Although the writer themselves may have absolutely nothing to do with the creation of a book's front cover, they are an essential part of it.
We enjoy reading books because they are really stunning things. This is true, however the nature of beauty that we may be speaking about is definitely different to what we might be speaking about if we were discussing, say, the visual arts. Or is it? For as long as we have actually had books we have embellished them with beautiful book cover designs that attempt to mirror the beauty of what is within. This dates back for as long as the codex itself has actually been around, with middle ages monks, those charged with the security and duplication of the rare texts that might still be found, ornamenting each hand composed text with amazingly abundant and stunning designs. In fact, such was the appeal held within these books that a lot 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 value the way that the beauty of these book covers was designed to match the beauty within the book.
When we purchase a book it becomes something really personal to us. It can often be unusual seeing a book you enjoy with another book cover, merely because it is not your book. This personalisation, and undoubtedly ownership, of books was at a totally different level at the dawning of the era of printing, with book covers being designed by the owners themselves, and what they believed would be the best books covers for the text. They would purchase the book itself from the printer wrapped in paper, then take it to a binder who would add in the covers to the client's specifications. This usually indicated being clad in leather and then inscribed with the name of the book, and, most of the time, the name of the book's owner. Individuals like the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books can most likely value the ownership that people come to feel in relation to their books.
When you really think of it, it is quite remarkable that a book's cover, no matter how lovely it is, manages to stand so eloquently for something that is almost the complete reverse of its art form-- writing in black and white. In fact, book covers have actually been designed to show the ambiance of a book and appeal to its desired audience since the advent of big scale publishing in the Victorian Period. Artists were tasked with discovering what makes a good book cover for specific individuals, or in other words, marketing. People like the CEO of the asset manager that has a stake in Amazon can probably appreciate the function of marketing in creating book covers.