Stop Putting Actors on Book Covers

by Case Bright

There’s nothing that makes me want to read a book less than seeing some movie star on the cover. Usually, this happens when a book gets a movie adaptation, and the studio just wants to slap the movie poster or a recognizable scene from the film onto the cover of its source. They may even add a big, annoying sticker on the cover advertising the movie as well. I’ve never seen a book benefit from this practice, and I don’t expect I ever will.

I disagree with the idea of not judging a book by its cover because the cover is just as much a part of the book as the words inside. A book’s cover can carry symbolism, can evoke the reader’s imagination, or be a nice piece of art. Personally, all of these things become null when I see an actor on the book’s cover. How could I possibly avoid imagining the main character as the actor and disregarding every description given by the author when I see the actor’s face every time I pick up the book? I think this sentiment can extend to any book that just has the main character on the cover, but it’s most egregious when it’s a picture of a real person. Covers with actors on them also just don’t look good on a bookshelf. They’re supposed to be books, not movies. I don’t want to see an uninspired, run of the mill photoshoot next to book covers that actually had effort put into them.

I understand why movie studios and publishers would want to put the movie on the cover of the book it’s sourced from, which only makes me dislike the practice more. The book covers become advertisements for the movie rather than advertisements for the actual book. They become synonymous with each other even when the movie most likely cut large sections of the book for the sake of time. It feels like the book becomes movie merch rather than remaining as the individual work of art it was before the film. While this practice may boost sales, I think it looks terrible. I will only purchase a book with an actor on the cover if it is the only option available, and I shudder to think of the possibility.