Because it bears repeating

[james_davis_nicoll]

Authors generally have very little control over the covers of their books.

Also, and I have to admit I've never actually heard anyone say this but the evidence appears to support this hypothesis, most publishers' art directors not only don't know any people who are visible minorities, they don't know about people who are visible minorities. This is probably because most major publishers are based in New York and if there's one thing Friends and Seinfeld taught me, New York is surprisingly monotone.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

All my oldest paperbacks have such a cover. I think I stopped the practice around 1966, however, as being too much trouble for the new increased rate of paperback accumulation.

Hadn't occurred to me to use it to hide the covers. Most of the Modesty Blaise books I own have covers in that category (the books themselves I think are quite good, and not well represented by those covers).