A photo that screams ‘buy me’

The evocativeness of dust-jacket photos is why publishers put them on the cover. They’re selling tools, part of the book’s packaging, like the packaging on a bar of soap. Yet in the work of some photographers, the author’s photo can aspire to the level of high art.

A curious little article on the pros & cons of dust-jacket author photographs.

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It’s a selling point, something to get the customer to pick up the book. Something to give a curious reader insight into the mind of the author, via the face?

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Some publishers apparently bank on the photo; others could care less—Chronicle Books, for instance—and tend to use, e.g., passport photos and such. Or no photos at all. That’s cool.

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Sometimes you just don’t want the photo, the author’s actual appearance conflicting too much with expectation. Or something.

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Good fun, all around.

(Article originally spotted in the Chicago Tribune, but up & vanished, rediscovered over at the Southern Illinoisan)