Which side sells the book?

The front

In her book Blurb Your Enthusiasm, Louise Wilder recalls that when some British bookstores reopened during the last stages of Covid, books were displayed "with their back covers facing outwards, so that they could be read without customers having to touch them."

I don't recall seeing that practice at the few Florida bookstores I visited during that period. But it makes me wonder: If you could display only the front or the back of a book, which practice would be better for sales?  We do, in fact, often judge books by their covers, but is it the front cover or the back cover that makes the sell?

The front cover usually tells us little more than the title and the author, but often that is enough for us. We all choose books written by authors we know, and often I purchase books simply because I love the titles. I recently visited a friend and, of course, examined the books on her coffee table. Almost every one of them had an engaging title, such as The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. When I commented on this, she confessed that she, too, is drawn to books with striking titles.

Cover illustrations also help sell books. Some books I enjoy owning simply because of their cover art.

The back

You can usually, though not always, find the title and the author on the back cover, but if they are there they may be difficult to find. We normally look to the back cover of a paperback to read what the book is about. On the back we can usually find a brief synopsis of the story, if it is a novel. If it's nonfiction, we can get the gist of the subject matter. For a hardcover book, you have to read the book flap inside the front cover, which you can't do without touching the book.

Wilder writes book blurbs for a living, and most of these are found on the back. I rarely read them, but some shoppers probably do.

Most people today carry phones, on which they can, if necessary, quickly discover what a book is about and even read reviews if they choose. Thus, back covers are not absolutely necessary for most book shoppers. The front covers are mostly about drawing our attention to books we didn't know existed, more time-consuming on a web search, or to books we happen to be looking for. We may or may not even look at the back cover.

So in my view, American bookstores were smarter during the pandemic. They showed us the front covers.