We’re told to not judge things (and people) by the first impression, but how does that fit with reality?

Read more thoughts on the art of communicating week-daily at https://michaelgerharz.com/blog

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My new book is out now

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New book

Should you judge a book by its cover?

Of course!

That's what covers are for.

A good cover sets the expectations for reading the book.

It tells us what it's about and what it will be like reading it.

It makes us curious.

It makes us pick the book up and read the back.

It's one of the first touch points in our process to choose the book.

what about all the extraordinary books with terrible covers?

Well, what about them?

I've enjoyed a lot of those, sure.

But that misses the point.

I've picked them up despite their cover.

Or maybe just because of their cover, as it had been spot on to trigger

something in me that I didn't even notice.

Or maybe I was just referred to the book by someone who enjoyed it so the

cover wasn't even part of the game.

The point is that a cover is a shortcut to what we think about

the book before we read it.

It is a decision-making tool.

Decisions are almost always made based on incomplete information.

Books are no exception and, by the way, neither are people.

Covers prime this decision-making process just like the way you show

up primes the decision-making process of the people in your audience.

So, how do you show up?

And how can you deliberately use the way that you show up to prime

the thinking of your audience?