[hwaet]

Mr Ploppy is correct. If you follow shoppers in a bookstore and watch what they do before making a selection, you will see many of them go through whatever usual steps fit their personal style, then they flip open to the first chapter and read ONE page. If that one hooks them, they keep reading till they're satisfied they have to have this book.

Not everyone follows this route but I know the publishers assume the reader does this because they demand their writers also make that assumption. "Hook 'em in the first SENTENCE, and then sell your book on the first page," is the advice most editors live and die by.

The process, though, usually starts at the spine where the title is and a spinal peek at the cover art may intrigue them enough to pull it out of line and look at the cover. Most people, but not all, check out the blurb. Assuming it's fiction they'll then aim for the first chapter, but if the book is non-fiction, they may check out the Table of Contents before hitting the text at Chapter 1.

Yes, people do judge a book by its cover.