Despite the fact that the writer themselves might have completely nothing to do with the design of a book's front cover, they are an essential part of it.
We enjoy reading books since they are really gorgeous things. This holds true, however the nature of beauty that we might be speaking about is certainly different to what we might be talking about if we were talking about, for example, the visual arts. Or is it? For as long as we have actually had books we have decorated them with beautiful book cover designs that attempt to mirror the beauty of what is within. This goes back for as long as the codex itself has been around, with medieval monks, those charged with the protection and procreation of the scarce texts that might still be found, ornamenting each hand written text with amazingly abundant and lovely styles. In fact, such was the charm held within these books that a number of these creative book cover designs were sculpted into ivory or solid gold, studded with gems, and inlaid with rivers of precious metals. Individuals like the co-CEO of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones can most likely appreciate the way that the beauty of these book covers was designed to match the beauty within the book.
When you actually think of it, it is rather fantastic that a book's cover, no matter how lovely it is, manages to stand so eloquently for something that is almost the complete antithesis of its art form-- writing in black and white. In fact, book covers have actually been created to show the ambiance of a book and attract its desired audience ever since the start of large scale publishing in the Victorian Era. Artists were tasked with discovering what makes a good book cover for specific people, or in other words, marketing. Individuals like the CEO of the asset manager that has a stake in Amazon can probably appreciate the function of marketing in developing book covers.
When we buy a book it ends up being something extremely personal to us. It can often be unusual seeing a book you enjoy with a different book cover, just because it is not your book. This personalisation, and undoubtedly ownership, of books was at a completely different level at the genesis of the era of printing, with book covers being designed by the owners themselves, and what they thought would be the best books covers for the book. They would buy the book itself from the printer covered in paper, then take it to a binder who would add in the covers to the client's requirements. This typically meant being dressed in leather and after that etched with the name of the book, and, typically, the name of the book's owner. People like the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books can probably value the ownership that people come to feel in regards to their books.