Vanderbilt does a wonderful job making the business of publishing accessible and entertaining.  In the chapter entitled "Judging a Book by Its Cover" the author explains the overwhelming importance of an effective cover design for many stages of the selling process, from reaching distributors to targeting the readers themselves.  "With so much of the book's facte dependent on everything but what is between its covers," Vanderbilt explains, "publishers have learned to treat a book's skin with loving care" (91).  Alfred A. Knopf understood the critical importance of an alluring cover, something which helped propel him to his position as a top-tier publisher.  Following Knopf's success, other publishers, too, began to labor over every element of the book covers, from type-face to author photoraph.