Selling Books: Is It the Cover or the Content?

Books—specifically, literature—walk a fine line on the shelf. Ideally (or, rather, idealistically), they are works of art born of an author's need to create. But in reality, they must sell, too. Authors and their designers forever struggle with that balance:

"Her first attempt didn't work. The bookshops were absolutely uninterested in ordering stock, and she got just 19 orders after six months of trying to sell it in. 'So at the very last minute, I redesigned the cover, and it was promptly selected for three-for-two or front-of-store promotion in two major retailers. We've sold several thousand copies so far,' Barnes writes." [From When Selling Books Means Getting the Right Look]