"I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says, 'Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it. - signed, A Guy'"
Johnson then went on to challenge her followers to redesign book covers as if the book had been written by an author of the opposite gender. She's gotten TONS of great responses, and The Huffington Post included a slideshow of a few of their favorites with the article. Take a look!
It really is incredible how gender-specific so many book covers are. It's too bad, really, because even though a book might have excellent content that is attractive to both boys and girls, there are lots of readers out there who might get turned off of a book before they even open it because the cover does not appeal to their sensibilities.
On a related note, this article (found on page 32 of the April 2013 issue of VOYA - link takes you to a digital copy of the April issue) also discusses the inherent gender biases that come with book. The author of the article argues that librarians need to try not to categorize books as "boy books" and "girl books" because despite the gender of the author, the gender of the main characters, or the appearance of the cover, the content of most books will appeal equally to both boys and girls.
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