Sergio Vila-SanjuĂĄn
Covers: incidence, attractions, authorship
1. Books and the editorial department How much does the outside appearance of a book influence the attention to be given it in the literary supplements? For more than ten years, I have coordinated the weekly supplement in La Vanguardia, and there has hardly been a day during that time when a minimum of fifteen or twenty new volumes have not reached my desk, sent to the editorial department by their publishers. This makes for a major avalanche, and the first sifting is done quickly because we know that a new batch will arrive the next day. However, many of the important decisions about how to treat a novelty are preliminary, taken before the book exists as a physical object. Usually, at the beginning of each season, in September and in January, the publishers’ schedules are reviewed and used to create a first list of works deserving our attention. The titles selected, because the author is well-known or the summary sent by the publishers is attractive, are requested in advance, and are generally received in galleys or proofs. The reporter or journalist who is to deal with them works with those proofs, and so usually do not even see the future cover. In this case, the book’s formal wrapping is devoid of any influence on the way it is treated journalistically. If this is what happens with 25 or 30 per cent of the books considered, that leaves all the others, where the cover can influence the attention the media will dedicate to
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