Text or graphic, a lot of thought goes into making a book cover...

We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if you talk to an author publishing his/her book, the metaphor wouldn’t work. A book cover can make or break it – well, almost. Essentially, covers are designed to give the reader the core idea or the subject of the book. They feature a delicate balance of art and design to appeal to our visual senses (which scientifically, is about 30 per cent of the cortex). 

Let’s talk about some famous covers that captured the imagination of readers and drove them to buy the books. When  ‘Psycho’ was published 1959, the book cover with just the word ‘psycho’ written on it (see box below) had a spine-tingling effect. Another example of an iconic book cover is R J Palacio’s ‘Wonder’ (top right) that showed a boy with one eye. The book talks about facial deformity and what it feels like to be stared at... 

Good vs great 
Austin Kleon, the ‘New York Times’ bestselling author and illustrator of ‘Steal Like An Artist’ tells us, “In my opinion, the cover is good if it makes the reader notice it; great if it makes a reader pick up and open the book, and it’s extraordinary if it represents the book so well that the reader then buys it and takes it home.”

Walk over to your book shelf and take a look at the cover art on some of your books, to segregate the good ones from the great ones. You’ll get an idea. To cite a few new examples, closer home,  google Romila Thapar’s ‘The Past as Present’ and Ganesh Devy’s ‘The Crisis Within’, recommends Niveditha Subramaniam, writer and illustrator.  

Are There Any Design Rules
As someone who has written and illustrated all of her books, Niveditha says  “A good cover is well-balanced; the typography, layout, artwork, the use of negative space, have all been given due consideration.” While there aren’t many rules to creating a great cover, paying attention to the content helps. Some say a good cover needs to have breathing space but there are rules that have been broken with equally good results. Like illustrator Jon Gray (who designed the cover of ‘Everything is Illuminated’), left no breathing space despite it being a major criteria.

What authors think...  
There was time when despite their genius, it was very rare for an author to decide the cover for his/her book.
In her book ‘The Clothing Of Books,’ Pulitzer-winner Jhumpa Lahiri reflects on the cover design process, as she writes, “For some publishing houses, my name and photograph are enough to quickly commission a cover that teems with stereotyped references to India: Elephants, exotic flowers, henna-painted hands, the Ganges, religious and spiritual symbols. No one considers that the greater part of my stories are set in the US, and therefore, pretty far from the  Ganges.”

Language of images 
Many authors identify with Lahiri, but the scenario is changing. Karthika V K, publisher, Westland Books, says, “The artist, author, publishing editor and the marketing team get together to zero in on a cover that is an apt representation of the content and is visually engaging too.” The book cover is the penultimate form of non-verbal communication that offers clues to the world it contains. That’s why its value has not diminished even in the age of e-book. People are learning to read the language of images, now more than ever. 

Unforgettable covers
The ‘Atlantic’ magazine listed these in their list of best book covers in the ‘YA’ category

The cover of R J Palacio’s ‘Wonder’ is about a kid with a facial abnormality who is starting school. The cover has been lauded for an excellent representation of what it is like to be started at. 

David Levithan’s ‘Every Day’ was praised for its combination of surreal, photographic, corporeal and atmospheric elements.  

Q: Readers, do you still think book covers matter? Discuss/debate in the comment section. 
Here's what students posted on an earlier article (Do Book Covers Matter) on www.toistudent.com 

No they don’t

The story is all that matters. If someone judges the book by its cover, they shouldn’t call themselves a book lover. If I get a choice between reading a bland book with a fantastic cover or a great book with an ordinary cover, I’d choose the former. Yana Agarwal, G D Goenka Public School 

Yes they do
Sometimes a book cover is an art piece that tells a story in illustrations and typography. They command our attention and help us discover something we may not have considered buying before. D.Ashrita Bharatiya, Vidya Bhavan Jubilee Hills  

(*published with edits)