Books You've Bought for the Cover

I love the Book Brahmins interviews in the Shelf Awareness ezine because one of the questions they ask every interviewee is what book they've bought for the cover. Well, today's cover of choice -- as chosen by Debra Ginsberg, author of the memoir Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress -- is Jessica Cutler's The Washingtonienne.



Now, I understand why a man would be attracted to the cover. I found it inspirational. And I can also see how a woman would like the cover. It is very arresting.

Of course, I would have loved to see the title be bolder, but I guess they felt that, if they made it bolder, it would take away from the other attractions on the cover. Sometimes you have to make tough choices in designing a cover.

A Book Bought for Its Cover

In an interview, M.J. Rose, author of The Reincarnationist and founder of AuthorBuzz.com, noted that she bought Nicholas Christopher's novel A Trip to the Stars because she liked the cover.

I like it, too, although the title does disappear from the cover. But, gosh, what a wonderful illustration!

Some Great First Lines

In a review of Alice Sebold's new novel The Almost Moon, the reviewer quoted the first lines of her new novel as well as a previous novel.

In her first novel, it took her two lines to kill off the heroine:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." -- The Lovely Bones

What great first lines! They draw you into the novel right away.



In her newest novel The Almost Moon, Sebold gets to murder within the very first line:

"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily."

Another great first line. It juxtaposes a cliche (when all is said and done) with a simple statement of murder. Incredibly dramatic in an understated way.

Would you continue reading if you had read these opening lines?

How does your book (fiction or nonfiction) stack up in drawing readers into your book?