All those who have known me well since 6th or 7th grade know perfectly well that I am a person with diverse interests who used to excel in at least a few different fields, one of which has been typography and page design. Although I have never done it commercially — it has just been a personal passion that I have been refining and cultivating with the passage of time — nevertheless, I keep evaluating what people in the book publishing business, mostly authors in various genres, post on their Instagram timelines. When it comes to the statement that it has been a personal passion, I was rated the best sketch artist, the best chart maker, and the best calligrapher in 9th and 10th grades at my high school in Jhelum, and since then, I have not lost interest in most aspects of page and large canvas works. As I developed a profound interest in calligraphy at such a young age, hence, it has allowed me to immerse myself in the field of typography design with absolute ease. I find studying typography almost addictive.
Since publishing my first book in 2011 and then investing more than a couple of years to study various aspects of book publishing and stumbling upon following adage: “Don’t judge a book by its cover; look past the cover and invest time in exploring the story,” I have held the following belief dear and I still believe that people with the right taste are being silenced on these matters:
When discussing this adage, I have no deeper meaning here that you should apply the adage to the wider society and start using books as a metaphor for any other entity, humans or some other life forms or circumstances, hence, just focus on books. As an author and reader, I simply have not been able to accept it as the best way to encourage authors and readers to judge the quality of a book as authors who have written the work should show the passion for their work by investing some time to choose the best possible cover without breaking the bank. If the author of the book has not been able to feel the bond or attachment with the work to feel that it deserves the best possible attention within a given budget, then I have no idea who else would care for the work who should not have any attachment with it considering that it would not qualify as the other person or group’s work ever. The author of the book should have the strongest possible attachment with the work and that attachment should reflect in the cover design chosen for the book.
If the author has failed to feel any attachment with the work, then all I can conclude is that even the author was not convinced that the work deserved the sort of interest and attachment that I have mentioned in the previous paragraph.
I have been desirous of raising this matter with either a seasoned and at least somewhat successful author or in the wider society for quite some time to turn this sentiment into at least a somewhat recognizable debate that if an author has not been able to become passionate about or fall in love with his or her work to feel that the cover does not suit the work, then who else would care enough; if that was not enough, we have this “depth-and-meaning brigade” policing all such comments and making it even more difficult for people like me who have a profound interest in typography, artistry, and skill needed to create an excellent cover by repeatedly telling people, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” In response, I always keep telling myself and other people that if the author failed to develop a strong enough attachment with the project to feel that it needed a better cover, then one should approach such a project with caution and invest good enough time in perusing the reviews.
As people in and out of the publishing industry have been trying their best to turn this into a taboo topic by repeatedly telling people not to focus on the cover of the book and pay attention to what the author has tried to communicate in the book, hence, as a person with a profound interest and thousands of hours of investment in studying various aspects of page design, I want the topic to remain debatable for the literate and connoisseurs alike. The first glimpse that we get of a book or an author’s work is through the cover of the book, yet the publishing industry and the pundits have been trying to turn that window into an author’s work into a “no go” zone by frequently sharing the adage in all possible media.
When a person with as eclectic a taste and skillset as I am stumbles upon such works and the adages that have been used to justify the shifting of the focus on to the core work, they probably just laugh about it and move aside. However, I want to have a conversation with some of the well-known authors and want to know that if I were to show them the flaws in these designs and adages when I study these covers through my eyes or my vantage point, what would they have to say about it? I would love to know what a seasoned author would would have to say about it if a person who has studied more than 3000 typefaces just for fun who keeps talking about finials, apertures of various typefaces, and what sort of an impression various types of line drawings create on a person like me, what would a seasoned author who has never assigned any importance to these aspects of cover design have to say about it apart from the usual response, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Cover of a book is the first impression or the window into an author’s work, yet we are being told to completely ignore that aspect of book publishing and focus on what the author has to say in the book.
If I were to stumble upon a book published by an athor of Stephen King’s or Dan Brown’s stature that had major cover design flaws and I were given the chance to have an honest exchange with the author, then I would love to know that why did the author decide to ignore to put any effort into his or her book’s cover? Why did he or she fail to feel any strong attachment with their work that they completely ignored the cover of the book? Why did the author decline to invest even a £1000 in a cover design study to get some feedback on what sort of problems a person with the eye for such work would be able to unearth in that work? I have been desirous of exploring this topic with a person of Nigella Lawson or Stepen King’s taste and standing in the publishing industry.
I believe these questions are worth asking and discussing in our society where getting such feedback has been becoming easier and easier with the spread of modern technology. You, the reader, of course, are reading this blog post published by a person who published it from Lahore, Pakistan, thanks entirely to advancements that have taken place in the last 50 years or so, the advent and large-scale adoption of modern telephony and computing infrastructure and the spread of digital products, especially the design and search tools.
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