Ink Stains: How To Judge a Book By Its Cover

How to Judge a Book By Its Cover: An Easy Guide To Help You Spot The Best (and Worst) of Written Masterpieces

We all know the saying: Don't judge a book its cover. Much like all the other pieces of advice I am given, I tend to ignore this tiny piece of wisdom. More often than not, good books have good covers, and bad ones, have, well, really bad covers. It's the sad truth, but lucky for bibliomaniacs (like me), it is easy to discern whether or not that book you've been eyeing is good enough. I have compiled my own personal list of things I look for in a book's cover to judge whether or not that book could be my special someone.

1. BLURBS! If there's a blurb, it's probably worth reading. Blurbs are little snippets or quotes from other authors or review journals saying how amazing and thrilling the book is. Personally, if I see anything with a blurb from John Green, I am going to read it. Period. Exclamation point. Other authors that I willingly listen to in terms of book recs are Marie Lu (who, I have noticed, has blurbed a ton of books, all relatively worth reading), Patrick Ness, Rainbow Rowell, Gayle Forman, and Veronica Roth.

2. No people. If there are characters on the cover, the book is trying too hard. And if it's trying too hard, it's probably not very good. One of my biggest pet peeves is when publishers, for whatever reason, decide to put people on the covers of the books. First of all, most of the time, the models don't even look like how the authors described them in the book! It's like, hey, publisher people, did you even read the book?? Secondly, it totally ruins the imaginative and creative thought process that happens as the novel character builds and world builds if the characters that I'm supposed to be envisioning is plastered on the FRONT COVER OF THE BOOK! So yeah, people on book covers make me just a teensy bit angry. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. But the first step towards making a cringe-worthy cheesy cover is to add people, and no one want to read a cringe-worthy cheesy book, now do they? My only exception to this rule is if the book artists black out or hide the people's faces. If they do that, it's little bit better and I can swallow it. Like the City of Bones series; all of their faces are cut off, therefore, the cover is much more inviting.

Ugh, look at all the faces! Gross! Congratulations book-cover-people, you've just ruined my imagination.

3. Symbols are good. Symbols=Good Book. Now, you may be wondering, "Well, if you can't have people on the cover, then what do you put?" That's a good question. Symbols are always a very good choice, but symbols also tend to hint at a series. More often then not, if there's a symbol or emblem on the cover, it's going to turn into a series.

This a great series, and the book covers make sure to tell you that. If you haven't read Cinda Williams Chima's Seven Realms series, I strongly recommend it.

4. Typography is the way to go. If the words make art of the cover, then the story itself will probably be a masterpiece. All the books that I love usually have the letters of the book title do the talking. Which, of course, is how it should be. I mean, words? Art? Hello? Isn't a book the perfect definition of WORD ART? Besides, I am not picking up the book to look at the pretty (or not so pretty) people on the cover, but to actually enjoy the sensation of being sucked in and memorized by black ink on white paper. It really is as simple as that.

Aww. Look at the pretty words!!

5. Movie posters as book covers. While I hate seeing the MOVIE being used to advertise the much-better BOOK, I can't deny that if the novel was turned into a motion picture, it's probably very good. Let's face it, the movie is never better than the book. Ever. It's kind of a rule of nature that the movie does not surpass the book in awesomeness. It just cannot be done. So, if the movie was good, the book has to be amazing. They only turn the really good books into movies, so a movie poster for a cover is a good sign to finding your hardbound or paperback soul mate. In my opinion, it's always better to catch the good ones before the covers become movie posters.

The original book covers were so much better, but I have to admit these books were so good.

6. Awards. Obviously, only the really good books are given awards. Immediately go for those. If a book is awarded the Printz award, I'll pick it up in a heart beat. Any other awards are also an enormous and gigantic plus. Awards always, always mean amazing stories.