Saturday, October 15, 2011

Cover charge

Which cover do you like better?


Would you pay a premium (of, say, 50% more) to have the book with your preferred cover? Have you ever insisted on a particular edition of a book (and paid for it)?

7 comments:

Mental multivitamin said...

I prefer the first (illustrated) cover, and, yes, I've insisted on a certain edition: The Corrections sans the Oprah sticker. Fortunately, they had one. (Gosh, that was a long time ago.)

As for paying more for the cover I preferred... hmmm. I don't think I would, actually.

Ana S. said...

I also prefer the first one, but I'm not sure if I'd pay extra for it, or for any cover I'd like. That has more to do with my current circumstances than anything else, though. I can see myself getting specific editions if I could afford to do so.

Sam said...

I prefer the second one. I like the noir-ish "third man" feel of it, but I wouldn't want to pay extra for it.

Emily said...

I don't have a strong preference between these two, but I've definitely paid a premium to get the edition of a given book that I most liked. Most recently, I've started amassing the new paperback editions of Nabokov's backlist, the ones that feature shadowbox art. So pretty!

Stefanie said...

I've paid extra for a particular edition of a book but not because of the cover. Not sure that I would pay extra for a certain cover.

Isabella K said...

As it turns out, I opted for the coverless e-book version (which when last I'd checked was more expensive than print, but the price has since drastically dropped).

I don't pick and choose covers as a habit (although, yes, I do recall avoiding an Oprah sticker or two) -- I'd have to feel very strongly about it. I'd pay more for a particular translation, or because it includes a particular foreword, but I'm not so sure about the cover art. (Must go check out those Nabokov editions now.)

Cipriano said...

I very much prefer the second cover -- the first one just seems to cartoony and/or not serious to me.
I don't think I have ever paid MORE for a book because of a preferred cover, but I have definitely chosen a preferred cover over another one when it was the same price, yes.
I love book covers -- I will see some new books and think, "Oh, what an unfortunate choice of cover" and others -- well, the total opposite. I am easily drawn in by a great cover image while knowing that it is the contents that really matter [of course]. I once was at a reading by Canadian author, Frances Itani -- and she told us that her novel Deafening went through over 50 proposed book covers before settling on the one that was chosen. So, I guess it is a serious business in the publishing world.