The Evolution of Book Covers In The Digital Age

Media and publishing futurist James Birdle of booktwo.org points to the changing role of the book cover as print media becomes more ephemeral -

“I say ephemeralisation rather than digitisation because it’s not just a physical transformation we’re going through, it’s a cognitive one,” Birdle notes.

Pointing to the increasing use of online platforms like Amazon for the purchase of books and print, Birdle points to the cover’s new role as often-blurry 120 pixel images that don’t actually cover anything at all. Where cover art once served to help sell physical books, they now serve as a signifier on a website – an icon to identify where to click to purchase the book, rather than a reason to purchase in itself.

One role of a book cover is to provide a visual cue for the work inside, captured by Birdle in the statement

“this is why all thriller covers look the same; why there is a blood-spattered crime vernacular; why every historical novel features a bodice and ruched velvet.”

He suggests that perhaps one evolution we will see will follow the trend of visualization as a means to represent this visual cue:

Could we represent this recommendation somehow? Is there a better way? I’m not sure, but I like, for example, Stefanie Posavec’s “representations” of OK Go’s album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”, which formed that record’s cover art”

booktwo.org: On Covers