I took a Design class last term, and I designed several book covers that I am very proud of. Here’s one I did for the Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet:
So, having more recently acquired this skill and an appreciation of what book cover designers actually do, I was very sad to read this article in the The New York Times entitled “In E-Book Era You Can’t Even Judge a Cover.” This article discusses how hard it will be for others to view our books if we are all reading them in electronic format (i.e. all Kindles and eReaders look the same!) But the article also talks about how important book covers can be to sales.
I am increasingly aware how awesome e-books can be, but isn’t book design another art? Looking back at books from hundreds of years ago, aren’t they beautiful pieces? Illumination, paper of vellum, and even more recent designs like those drawings seen, for example, on the Percy Jackson books. I would hate to see this art form disappear.
I realize that some books will still have covers in e-format, but when all the books have to cost $9.99 (thanks to the new agency system), this seems like an area where publishers will cut costs. So how many won’t have covers? And how many designers will hang their heads and cry when they realize they only get to design blocks of text? 😦
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