by syaffolee
What About Book Jackets?
When bookcovers DON’T sell books.
“My suggestion to publishers is a variation on the step-back idea. For the outermost cover, a sensual image could be used to grab shoppers’ attention. But that cover would be perforated, enabling sensitive readers to tear it off and reveal a second cover, one with an inoffensive design that would allow them to enjoy the books in public without embarrassment.”
(emphasis mine)
Wow. Way to go. If that ever happens, people who denigrate romance novels as “bodice rippers” won’t be so inaccurate anymore.
Besides, even the thought of tearing off covers–no matter how awful they are–really horrifies the bibliophile in me.
Don't Shake the Flask 
Never work in a bookstore then. All mass market paperbooks that don’t sell are taken to the back room where their covers are ripped off to send back to the publisher for credit. The rest is tossed in the store dumpster. I never got used to doing that.
I’ve read about that. Sounds like it could scar a bookstore employee for life. And it also seems like such a waste–is recycling allowed?