It is very rare for the team at fixabook to be seduced by beauty.

Our objective is to focus on the strategy behind the covers, blurbs and spines rather than get lost in the aesthetics.

In this case however, we have to admit that it is the sheer elegance of the image that caught our attention.

It is rare for watercolours to be used in any form of packaging, so this cover clearly has stand out, simply by making the choice to use that media.

Of course, watercolours also lend themselves wonderfully to images of water (funnily enough) so the lake in this image is given a magical quality that illustration or photography would find hard to beat.

The typography is smart and clean adding to the overall sense of quality and sophistication.

It is also placed beautifully within the overall image  (And at a size that adds to rather than fights with the image).

The only thing we don’t like is the quote: “The most compelling depiction of the sense of place in human lives”

Not only does it sound clumsy but it also sounds utterly tedious.

This cover does a great job of standing apart and possibly bringing itself to the attention of new readers. The quote however, will do little to push them over the edge into a purchase.

It may be complimentary, but publishers (of all books) have to realise that sometimes no quote is better than one that is meaningless or un-motivating or (as we often see) from someone who most people have never heard of.