Do people judge my book by its cover design?

 

I don't know the answer to that question. I doubt that cover design has much influence on judgements that people make about books after they have read them. However, cover design might influence decisions to purchase and read books. We may agree with the aphorism that “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, yet not look much beyond the cover in deciding whether to read a book.

A few days ago, Md. Sujon Sarker, a new acquaintance on LinkedIn, began a discussion with me about my book, Freedom, Progress, and Human Flourishing. Before long, he offered the following comment:

“I noticed one thing about your cover, that is, the text in your cover title is not visible, the text is blended with the background, we want to fix this text problem of yours, we will give it a free design correction.”

Md. Sujon Sarker’s opinion carries some weight. He is a “Book Cover & Interior Formatting Specialist”.

It is obviously an exaggeration to say that the text on the cover is not visible, but I acknowledge that it does tend to blend with the background.

Before accepting the offer of a “free design correction”, I make sure that my new acquaintance was aware that I had no intention of creating a new edition of the book which could make use of his design. I told him that I wanted to stick with the sailboat theme, and drew attention to this passage in the Preface:

“Is there an image that captures the ideas associated with freedom, progress, and human flourishing presented in this book? The picture of yachts on the front cover comes close. Yachts are a symbol of freedom because the navigators of each yacht decide where they will go. They are a symbol of economic progress because yachting is an example of a leisure activity that progress has enabled large numbers of people to enjoy. They are a symbol of human flourishing because they capture the idea of life as a journey, a voyage of discovery, in which individuals determine their own direction, but all face many similar challenges.”

Perhaps I should also have added that I had taken the photo used in the current cover design and felt some attachment to it.

Here are the cover designs that Md. Sujon Sarker provided to me:

 

 

Those designs capture the theme I was looking for and the lettering stands out appropriately.

Md. Sujon Sarker lives in Bangladesh but offers support to authors and publishers worldwide. Anyone seeking his services can use the following contact information:

Email: sujongdf@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/md-sujon-sarker-6ba2b8235