Judging A Book By Its Cover

Albums are sold across the world inside a universal sleeve, blockbuster films branded in a singular style. But novels, by a convention that nobody in the publishing industry seems fully able to explain, must be re-jacketed from territory to territory. It inspires all kinds of illustrative madness, and makes browsing foreign bookshelves a fascinating — often bewildering — experience.

I’m always fascinated by the major differences for the cover art of novels published in the US and UK. Oftentimes they’re very different, and oftentimes the UK version is the better one … though sometimes a US cover does a really good job kicking the UK cover’s ass, so maybe it evens out. Why? While the hyperlinked article attempts to answer the question, we’re left with the simple truth: nobody really knows.