Book Covers Quotes

“If you cannot judge a book by its cover, surely we should not judge an author by one book alone?”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

“There is much to discover that's not on the back cover!”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

“Aspiring authors, get this through your head. Cover art serves one purpose, and one purpose only, to get potential customers interested long enough to pick up the book to read the back cover blurb. In the internet age that means the thumb nail image needs to be interesting enough to click on. That’s what covers are for.”
― Larry Correia

“In the old days, books had awful covers and marvelous content; nowadays, the opposite happens.”
― Giacomo Leopardi, Thoughts

“Never judge a book by its cover; a movie by its book; or a video game by its movie.”
― Ashwin Sanghi

“Wait a second, is a snooty book critic actually admitting to judging books by their covers?”
― Larry Correia

“I always think that it's wrong to put images of my protagonists on the cover of my novels because readers can identify with characters only if they are given the chance to imagine them independently.”
― Orhan Pamuk, The Innocence of Objects

“Check the top 1000 books on Amazon. Most of them have a shirtless guy on the cover, because they're smutty "romance novels" (read: porn for women) about a girl being swept off her feet by one (or more) billionaire alpha-males. There are literally tens of thousands of books out there about shirtless billionaire alpha-male vampires who can't wait to mate with you. Lucky you! And women eat that shit up! Men, not so much. Men prefer to watch actual porn.”
― Oliver Markus, Why Men And Women Can't Be Friends

“Good cover design is not only about beauty... it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, and read the synopsis.”
― Eeva Lancaster, Being Indie: A No Holds Barred, Self Publishing Guide for Indie Authors

“Behind the Fan cover is a hit! Congratulations to Talia’s Book Covers for placing 3rd in the E-Book Cover Design Awards. Judge quoted as stating that the cover design is, “A visually arresting image”

Thank you Talia for sharing you amazing talent!”
― Caroline Walken, Behind the Fan

“Yet I have come to distrust book jackets calculated to prick desire like a Bloomingdale's window, as if you could wear what you read.”
― Lynne Sharon Schwartz

“They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But if there's a shirtless guy on your cover, or your title includes the words billionaire, alpha-male, werewolf or werebear, your "book" is probably a pile of unimaginative, derivative drivel devoid of a single original thought. Yet another poorly written romance clone the world didn't need.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, The Ugly Truth About Self-Publishing: Not another cookie-cutter contemporary romance

“The walls were pure white; the warm oak floor, the dove-colored armchairs, and the pale blue curtains were bright and without stains. When Morgaine turned on the electric lights, the effect was like being inside a winter sunbeam. Even the books lining the shelves around the fireplace were new, with soft covers in sea blue and forest green and lilac grey.”
― H.G. Parry, The Magician’s Daughter

“The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that a cover is a sort of translation, that is, an interpretation of my words in another language- a visual one. It represents the text, but it isn't part of it. It can't be too literal. It has to have its own take on the book.

Like a translation, a cover can be faithful to the book, or it can be misleading.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Clothing of Books: An Essay

“We don't live in a world in which a cover can reflect the sense and style of the book. Today more than ever the cover shoulders an additional weight. Its function is more commercial than aesthetic. It succeeds or fails in the market.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Clothing of Books: An Essay

“A cover that one person cherishes is devoid of meaning to another. What does that mean? I fear that, even in a globalized world, it signals an inability to recognize oneself in the other.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Clothing of Books: An Essay

“Everyone likes to judge a book cover. In the first place, it is easier to evaluate the cover than the content. Besides, it's fun. All one needs to do is look and react.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Clothing of Books: An Essay