book covers - amazon's top 10

For your consideration: the book covers for Amazon.com's
top 10 science fiction & fantasy books of 2012, based on sales. 
Looking at these through the lens of the recent book cover 
design post, they play to many of the "good design" theories
mentioned such as combination theory, maximization, ju jitsu
theory, though most use encapsulation theory, where the image
and typeface are unified and easy to understand at a glance.
Would you buy any of these based solely on the cover?

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

book covers - twenty theories on successful designs

For those of you curious about book cover design - whether it
be in regards to your future novel dreams or your current
self-published project, and so on - here's a great intro to what
can make a good book cover.

1. Face theory - 
Research suggests that human beings spend 48.6% of their lives
decoding facial communication, so a big draw for a potential
book buyer will be the familiarity of a face.

2. Association theory -
Human beings make a connection with a given stimulus that
leads to how they respond to something they see. The image on
the cover of Luca Turin's The Little Book of Perfumes uses the
familiar image of a perfume bottle to help the reader respond to
the idea that the book is about scent.

from unexpected places - fairy tale posters

These are designed by Christian Jackson.  Posters like these 
always challenge me to try it the other way:  If one of these was
an image of a partially peeled orange, what would be the story?
What the pictured element was a heart-shaped patch of blue
plaid fabric?  Or prison bars, two of them painted yellow?  

Christian's thoughts on creativity:  "When I have creative idea it
will nag at me until I give it some attention.  So I express it, then I
move on to something else.  Sometimes it works out in my favor
(like this poster series) and sometimes it's just nonsense.  I take
every idea that I have seriously.  Nothing is too small because, in
my mind, there is no such thing as a small idea, only ones that 
have yet to be fully realized." (Via MyModernMet)

from unexpected places - movie poster design

These minimalist movie posters sum up key moods and plot points
in a single simple image.  What silhouette and color palatte would
belong to your story?  (Via DesignInspiration.net)