Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 15:05:34 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <mjw at press.jhu.edu>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: re: The eyes, they bleed!  The brain, it hurts!
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

> Tamar Lindsay <dicconf at yahoo.com> 5/12/2010 2:39 PM >>>
>Michael Walsh <mjw at press.jhu.edu>
><snip>
>>Face it ... it's just bad art.
>>That said, Baen books sell ... they know their market.  & this will
>>probably sell fairly well.
>
>Or, if people pick it up and look inside, it may sell in spite of
>the cover.

For some, the cover could be a selling point.  For some ...

>There's a reason the dollar stores sell those flimsy
>cloth covers for paperback books.  I bought certain authors for
>decades in spite of horrible covers, and at least once I stuck
>thick sticky-paper labels over a disgusting cover so I could
>stand to have the book in the house.

Let's note the evolution of a book cover:

1st edition (cloth & tr pb)  Doomsday Book by Connie Willis:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-sci-fi-fantasy-2006/3746-1.jp=
g
1st mass market edition:
http://pictures.abebooks.com/BOOKIT2/517295477.jpg
2nd printing of the mass market edition:
http://a3.vox.com/6a00c2252ab767f2190110181e8adb860f-500pi

mjw