Judging a Book by Its Cover: Guest Post from Deborah Plummer Bussey

Judging a Book by Its Cover

Guest Post from Deborah Plummer Bussey, author of The Family That Stays Together

 

The old adage “never judge a book by its cover” can be taken literally when it comes to finding a good read.  I have often completed a book and then gone back to the cover and tried to figure out what was in the mind of the publisher and author when they chose those images.  Some covers are like Rorschach Personality Inventories where the viewer projects onto ink blots what he or she believes the image to be.  Other covers are very specific with actual photographs of real people.  Photos of real people work for biographies where the actual person should be the person on the cover; however, for fiction, pictures of real people never work for me.  Part of the fun of meeting characters through books is creating an image of what the characters might look like and imagining what movie stars would play each character if the book were made into a movie.

I thought about these ideas when I worked with the publisher on the first cover for They Still Call Me Sister.  Although the book’s main character, Kathy, is a former nun, the plot actually chronicles the tales of two sisters who are very different in personalities. Kathy and her gregarious sister Tina work together to solve murders that surface in Kathy’s psychology practice.  Aware of the fact that the image of a nun can be more like the real photo that conjures up a set of reactions (both positive and negative), I wanted to choose a cover that could portray the playful, renegade aspects that were so much of part of Kathy’s personality even when she was a nun. The image of a nun in traditional garb used in contrast to the modern sexy woman on the first cover was okay… but it gave the wrong impression to a lot of potential readers and confused some actual readers who thought the story would be a traditional Christian novel.  Although They Still Call Me Sister and the recently published second book in the series, The Family That Stays Together, fit in the cozy mystery genre (violence and sex are downplayed or treated humorously), the stories definitely deal with adult themes and contemporary diversity issues.  My stories are not Christian novels in the traditional sense of that genre.

Choosing a cover for The Family That Stays Together provided an opportunity to change the cover of They Still Call Me Sisterto create a unified look for the series and to move away from the nun image. I love the rainbow colors of the new cover for They Still Call Me Sister and the purple color shading of The Family That Stays Together. The covers are more like the inkblot tests where the reader gets to project onto the colors whatever is on his or her mind.   The covers offer the opportunity to delve into the story and create one’s own images of the feisty sister sleuths.  

What are some of your favorite book covers?  Do book covers even matter so much, especially if you are an e-book reader?  Do you judge a book by its cover?

Judging a Book by Its Cover

Guest Post from Deborah Plummer Bussey, author of The Family That Stays Together

 

The old adage “never judge a book by its cover” can be taken literally when it comes to finding a good read.  I have often completed a book and then gone back to the cover and tried to figure out what was in the mind of the publisher and author when they chose those images.  Some covers are like Rorschach Personality Inventories where the viewer projects onto ink blots what he or she believes the image to be.  Other covers are very specific with actual photographs of real people.  Photos of real people work for biographies where the actual person should be the person on the cover; however, for fiction, pictures of real people never work for me.  Part of the fun of meeting characters through books is creating an image of what the characters might look like and imagining what movie stars would play each character if the book were made into a movie.

I thought about these ideas when I worked with the publisher on the first cover for They Still Call Me Sister.  Although the book’s main character, Kathy, is a former nun, the plot actually chronicles the tales of two sisters who are very different in personalities. Kathy and her gregarious sister Tina work together to solve murders that surface in Kathy’s psychology practice.  Aware of the fact that the image of a nun can be more like the real photo that conjures up a set of reactions (both positive and negative), I wanted to choose a cover that could portray the playful, renegade aspects that were so much of part of Kathy’s personality even when she was a nun. The image of a nun in traditional garb used in contrast to the modern sexy woman on the first cover was okay… but it gave the wrong impression to a lot of potential readers and confused some actual readers who thought the story would be a traditional Christian novel.  Although They Still Call Me Sister and the recently published second book in the series, The Family That Stays Together, fit in the cozy mystery genre (violence and sex are downplayed or treated humorously), the stories definitely deal with adult themes and contemporary diversity issues.  My stories are not Christian novels in the traditional sense of that genre.

Choosing a cover for The Family That Stays Together provided an opportunity to change the cover of They Still Call Me Sisterto create a unified look for the series and to move away from the nun image. I love the rainbow colors of the new cover for They Still Call Me Sister and the purple color shading of The Family That Stays Together. The covers are more like the inkblot tests where the reader gets to project onto the colors whatever is on his or her mind.   The covers offer the opportunity to delve into the story and create one’s own images of the feisty sister sleuths.  

What are some of your favorite book covers?  Do book covers even matter so much, especially if you are an e-book reader?  Do you judge a book by its cover?