What is it about book covers that make us more engaged with reading? People are often drawn towards books with covers that are interesting to look at and that they enjoy. Even if a friend suggests certain books and the stories sounds compelling, if I don’t like the cover and how it will look on a shelf, I don’t tend to buy them. Book covers have a significant impact on the publishing world as if a cover looks interesting, there will be people more likely to purchase that book.
Certain things that deter me from purchasing a book are covers that have too much going on, the colours failing to connect, or the title and author being hard to read. The aesthetics really matter to me, especially since this is the first impression. If I don’t like a cover that is sitting on the shelf in bookshops around York such as The Minster Gate Bookshop or The Little Apple Bookshop, then I won’t like it sitting on my shelf either. To me, books are supposed to be sophisticated and should resemble that with their appearance.
Another thing that can be annoying with book covers is if a series of books doesn’t have covers that intertwine in some way, whether this be through colours, design, or font as this looks more aesthetically pleasing and more persuasive when purchasing the series. I like a collection of books to look like one section on my shelf, not like random separate texts. Cohesion is really important for someone who appreciates organisation.
The Special Edition Penguin Classics are a perfect example of a book cover series getting it right in terms of design, attraction, and power. No matter which genre of classic books that you pick, all the special edition covers look as though they belong together. They are also easily recognisable as belonging to Penguin Random House.
Penguin is a great example of successful book covers as the increase of aesthetically pleasing book designs started around 1985 from Penguin who were emerging as a top publishing house through their clever business strategy of creating affordable paperback books. The book covers then turned into a large commercial tool for the books to be noticed and advertised. This benefits their company by being individual and holding an influence over other publishing houses such as Faber and their designs by Berthold Wolpe. By making the book cover go with the genre of the book and fitting for the age range of the book, this ensured literature could draw the attention of the right audience. Targeting the right audience then increased sales of the book as the cover attracted the audience to it rather than having a cover that seems like a different genre.
Some book covers that I personally love are, The Secret History by Donna Tart (the Penguin published cover). I believe the cover matches the themes of the book with a black background and large serif text with the gold coin on. It does not reveal much, but this links nicely to the title which states that this book contains secrets and alludes to mystery. Therefore, the simplistic cover makes you want to look inside to uncover the hidden facts.
Another cover that is a personal favourite is Bunny by Mona Awad. This cover strikes me, as the use of bold colours, such as bright pink, complementing a black rabbit on the cover emanates a sense of unease and makes me want to understand this book, delving into the pages out of curiosity.
The final book cover is Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow. The cover is a sign to what the book will entail with the words having red lines across the black text which resembles smudged ink. To me, this cover design mixed with the title resembles a girl writing her own tragic story through the handwriting style font. This makes reading the novel feel more real, therefore more impactful. Some may think this cover is simple compared to others, but I see it as highly effective when considering the book’s contents.
As much as you may deny judging a book by its cover, I’m sure we all do in some way. It is important to have a sense of the book’s contents and to appear connected to the content within to ensure the book is well-written. Book covers really are a first impression.
Have you ever seen a book and not bought it because of the cover?
– Estelle Hardman
This blog post is in collaboration with the 2025 Beyond the Walls Anthology. The cohort behind the anthology are constantly producing high quality work in the run up to the final publication. You can find similar blog pieces in collaboration with the anthology here on the Where Ideas Grow blog. You can also listen to their podcast episodes on Spotify and find updates on the anthology on their social media platforms, all linked below.