Should we judge a book by its cover?

Illustrations by Grace McKenna

We’ve all heard the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” In many theoretical or philosophical situations this may be true, but what about with actual books? 

Nowadays, this phrase is used more in its metaphorical than literal sense, but some of its earliest recorded uses were in reference to real books. In George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss (1860), the character Mr Tulliver says “But it seems one mustn’t judge by the outside” in relation to Defoe’s book ‘The History of the Devil.’ Perhaps this rang true in 1860 –  when printing capabilities could not hold a candle to what we can produce today –  but the overwhelming abilities of modern-day printers makes this idiom fall somewhat short. 

It can’t be denied that the experience of shopping for a new book relies heavily on the cover. While you may read the blurb, or skim a couple pages, no one has time to properly read a book before purchasing it, therefore our decisions are based heavily on what we see on the shelf. Working in a bookshop myself, I often choose what I deem to be the prettiest or most interesting covers to be the ones displayed on a table, and therefore the ones most likely to be bought. Because, let’s be honest, if a cover looks ugly or shabbily designed, we can’t help but assume that the content inside will be the same. Whether this is a correct assumption matters not, as by that point we’ve already started perusing alternative options. 

The cover of a book also plays a large part in the establishment of its genre. It is often possible to guess a book’s genre just by glancing at it – from the tell-tale swords, roses, and metallic calligraphic text of the fantasy genre, to the dark silhouettes against misty streets and the imposing, bold titles of the crime and thriller genre. These stereotypes become signposts to readers as to what they can expect, and in a sense, they become part of the tropes of a genre. However, defining genre through the cover of a book is not always smooth sailing. 

There has recently been some controversy surrounding the romance genre. In recent years there has been a rise in romance books with bright, fun, cartoon-style covers – the kind of covers you might expect to see in the YA or even children’s section. It is true that some of these romance novels are YA books, but there are also many that are most definitely not, given their explicit content. But when all you see is the cover, who’s to know? 

This shows the dangers in cover design, and it highlights how much power a cover designer has to define the genre and readership of a book. They have a responsibility to ensure their cover does not let the book fall into the wrong hands, as we have seen with the cartoon cover mishap. 

Whether we should or shouldn’t judge a book by its cover is irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that we do, and this is why cover design is so crucially important to the literary world. A book’s design can determine its fate – will it fly off the shelf, or be left gathering dust in a stockroom? Ironically, cover design is often a part of the literary process that goes unseen; we don’t celebrate the designers in the same way we do the authors. And yet, the cover can have more sway than the actual content when it comes to buying a book. There is no shame in judging a book by its cover, that is quite literally what the cover has been created for.