Recently it seems as if authors are having redesigned covers year after year, instead of sticking to a ‘brand’ cover. So to introduce our new feature Do Judge A Book By Its Cover (where we DO judge books by their covers!), I decided to write an article on my opinion of book covers.

As much as people bleat on about not judging a book by its cover, it’s inevitable that we all do. Maybe it’s true that it should be the story inside we should judge, but personally, I also like a nice pretty cover to add to my shelves, because that’s what I see everytime I look at my shelves. And the fact of the matter is, publishers must see it that way as well, or they wouldn’t constantly change author’s book covers, would they?

But do you know what I like even more than a pretty cover? I like my books to match. I love it when an author has cover that match because it looks amazing on my book shelf and I make it a rule to put as many matching covers together as I can. For example, all four of Paige Toon’s novels match and I get a kick out of how pretty they all look together on my shelf, I truly do. Does that make me superficial? Probably. But I really don’t care. I like it when an author has a ‘brand’ cover and I’m desperate for Simon and Schuster to stick to the theme for Paige’s upcoming novel Baby Be Mine. I’ll be completely gutted if they were to give her a brand new design, and I’ll have my fingers crossed they don’t do that.

I understand that if an author moves to a new publisher it will probably mean a new range of covers, but I can accept that because that’s how it has to go. It’s beyond the authors and publisher control and sometimes it can even be for the better. Melissa Hill was first published in the UK by Arrow and her covers weren’t particularly consistent. Melissa is now published by Hodder. Her books now have a consistent design, with some of her older novels having been re-jacketed. It would be a dream come true for me if they were to re-jacket all of Melissa’s older novels to match her new style, because her publishers seem to have found a niche for Melissa’s cover style.

That’s exactly what it’s about, though, building a brand for an author. And keeping to the same style of covers must go some way to that, so I must admit I get confused when I see certain authors being re-packaged time and time again particularly if there’s no publisher move and if the covers they currently have are perfectly fine. Sheila O’Flanagan’s back catalogue underwent a much-needed redesign 2006/2007 bringing her books up to date. Her books were then brought more up to date with the paperback of Bad Behaviour in 2008 and it seemed Sheila had finally found her brand. Four more books were released under this new design, until the paperback of Stand By Me was due out and guess what? Sheila has been redesigned yet again. The new book cover is stunning, I said as much in my post about it, but it was an unnecessary redesign. The 2008 style jackets were perfect for Sheila’s books and there was no reason at all for them to be redesigned again. I would have given the 2011 redesign to a different author, personally.

It’s not just Sheila, there are many authors that go through numerous cover changes. Chris Manby has had her covers changed a lot and it seems as if her publishers have finally found her look with her two most recent novels. None of my more recent Mike Gayle novels match ditto Rowan Coleman. Kate Harrison’s books all match perfectly. Until her next novel comes out, The Secret Shopper Affair. It’s the third in the Secret Shopper series and for some inexplicable reason, her publishers have given her a new look. I might hate separate books by the same author to not match, but to mismatch a series of books? It makes me want to harm someone. Why have the same covers for two of the three books and then go and change it for the last one? It’s mind-boggling. However there are also many authors whose covers match wonderfully: Jane Costello, Fiona O’Brien, Martina Reilly, Carmen Reid, Lauren Weisberger, Melanie Rose, Cecelia Ahern, Jodi Picoult, Jill Mansell, Dorothy Koomson, Katie Fforde, Lucy Diamond.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t work in publishing, and there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for Sheila to have yet another cover update, but in my personal opinion I didn’t think it was entirely necessary. I thought they had found the perfect ‘look’ for her, modern and fresh and it was something they could have run with, redesigning her older books again. I just personally believe that more of an effort should be made to keep authors cover similar to each other, because I mustn’t be the only person in the world who likes to have matching book covers. I would say that a lot of people do. There’s nothing nicer than adding a new book to your shelves by your favourite author that matches all of their other books.

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