A Deep Dive into Book Cover Design

I am a huge proponent of not only judging books by their covers but also of actively using them to help readers. You can use my "covers" tag to see all my  posts on this  topic, but in particular, take a look at this post from July for more details on how to make book covers work for you [it links to this older post that contains even more info on how to assess a book's main appeal from its cover].

I use covers as I help readers often, and today I came upon an article in Literary Hub entitled "The Unexpected Politics of Book Cover Design: Jenny Bhatt on Subverting Gender and Class Stereotypes with Design" where author Bhatt explains in detail exactly why the cover of her new story collection, Each of Us Killers, [out this week] looks the way it does and why that is important. I found the article fascinating and it made me think about my previous posts on the topic, so I figured I would pass both on to you.

Bhatt's in depth, almost play-by-play analysis of  the cover construction process, while specific for her book, will make you take a second look at every book cover, and as I have said in the past, judging a book by its cover is an awesome RA tool. The publisher  spent a lot of time and money on that cover, they want it to  tell you something about what is inside  that  cover, and you should "listen" to them.

Don't forget, Literary Hub has regular discussions about and monthly round ups of covers which you can access anytime with  this link.