.

You can get away with more in fiction, especially geared toward younger audiences. Still, avoid CGI looking anything. Harry Potter covers are generally quite good, sticking to unique illustration styles and refraining from weird abstractions. They reflect scenes from the actual story, and including a picture of the main character works well here because his particular characteristic appearance is actually meant to be emphasized. This does not work at all on the new 100 Cupboards covers, because the protagonist had little or no emphasis placed on his appearance prior to the new editions.

For some reason, excellent covers of The Hobbit abound, while those of the main trilogy are few and far between. Regardless, the best covers evoke the illustration style of Tolkien, or are actually his own illustrations, such as the pictured cover of The Hobbit. When it comes to Lewis’ Ransom Trilogy, it turns out we’re not allowed to have nice things. There are no good covers for it.

If the book is illustrated, the cover imagery should match the style of the internal illustrations. Among the dozens of (horrid) Narnia Chronicles covers, the only decent ones are those done by Pauline Baynes.

Movie covers: Avoid at all costs! STOP!! Do you know what movie covers are great for? MOVIES. Don’t advertise what something is not. Not only are they often unfaithful to the source material, but they are simply a photograph of something which does not really exist.

Theological or more abstract books do not easily lend themselves to illustration. Although pictures of relevant figures may be permissible here, this fails to enlighten the reader on the content, and better yet would be to integrate relevant biblical symbolism or historic art of the church, or something in an imitative style to the latter. Of course, you may also choose to go a simpler route and refrain from imagery altogether. Ignoring all these principles, as well as following principles of text, this cover of A Treatise Concerning Meditation by Watson has my nomination for Worst Book Cover in the theology category.

Canon Press consistently produces excellent graphic design for book covers. Kudos to their design department. I do have quibbles with a few of the republished works, such as putting an F-16 on the front of Calvin’s Institutes, but I’ll forgive that for what we get in the new books.

Capitals are your friend for Titles. Rare should be the exception. Serifs are your enemy for titles if it is in a basic typography. Serifs can be great if the Title has a custom design itself. But don’t slap some Times New Roman on there and call it a day. If you must take one typography and be basic with it, opt for a sans serif, and go all-caps. Text should not be stretched unnaturally.

Text Effects: Excellent if tasteful. Never over the top. Text on a cover is like buying a used car: you want a clean title.

A Title, and its accompanying text, should usually be horizontally centered. The Author’s name should not be larger than the title, though it may match in size.

Now, there is a final boss to book cover design. Worse than anything we have gone through, this one is downright evil. Beyond a lapse in judgment or failure of graphic design, there is something worse, reaching its winding talons into everything and destroying art as we know it.

Yes, AI book covers.

While I won’t make a prolonged ethical case here, it comes down to two simple points.

1. They usually look atrocious, though I grant they’re getting better.

2. If you couldn’t put time and effort into making the product, why should anyone put time and effort into consuming it?

Now you’ve had a crash course on how to make a good cover. As a professional myself, who has a portfolio of e^(iπ) + 1 book covers, I will happily evaluate any suggestions, questions, or feedback you may have.

Watch out for (potentially) a Part 2 in the Judge A Book By Its Cover series!