Top Ten Tuesday

This is a neat weekly feature over at a blog I really enjoy, The Broke and the Bookish.  They read books similar to some that I've been reviewing, and they're fun and they write well.  Totally worth checking out!

Top Ten Things I Like or Dislike on Book Covers

1. I'll start with the don't-likes: I don't like when the author's name is larger than/more prominent than the actual book title.

2. I don't like movie tie-in covers.  The book was first!  What was wrong with the original cover?

3. I don't like "Oprah Book Club" stickers.  I will always peel these off.

4. I like a clean, readable font for the title, and I am a bit picky about spacing/layout.  In other words, I don't want to have to concentrate to read the title.  Along with this: I also don't like 500-word subtitles.

5.  I don't like when the publisher puts commendation blurbs on the front cover.  I'm totally fine with lots of praise blurbage on the back, but please don't throw it in my face on the front.

6. Now on to the things I do like on my book covers:  I like a good, clean, hooking tag line.  If you can't make it succinct, just leave it off.  But if it's a good tagline I'll buy it.  Megan Shepherd's Madman's Daughter books have had good taglines.  I was also recently convinced into reading a Robin Constantine book because of the tagline "Cruel Intentions meets Pride and Prejudice."

7. I like good quality art on my covers.  I want to feel like the publisher/artist took more than 20 minutes to design the cover.  Bonus points if it appears that the artist actually read the book.  There was an earlier Top Ten Tuesday that talked about book covers as art.  You can read my post HERE and you can read The Broke and the Bookish's post HERE.

8. I like to know what book I'm on in a series when I pick up a book.  This is more for at-work reasons than personal reasons.  It's frustrating to be looking at book for a teen and I find a good one that matches them perfectly... then we find out it's #3 in a series or something.  I'd like to be able to tell that at a glance, before going to the trouble of recommending it.

9. While I loathe "Oprah Book Club" stickers, I love award stickers.  This one is, again, mostly for at-work reasons.  It's much easier to "sell" a book to a parent with that Newberry sticker on the front!  Quite a few teens know their awards also, and will be more likely to want the award-winner.

10. Finally, I like my book covers to set the mood correctly.  Please, please, please stick as close as possible to gender-neutral covers.  And no white washing!  And let's move away from teen face close-ups and/or white girls in gowns.  I think we have enough of those for now, thank you.