Everyone judges books by their covers. In fact, we almost cannot biologically stop ourselves. Humans are visual creatures. We see our way through the world, and vision is our defining sense. Humans can be immediately reached, engaged, and moved by color and shape, because these images enter the brain literally at light speed. This is the power of design. Here’s the thing: it’s good news that people judge your book by the cover. Otherwise, they might not make any judgment at all, and no judgment means they aren’t buying or reading it. Can you imagine walking through a bookstore that had covers with no information on it other than the title? Or browsing Amazon and looking only at book titles? That would make the book buying deci- sion much more difficult. People will judge your book cover and use that judgment to eval- uate whether they want to buy it. This is a chance to win a reader, and reach the exact person who needs to read your book. 2. YOU SHOULD NOT DESIGN YOUR OWN BOOK COVER When you want a bottle of beer, do you brew it yourself? When you want a new coat, do you sew it yourself? When you need a new bar of soap, do you make it yourself? No. You buy those things from people who are experts at making them. Book covers are no different. You should not design your book cover yourself. You should have your book cover designed by a profes- sional to get a professional cover. 280 · ThE SCriBE METhOD