Even though we might like to claim that it is not the case, books are undoubtedly judged by their covers.
We enjoy reading books because they are extremely lovely things. This holds true, but the nature of beauty that we may be discussing is definitely separate to what we might be speaking about if we were talking about, say, the visual arts. Or is it? For as long as we have had books we have decorated them with beautiful book cover designs that attempt to mirror the charm of what is within. This goes back for as long as the codex itself has actually been around, with middle ages monks, those charged with the defense and reproduction of the rare texts that could still be found, ornamenting each hand written text with astonishingly rich and gorgeous designs. In fact, such was the charm 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 rare-earth elements. People like the co-CEO of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones can most likely appreciate the way that the beauty of these book covers was developed to match the beauty within the book.
When you truly consider it, it is quite incredible that a book's cover, no matter how gorgeous it is, manages to stand so eloquently for something that is practically the complete antithesis of its art form-- writing in black and white. In fact, book covers have been created to show the vibe of a book and interest its desired audience ever since the dawn of large scale publishing in the Victorian Period. Artists were entrusted with finding what makes a good book cover for specific people, or simply put, 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.
When we purchase a book it ends up being something extremely personal to us. It can sometimes be strange seeing a book you enjoy with a different book cover, just since it is not your book. This personalisation, and indeed ownership, of books was at a completely various level at the genesis of the era of printing, with book covers being developed by the owners themselves, and what they thought would be the best books covers for the text. They would purchase the book itself from the printer covered in paper, then take it to a binder who would add the covers to the customer's specs. This typically implied being clad in leather and after that etched with the name of the book, and, generally, the name of the book's owner. People 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.