There is the adage: Don't judge a book by its cover. But that said, there is no excuse for having an ugly one.

As Mr Edmund Wee, 56, the founder of local design and publishing firm Epigram, says: 'Design is always important, not just because it might help move a few more copies in the bookstore, but because it also does justice to the author to accurately capture the tone of what he or she is trying to say.'

He should know. One of the cookbooks he has published, Irene's Peranakan Recipes, is a local bestseller which has sold over 3,000 copies since its launch last year.

Though the late author, Irene Yeo, was not a celebrity chef, and the book does not even contain any colour photographs, it does boast an elegantly attractive cover involving a seemingly traditional floral design which, upon closer inspection, is formed out of food items such as mushrooms and squids.

Indeed, with new titles hitting the bookstores every day, book sellers here say that an eye-catching cover goes a long way - from bookshelf to cashier, for instance.

Says Mr Daren Ng, 46, a product and sales manager for local distributor Pansing: 'As with a majority of products in the retail trade, books are being packaged to appeal to consumers. With an immense range to select from, buyers are spoilt for choice and so books with attractive covers would have the advantage, especially when the buying is impulse-driven.'

The distributor says that whenever it carries multiple editions of the same title, it has noticed that one edition is often markedly more popular than the others, even when the price is the same. 'We carry both American and British editions of Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress Of Florence, and there's a notable preference for the British edition,' he says.

Ms Tiffany Lim, 22, a marketing executive for MPH, which distributes two different editions of the best-selling novel Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, agrees: 'I personally thought that the British edition was nicer. However, our Raffles City bookstore manager actually told me that the American edition sold out first. So I guess it's really the catchy covers that hook people, and not the subtly designed ones.'

Mr Christopher Tong, 39, operations manager of Harris bookstores, adds: 'I would say 90 per cent of a customer's decision to buy a particular edition of a title depends on the design and look of a book cover, if the price difference is reasonable - say, a $1 or $2 difference. I've known customers who bought a book simply for the gorgeous cover designs.'

Conversely, an ugly cover can actually prevent a book from getting sold. Says Mr Kenny Leck, 30, co-owner of independent bookstore BooksActually: 'If it is some icky cover, it is very hard to display, even if the book is good.'

He singles out Jeanette Winterson's novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, of which he carries two editions. 'The Vintage outsells the Grove Press edition three or four copies to one. In fact, people buy the one with the ugly cover only if it is the last copy and they really need it for literature class,' he says.

Book design is something he and his partner Karen Wai take very seriously, as they are not only book sellers but also collectors.

Taking pride of place in their Ann Siang Road store are about 200 Penguin paperbacks dating from the 1930s and 1940s, distinctive for their classic, colour-coded covers: orange for general fiction, blue for biography, pink for travel narratives and green for crime fiction.

Says Mr Leck: 'Even though they were producing something for the mass market, they realised that economy things don't have to be ugly.'

The most the couple have ever forked out for a single book is $239.40 - twice. In 2006, they jointly purchased Penguin Designer Classics editions of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment, designed by British graphic design partnership Fuel, and D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover by fashion designer Paul Smith.

'They were actually almost $300 each, but I got 20 per cent off with my Kinokuniya card,' says Mr Leck of the limitededition books, of which only 1,000 of each title were published.

Indeed, some book collectors will spare no expense to get what they want. One such person is Mr Fahmy Ishak, 32, a manager of a golf brand who has more than 300 books, mostly literary classics and art books, which he started collecting in 2000.

He estimates that he has spent about $15,000 on the books, and can spend up to $800 at one shot: 'I have no book budget, and a book is never too expensive. I guess you could call me a lover of all things beautifully designed.'

A favourite of his is a 2005 Vintage box set of three William Faulkner novels, the spines of which form a picture of the author's face.

But holding out for the exact cover that you want can be an excruciating undertaking. Ms Teo Tze Yin, 22, a National University of Singapore English literature student, has been searching high and low for the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Ada, but has yet to strike gold when searching in local bookstores and on amazon.com

'Most of my Nabokov books are Penguin editions and it is nice to be uniform,' she says. 'To me, the physical object of the book itself is quite important in complementing the reading experience. I have no idea why - it is just a weird aesthetic thing.'

But publishers take note: While readers are increasingly willing to splurge on design, do make sure that the cover is practical as well.

BooksActually's Mr Leck points out the Harper Perennial series of Henry Miller's novels such as Tropic Of Cancer, which depict nude figures in erotic positions: 'It's a nice cover, but I can't read it on the train.'

Additional reporting by Benita Aw Yeong

ysteph@sph.com.sg

The above article was first published in The Sunday Times, Jul 27, 2008.