warning: may contain biting

I really admire Gollancz as they have some amazing authors on their books (although Orion's site would massively benefit from a genre-specific search engine *growl*), but they seem to be catering to readers who don't like their books to surprise them. Harking back to the film industry's 'Contains mild peril' warnings for viewers of a more sensitive disposition, Gollancz have inserted this panel on the cover of the first in Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires series. It gets a big red tick for 'Gothic' and 'action packed' and a little one for 'sexy', if you're feeling that way inclined. In a self-consciously hopeful gesture, 'funny' is awarded a small tick too (and a smiley face. With fangs).

I think this could be applied to pre-existing SFF titles too in order to fully prepare readers for what's in store for them between the covers. Neil Gaiman's American Gods: Brooding: TICK / Epic: TICK / Spiders: tick / Gods: TICK / Sexy: tick.

Or not.

I bought this book online wanting to read some of Gollancz's Urban Fantasy and as Neill had just released her latest in the Chicagoland Vampires series, Twice Bitten, I thought an obvious place to start would be at the beginning. If I'd have seen this book in a shop first I might not have bought it. I'm a cover-judger and I think that publishers can have faith in their readership to not be put off by a book because they weren't expecting the vampire novel to be that *picture of a bat*.

The other elements of the design are standard Urban Fantasy fare. Photo of a girl: TICK / cityscape: TICK / weapon: TICK / absence of fantasy: TICK.

The story begins with Neill's female protagonist Merit joining the ranks of the not-so-undead, so I will now go and read my *smiley face with fangs/lips/picture of a bat* new book, suspending judgement in the hope that there are a few narrative surprises that can't be explained with a few mobile-friendly smileys.

how many books can you fit on the head of a pin?

I know this is supposed to be a Bad Thing but I love judging a book by its cover. In this increasingly digital age (as we keep being told), covers might be the last bastion against against the mounting need to cram all the books into a teeny little living space. Or, to put it another way, it's the greatest and most exciting challenge a publisher now has to face: how to market a book without a cover.

If done well, a cover can be a great marketing tool. Blurbs, carefully wrought designs, author quotes, and, if you're lucky, a lovely big picture to gawp at and reference in case you forget what the main protagonist looks like.

It can also be a dead giveaway that you're reading a fantasy about a big dragon who enjoys shouting things like 'puny mortals!' and burning villages to the ground (thanks, Hobb).

But publishers are sly. They know that some of us like our Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in anonymous jackets that could easily pass for semi-intelligent thrillers or modern romances (shudder). Many want covers and jackets that will blur beneath the common commuters' eye and don't invite judgement on the reader. This is also a great marketing tool if you want to spread the net a little wider and target the fabled Mass Market. One point to eBooks then. You can't judge a book by its eReader (although, interestingly, it is possible to judge a person).

But what will this do to the content? And will happen to the content that the SFF 'fan' has been loyally consuming for all these years? Those of us who have been here from the start, since before being a geek became cool? Who still aren't cool? When SFF publishers begin to commission with everyone in mind, will these genres suffer, and be resigned to the subbasement of SFF in place of the new favourite kids, Urban and Dark Fantasy? Suddenly everything might become about vampires and catering to fragile tweenage hearts.

Or will it? There are still license-based imprints out there like Games Workshop's Black Library, or midlist imprints like Solaris, who are doubtful to ever snub Warhammer in favour of another Urban Fantasy about a kick-ass girl fighting sexy demons.

Anyway, really a cover shouldn't matter, or the format either. A book is made up of its content. But I still want to be able to judge a book by its appearance (on screen or off). I want to know that publishers are working hard, keeping on their toes, to make their content look appealing. To publish content they can make look appealing. And I want to know how they're doing it, and I want to be there when they do so that I can make my choice.

Join me. Revel in it. Judge.