Go ahead, judge a book by it’s cover. A lot went into that cover, so go ahead and give your opinion. Everyone else will, so why not you?
Some covers work very well. Others miss the mark. But some thought and work went into all of them. They are not generally thrown together, like Sunday night homework.
Covers are a craft and an art form. They are put together by the Art Dept. and they are usually run by the author for cover consultation. I always insist that every contract include over consultation. But note that I’m saying consultation, not approval. I don’t believe that any author should have complete approval, unless maybe the author is Picasso.
That is because authors can get strange ideas about what their cover should look like. The purpose of the cover is to sell the book, and authors are not always connected to that aspect of it. In order to protect authors from their own naivete, we need to have some stopgaps.
Of course, it can go the other way. The publisher can come up with a cover that the author loathes. That’s where the cover consultation comes in. The author has every right to weigh in on her own cover, and if she is presented with something that is inappropriate or ugly or weird or even embarrassing, she has every right to say so. More than not, they will attempt to change the cover to her satisfaction. But bear in mind that they know what is in style, what else is selling, and what works.
Other aspects can factor in. If the main buyer at a major chain doesn’t like a proposed cover, that cover will be out the door. One time a buyer said doing it their way would spur them to order another 10,000 copies. Guess how fast the publisher changed that one?
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