Fwd: [b] On Carefully Choosing a Book by Its Cover

EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK
On Carefully Choosing a Book by Its Cover
By ELEANOR RANDOLPH
The fact that booksellers are scrambling to market their
wares at other places besides bookstores makes sense, but
something seems a little off kilter when publishers change
a book cover to suit the fashions of the day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/opinion/05sun3.html?th&emc=th

By ELEANOR RANDOLPH
Published: November 5, 2006

To make my view clear from the start, anything that sells more good
books is good, period. So the fact that booksellers are scrambling to
market their wares at other places besides bookstores makes sense. If
a store sells pots and pans, it should also sell instruction manuals —
i.e. cookbooks. Auto shops would be a good place to peddle "The
Complete Guide to Used Cars" or "On the Road."

But something seems a little off kilter when publishers are changing a
book cover to suit the fashions of the day. As detailed in an article
by Julie Bosman in The Times last week, stalwarts like Hachette Book
Group USA will now redo the cover of a book to go with a store's
merchandise. (Imagine, for a moment, Jon Stewart in ecru.)
HarperCollins has been known to take its cue from the fashion industry
— featuring more covers in bright green and sangria red this spring as
dictated by the crowd from Paris and Bryant Park.

The publishing industry has taken to selling books in any place and
any color because book sales have been sagging and these new marketing
techniques seem to work. At least in the short term. But what happens
if buyers purchase only one book per season? Or worse, imagine if your
customer buys only a few tasteful-looking hardbacks when redecorating
the house? This would not seem to be a promising long-term business
plan.

To be fair, books have always been considered a fashion accessory in
some quarters. Anybody who has ever purchased a yard of books or a
backyard of books knows that just having these little items around can
raise the tone of the lowliest motel restaurant. As an obsessive
collector of books myself, I have always thought that a room is
softened by bookcases. And their dust, of course.

But this bookselling trend seems different. Ms. Bosman cited one hip
New York shop featuring the careful juxtaposition of a
black-and-orange sweater-and-skirt combination next to Annie
Leibovitz's "A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005" with its sleek
black-and-white cover. For a mere $270 or so you can be almost as
glamorous as your coffee table.

One way to deal with this need to match book and look might be to find
some chameleon-like material that can imitate any color around it.
Failing that, publishers could start using something that reflects the
hue du jour, like aluminum foil. Or maybe they could sell wrappers
that do not have a high school mascot on them — book wrappers in
stylish magenta or cerulean or whatever looks good with your
complexion. Then, if you happened to be interested in what's inside a
book, you could read almost anything safely camouflaged behind this
year's color-coordinated cover.