To catch your eye

How many books are there in the world? According to Google, there are almost 130 million! A writer/blogger reveals that approximately 3 million books were published in 2011 and it has been estimated that 15 million ISBN numbers will be issued in 2012. With such astounding numbers, how can a book stand out on the shelves of a bookshop? Of course, the writer and writing must be top-notch in the first place. The next factor, I think, is the design of the book cover. The design has to be outstanding enough to catch your eye.

The book cover above has been listed as one of 90 beautiful book cover designs by 1st Web Designer, a design blog. If you want a treasure trove of book cover designs in one place, check out the Book Cover Archive, which features the enchanting one below:

Designing the covers of a series of books must be a challenge in itself, as the designer has to create a unified look for the series while maintaining each book's identity, such as the following example:

The Folio Society is renowned for the beauty of its publications. I have a number of their book sets and this is one that I particularly like in terms of the cover designs:

In an article on books at guardian.co.uk, Kathryn Hughes reports that Julian Barnes, in his Man Booker Prize 2011 acceptance speech, did the unexpected by thanking his book designer amongst others. Hughes points out that "judging a book (partly) by its cover has become a legitimate thing to do". There is greater attention now on how a book looks.