During my undergrad at Emerson College, I took a book publishing course with a professor who had this beaten-down look about him, like publishing had taken away his soul. I recently tried to get an internship at a local book publishing company that had cubicles less inviting than the one I already work in for the military. That was disheartening. Publishers are out to make money, not good design, and sometimes not even the best content. If good design makes them money, then more people are happy I suppose, but publishers are not pleasers unless profit is the outcome.
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| I hate you, Profit and Loss Statement |
I think it's unreasonable to buy multiple versions of a book unless they have a purpose to the consumer other than the difference in cover design. Don't quote me on this, but I am guessing different publishers might have a forward by a different scholar for the classic that they are reprinting. If the cover is different, perhaps the interior design of the book is different too. So, if I am choosing which classic to buy, perhaps I would take all of these things into account, especially the forward.
Depending on how much I like the forward, I may get a copy that has a less appealing cover. I think it depends on what the consumer is really aiming for. A professor would probably be more concerned with the forward while a design student may care more about the cover for her own design inspiration. But with the competition between the print and digital marketplace, I would hope that print publishers are putting more effort into good and relevant design in conjunction with the best scholarly forwards for classics. That's where the competition lies in the future. I think there is also something to be said for, not only the cover image, the quality of paper, the binding, and the construction of the book. As consumers and readers, we should be choosing our classics for our bookshelves with all of these elements considered.
