Book covers, man.
Tricky business.
Subjective, for one. In theory, book covers are art (or are supposed to be) — and everybody responds to art in different ways. We like certain colors, dislike other colors. We respond to images a certain way — with love, with attraction, with revulsion, with curiosity.
Then you add in the complexity that different genres have different “cover tropes” present. Sometimes paranormal romance or urban fantasy has the leather-clad heroine or hero (sometimes turning so as to demonstrate a leather-clad asscheek because, I dunno why — do they fight vampires and werewolves with their asses?). Space-driven science-fiction often has to have a spaceship on the cover or, I dunno, people freak out and burn down the bookstore.
Plus, covers are changing function. Digital books still have covers but Amazon’s demonstration of them is often as a thumbnail (though that appears to be changing, as my Amazon for print books now shows a cover on display that’s much bigger). Further, it’s interesting that digital books still have to have cover-shaped covers given the fact they never actually have to be printed out, but I guess if they don’t fit the Kindle screen, the world will explode.
(Then you add in super-extra-crazy-complexity once you add in gendered cover concerns like what Maureen Johnson was highlighting with Coverflip.)
So, I come to you readers and writers and ask:
What works for you on a book cover?
Have you bought a book based on the cover alone?
What covers have worked?
Flipside:
What doesn’t work? What weirds you out on covers? Have you ever been put off by a cover?
LET’S TALK THIS THROUGH, PEOPLE.
Katrina says:
Sounds a bit weird but I tend to avoid books with images of “posed” people on the cover. Cartoons? Cool. But for some reason covers that resemble Facebook selfie photos turn me off.
June 10, 2013 — 12:09 AM
linderan says:
I totally agree. Taking this a step further: I’m not a fan of any people on the covers. I look at the characters on the front, and inevitably it is their faces that pop into my head when it comes time to visualize the story’s characters.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like my imagination fence is being hopped when that happens.
I can like cartoon’s. Maybe its because they don’t always try to hard to be real.
Either way, the entire field/subject/tao of book-cover art is interesting and, as I see it, underappreciated. The way I see it, an author’s got to take at least an interest in every part of his or her final product. As far as cover’s go, there’s so much potential to say stuff about your story that it just shouldn’t be overlooked. Plus, we all judge by covers–rightfully so, in my opinion.
June 10, 2013 — 11:21 AM
Nicolas Hornyak says:
Ironically, and perhaps a bit unfortunately, the US market presents a trend of success for books with covers that have characters on them, whereas the UK market has the opposite. Believe it or not, this may actually boil down to cultural preference. Personally, I don’t mind a figure on the cover, but I don’t want to see the face either. There are some super cool angles you can work even with that limitation, and often highlights a weapon of choice instead. It works better for me if its a cartoon or a created image some god-tier artist pulled off in an incredibly realistic form, but real people? Or worse, the people in the movies? Ick. So much ick.
June 10, 2013 — 12:09 PM
Ian Rose says:
My cover tastes are extremely bipolar. I want either extremely simple, stark images (or just great typography with no image at all) or else ridiculous detail that I can stare at for minutes, gathering input like Johnny fucking Five. On that latter front, Joey HiFi’s covers for your books have been among the best.
June 10, 2013 — 12:12 AM
Riley says:
Just ordered a new cover and paid a bit for it…then someone posted something very similar on FB today. So I’m freaked. I don’t like unoriginal covers. Some people have the same cover only in a different color, with a slightly different title. This makes me think I’d be buying the same book content, only slightly different. I go for originality that does contain some tropes. Like sci-fi–you expect some sort of reference to planets, a robot, a person with a light sabre, or etc. Mystery…blood, dark, weird. But these days, a cluttered cover is death. Some covers that are beautiful in paperback look like crapola in thumbnail. Nice matte covers with intricate detail don’t mean a thing when reduced to thumbnail. So whichever genre, have some tropes, but be original, and make it look good in thumbnail. That is my wine-laden opinion.
June 10, 2013 — 12:18 AM
Riley says:
Sorry to double-post, but I also wanted to add that I avoid covers with big eyes staring out at the buyer. WAY overdone.
June 10, 2013 — 12:19 AM
pamelacreese says:
I admit I have different expectations for different genre, but I generally am not impressed by covers featuring ridiculously over-sexed photos that have nothing to do with the plot. I love traditional, sweeping epic fantasy covers that give a glimpse into a whole new world but I also like minimalist covers with…for example…nothing more than a hand clutching a sword, or the hint of the working of a spell.
But a cover MUST relate to the story they are trying to sell me.
And no, I have never bought a book based on the cover alone, but I have bought books and been delighted with how beautifully an excellent cover embellishes and embraces the story.
June 10, 2013 — 12:25 AM
Mandy says:
I loathe covers that are gendered – pink and fluffy for female writers and/or ‘women’s fiction’. It makes me think that the subject is worthless. I loved Maureen Johnson’s point with the coverflip stuff – it’s so true.
I also hate literal interpretations on the cover – you know, the book features a kid and his dog, ergo the cover is all KID and DOG. Meanwhile, the book is actually about how people deal with death or something (not a real example). Be a little less literal and make me think.
June 10, 2013 — 12:25 AM
pamelacreese says:
Oh! I totally agree… the cut and paste, clip art covers will turn me off before I even LOOK at the story inside. If that is the best they can offer, I am not interested. BLECH.
June 10, 2013 — 12:31 AM
amyskennedy says:
Okay. The first Patricia Briggs, Mercy book, Moon Called sold me, yeah, it was kind of sexed-up–Mercy usually has her belly covered while working on classic cars, but I loved her face. It’s not a drop dead gorgeous face and it conveys her mixed heritage. It is a weird subjective thing, I work in a library and have read many books because of their cover (and back cover blurb) sometimes it’s the pretty colors, sometimes it’s the person…I think it has to do with the look on their face.
I don’t know. Honestly.
June 10, 2013 — 1:01 AM
Mozette says:
Okay, what works for me… anything cool, gothic and old-looking. Sometimes if it’s a modern book with a cool twist I’ll love a dark cover with a just-as-cool twist on the cover – it says something about the author and the publisher’s way of going with the flow.
Things that put me off on book covers? Blood coming out of anyone’s mouth… monster, creature, animal or human…. it’s just ICK! I hate it, it turns my gut and I don’t like touching it. Spiders on covers of books… I hate spiders with a passion… it’s really bad for people like me and it’s bad when you want to be in reading a great book only be greeted with a horrible big leggy spider! YUK!
The colour doesn’t matter, so long it doesn’t creep the crap outa me, I’m fine with what’s on the cover.
June 10, 2013 — 1:32 AM
jdsfiction says:
Okay, so this one time I was wandering through Barnes & Noble….
I saw the cover of a book that looked like an old carnival poster from the 20’s or 30’s. Huge fan of the era! It was interesting that the cover was only text, faded colors, fairly bland compared to most. But the title of the book yanked me right in: The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot. Holy shit, right? So I bought it on the spot in hard cover and ran home to start reading. The book is by Swedish author Carl-Johan Vallgren. Amazing book and totally purchased due to it’s cover/ title.
June 10, 2013 — 1:53 AM
KL Klein says:
Clip-art covers turn me off. I like a cool picture with lots of details to stare at.
Blatantly sexist covers annoy me too – all those fantasy novels where the female heroine is standing on a battlefield in a chainmail bikini, while all the guys have proper armor on….Bleh.
June 10, 2013 — 2:34 AM
JCHendersonCa says:
I also stay away from book covers with models on them. I tend to like very simple, yet “arty” book covers.One of my all time favorites, as cliche as it sounds, is the original cover of The Great Gatsby, as it looks beautiful and fits the setting and tone of the novel it represents. Which to me is exactly what a cover should do.
I do tend to buy for the covers, or sometimes because it’s styled the same way as a book by the same author that I already own (I am OCD like that, I guess).
June 10, 2013 — 3:07 AM
Fatma Alici says:
I like covers where the artist has a lot of flair and personality. I can look at picture with a nicely drawn person with an interesting background, but it doesn’t have that spark, I’m less likely to pick it up. I’ve never brought a book on just the cover. It does make me pick up and read the back where I might have otherwise moved passed it.
Also unique scenery, clothing, or something I haven’t seen before can caught my interest as well.
Mostly for me what doesn’t work is blandness. It has been a bit more common lately but attractive whoever, in typical outfit for genre, with object that represents genre with them. It won’t keep me from reading the book, but I have several books to choose from I’m more likely to roll my eyes, then to read it.
June 10, 2013 — 4:03 AM
anninyn says:
SO Bored of ‘women in tight leather trousers, facing away from the viewer’. Because boring.
What I want from a cover is… I want something that grabs me, is interesting and unusual, but not so unusual I can’t tell what the book is about. Covers have all sorts of short-hand to tell you about the book, but that doesn’t mean every book of that genre needs to have an identical or almost identical cover, because urrrrrgh.
June 10, 2013 — 4:26 AM
Mike Henderson says:
This is of huge interest to me because my publisher is having the cover of my novel designed even now. Having something of a scientific mind, I set out to analyze covers. The cover his hugely important. I think people first look at the title, then the cover, then the blurb, at least online. In the store, it may be the cover first. I’m sure that people make a decision to buy a book based on its cover, or are highly influenced by it. I am.
The first thing I wanted to know was, what are the colors most used? On my desk one day I had piled up three books: “Closing Time,” by Joseph Heller (Catch-22), “The Dangling Man,” by Saul Bellow, and “The Art of Fiction,” by David Lodge. Purely coincidence that they were in the same place at the same time. What did they have in common? All three covers were black and orange with white and/or black print.
Orange is a great color. Not red, not yellow, and nice and warm, but at the same time bold. Welcoming. Can you say “Buy Now” button? Take a look.
The other colors of the books I have are white or near-white, black or near-black, with type of the opposite color. There are also a lot of yellow books.
All have large readable type. All have covers without photos. They have graphic designs, or paintings or drawings.
Look at the spines of books at the bookstore. Take away black (or very dark), white (or very light), red, yellow, and orange, and what’s left? Not much.
If you have a publisher, they will figure it out. If you are and indie, you need to pay attention to this. People do judge (and buy) a book based on its cover.
It is also critical to have a cover that reflects the content. So, yeah, you’ve got to have spaceships on a space-based SF novel. Blood on a vampire novel. Hunks, shoes, or a shopping bag on chick lit.
June 10, 2013 — 4:58 AM
Chris Wager says:
I really dislike books that have illustrated pretty boys and damsels-in-distress on them; typical cheap romance lit, which I also really, really dislike. I have never bought a book based on its cover alone, but I do like monochrome, photographic or minimalist styles, which have noticeably increased in popularity lately. I particularly enjoy book covers that are not only creative and unique, but that also directly relate to the subject material of the book itself. It adds a certain cleverness to the cover that makes it that much more enjoyable for the reader.
I cannot say that I am particularly fond of book covers that are nothing more than movie posters (I have recently written an article both disparaging and praising movie tie-in editions of books), but they have their merits and their downsides. Mostly downsides, though.
There’s also another trend I don’t really like: this so-called minimalist romantic style as popularized by the Twilight series. All these red and white things in front of a black background. “Oo, how profound!”. No, not in the least. In fact, quite the opposite: it feels like it’s trying too hard to be symbolic and deep, while the actual book itself contains nothing of such merit, unless there is something symbolic about sparkly vampires and shallow teenage girls that I’m missing here.
I honestly feel, though, that people, both avid readers and casual alike, often do not give enough credit to the covers of books; I, myself, am in the process of writing reviews of both good and bad covers (Judging a Cover by its Book, so to speak), but I am saddened to find that few literary sites care to handle the issue of book covers – with the exception of terribleminds, lord bless you 😀 – and instead, to get decent reviews of recent book and magazine covers, one has to resort to typography and graphic art blogs, who talk about the innovativeness and aesthetic qualities of covers, but tend to ignore the relations of cover to story.
Also: I agree with Mike Henderson: orange is a nice, friendly color 🙂
June 10, 2013 — 6:22 AM
royalmanaball says:
As for colors, stay away from purple. Not a bad color in and of itself, but marketing studies have shown that it is the weakest for grabbing consumer attention.
June 10, 2013 — 6:52 AM
Rhiannon says:
That’s too bad…it’s the colour I gravitate towards the most. I’ll buy pretty much anything, if it’s purple.
June 11, 2013 — 11:11 AM
royalmanaball says:
I love purple too. But, yeah, sad truth, eh?
June 11, 2013 — 11:51 AM
jeffandwendy says:
I used to not care about covers. If I got a hard back book the first thing I would do is take the jacket off because the thing annoyed me. Not sure why, but with a physical book the cover somehow felt separate from the rest of the work.
Then two years ago I made the switch to e-books. They are all I read now. I thought the conversion was going to hurt…but it didn’t. I love them.
Since the switch covers have become a huge deal. Not sure why. But they totally matter now. I expect them to be unique and well thought out. They’re like the first sentence of a novel – better not make me work for it or I’m not going to sentence two. I’m part of a reading group where I get free books for honest reviews. I judge every book the group offers by the cover. Even if its an author I know and have loved in the past, if the cover sucks, I pass.
Also, if you put to many words on your e-cover, then I’m out. For e-books the words are always right there, next to the cover art…so you don’t need them on the cover. Draw me in with an amazing pic that is going to prepare me for the read.
After writing this comment I feel like a horrible, judgmental person. I’m now going to need to go and examine my soul.
June 10, 2013 — 6:53 AM
Cassandra Page says:
I haven’t bought a book purely based on the cover, but I recently bought one after the cover caught my eye and I read the sample chapters on Amazon and liked them. I usually like bold colours or contrasts (nothing washed out) and striking artwork. Covers that don’t look like a collage I could have thrown together myself in half an hour usually help!
June 10, 2013 — 6:59 AM
Danny Hefer says:
Here’s a great topic.
Covers aren’t important to the writer, or even to the reader (also a nice artwork feels like a nice bonus).
Covers are important to the buyer.
Proven and tested: visuals have a much higher impact than plain words.
From then on it’s a pretty straight path to follow: write big, give contrast, be clear, reflect the mood of the story and don’t use crap as your raw material.
Since we’re now talking about evil marketing: boobify when possible, hunkify otherwise, and keep colors pretty -orange and blue, just like movie posters… just like movie’s photography.
Of course you’ll want to adapt to your readership a little (sorry, your segment); photos will do for women, typography for intellectuals, artworks for youngsters and, it bears repeating, boobs.
In the same way posting a facebook status without a picture has become inconceivable (and it means what we think it does), e-books need these nice little shinies to attract buyers eyes and purses.
Personally, I don’t have anything against a cover featuring nothing more than the book’s title, handwritten. But I’m not a segment. Not even a line. Well I read lines but I don’t segment them.
You got the point.
June 10, 2013 — 7:02 AM
Mike Berkey says:
I’m a big fan of classic pulp-style covers: lots of action, strange worlds, spaceships, fisticuffs. Not so much clip art or CG. A basic, attractive design in eye-catching colors and a decent font also works.
A good cover won’t make me much more likely to buy a book, but a bad one will be a (slight) factor in me passing it up.
June 10, 2013 — 7:03 AM
mobewan says:
Ironically, the words on the cover mean more to me. The picture or design tends to fade into the background. For me its the style of the wording that generally gives me an instinctual view of what’s going to be in the book. If I’m going to be spending time with the words inside the cover, how the author views the words on the outside matters more to me. Hard to explain, but too large authors names put me off – makes me think the author is full of themselves. Old fashioned fonts put me off a modern sounding book and Modern fonts on an old fashioned story put me off – know what your story is about and dress it accordingly..
June 10, 2013 — 8:09 AM
Daniel R. Davis says:
A cover that always worked for me was The Elfstones of Shannara. I actually mention this in one of the promo bits I had to fill out when I was signed. It immediately drew me in. I didn’t know what the story was there. Who were those people? What were they running from/about to fight? Was the blue glow in the young man’s hand the elfstones? Who was this girl behind him? Were they related? Did they love each other?
Any cover that makes me pick it up and turn the book around to read the back cover has done its job. Likewise, any blurb on the back that makes me look for a sample paragraph on the inside, or flip to the first page has done it’s job. It’s a 3-part process for me. I do initially judge a book by its cover, but I don’t think I’ve ever really bought a book just on the cover alone. I like covers that work to show a glimpse of what you’ll get with the story. A lot of Weis and Hickman books have covers that draw me to turn to the back cover. Angus Wells. David B. Coe and DB Jackson.
Covers I seriously dislike (speaking of sexism in writing) are those standard romance, bare chested I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-butter hunk guys protectively holding a buxom heroine with no real indication as to what the story’s about. Wait, maybe this is fantasy because he’s got a knife strapped to his leg…oh, it’s a sci-fi? WTF? And I write romance! The place I’m contracted through for my sci-fi asked me for preferences on the cover and I doubt I’ll get what I suggested, but it had nothing to do with an embrace amidst a star-filled background. It was closer to what would make me pick up a book and closer to what would make my wife pick it up. Strong hero, strong heroine, side by side, about to throw down on whatever comes their way.
June 10, 2013 — 9:04 AM
Alecia Miller says:
So I definitely agree with mobewan on the matter of the author’s names. We recently had a book we had to read for work and the author’s name took up half the cover. ugh- the ego…
But overall, I prefer artwork over photograph. And the artwork I prefer at extremes – either very basic and graphic, or very richly detailed that would not look out of place hanging among the old masters in a museum. I also prefer setting or theme to be portrayed rather than the characters. I think I like to build the picture of the characters as I read and don’t want the artist’s interpretation of how they look. The lead in a cheesy action pose, or anything resembling a romance cover is an immediate pass over.
However, the cover alone will not cause me to buy the book. It may cause me to stop and pick it up to peruse further, but if the jacket blurb and first page does not hook me, no amount of awesomeness on the cover will win me over.
June 10, 2013 — 9:07 AM
terribleminds says:
The author name taking up a lot of the cover is not necessarily the author’s decision, by the by — quite possible that the publisher felt that the author’s name was what was selling the book.
June 10, 2013 — 9:56 AM
mobewan says:
hmm, so maybe I’m being a bit naive about how much control authors have over published work (but surely they have some say in how their work is presented…?? Am I being unfair, insanely sweet in my innocence or again displaying unprecedented levels of ignorance on how the “real world” works ;-), but I read a lot of self published work – and generally I’d say they all have to take ownership of their covers, and in particular the words and how they are displayed. Even if they got it designed by someone else. It’s words that an author has put out there to be read. They should take care of all of them. Wonder why Publishers think the name needs to be big to sell a book? Surely if the name Chuck Wendig, or Lee Child or Joe Abercombie or Stephen Baxter is all that is needed, then the buyer will already be on the look out and know what letter to look under on the bookshelf??
June 11, 2013 — 3:05 PM
Karoline Kingley says:
I pretty much will only pick up a big if the cover and/or title grabs me. I prefer hardback, clean designs with a little catch (kind of life like The Hunger Games logo.) If to me the cover looks mediocre or just plain stupid, I won’t even give it a second glance.
June 10, 2013 — 9:08 AM
Lisa Parda says:
This is going to sound all artsy, complicated and seemingly vague but after some thought it’s the best reason I could come up with consistently.
Have you seen the covers of — Monster of Florence, Three Graves Full, The first cover (drawn boy and tiger) for Life of Pi and Death in the city light? What I’m attracted to is they all kind of tell a story by a picture. More appropriately it is more of a snapshot of the story which begs the question..do you want to find out? Read me.
June 10, 2013 — 9:09 AM
Kay Camden says:
I like to see something on the cover I want to find out about.
But this mysterious thing on the cover better mean something to the story. If it doesn’t relate, I’ll be mad for one of two reasons a) it doesn’t relate! or b) you’ve made me feel stupid for not being able to figure out how it relates.
I also like to see beauty. And simplicity. A good example is The Light Between Oceans. What a gorgeous cover. That’s a book I’d read on cover alone. I don’t even know what it’s about.
I’m not a fan of covers with people where I can clearly see their faces. Close-ups of body parts don’t work for me either. Pet peeves are eyes, abs, biceps, boobs, midriffs. Abs and biceps might catch my eye but that’s where it will end. I won’t pick it up. It’s cheap and it’s lame. If a book needs sex appeal to sell, then I assume there’s nothing of value in the story itself.
I also don’t like clutter. Sometimes in sci fi and fantasy, it’s like they want to cram as much of the world onto the cover they can, and to a new reader who knows nothing about this world it just looks like a jumbled mess.
June 10, 2013 — 11:19 AM
Priscilla Zorzi says:
I’ve never bought a book based solely on its cover and I don’t think I ever will. I appreciate cover art, specially in books I also bought for collection purposes, but that’s it. And I still rather buy an uglier and cheaper book if the price is significantly lower.
I found out my favourite covers are those with detailed paintings – think of the brazilian covers for A Song of Ice and Fire or The Lord of The Rings. Those are really pretty! For some reason I don’t like minimalistic covers for epics, but in everything else it works fine.
My pet peeves are books with the movie cover (THAT can make me buy a more expensive edition) and the paranormal romance cliché you described. That kind of cover makes these books sound even worst then they usually are.
June 10, 2013 — 9:17 AM
smithster says:
Oh I loved coverflip 🙂 Broke my no facebook at work policy to post that one. Interesting for me because my reaction to the Game of Thrones, On The Road and The Marriage Plot coverflips were identical – I probably would have hesitated to pick up Game of Thrones, and I would not have looked at On The Road or The Marriage Plot twice. I am not a girly girl, never have been, and I look at a cover like that and it makes me feel as though whatever is in the book assumes it knows what I’m all about as a female. And that pisses me off because they’re wrong, usually – or whoever did The Marriage Plot is in a major way. Not that I’ve read it anyway coz it’s got the word ‘marriage’ in it. Although I am married. Whut? I’m human, I can be a hypocrite with the best of them.
But I liked the coverflip of A Clockwork Orange. Un-pre-dictable! Oh yeah!
June 10, 2013 — 9:24 AM
lisapostonmurphy says:
Whoa, you have a lot of comments! Sorry if this is a repeat of something already said. I had to look back at the books that drew me in and check out their covers. Apparently I prefer books without faces. Makes sense-. If you have a cover with characters, you don’t really need to describe the characters inside the book–they are on the cover. I prefer description.
An example is Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” — black cover with a red swirl. I was very attracted to that cover.
I have a question — does everyone use an outside source and pay for the cover? Even indie authors?
June 10, 2013 — 9:42 AM
swnetrzak says:
I’ll confess to totally judging a book by its cover, and I have to say, I’ve found it relatively reliable. Though, as you note in the paranormal romance category, they do all tend to feature a leather clad heroine, but if she’s exposing too much, I probably won’t pick it up. This may get me judged, but I thought the cover for Twilight was excellent. It didn’t have anything to do with anything really, but the image was so damn striking, you had to pick it up and see what it was. Extremely interesting discussion!
June 10, 2013 — 9:54 AM
RTAllwin says:
I tend to prefer covers that are well-designed pieces of art (your own Blackbirds and Blue Blazes, for instance – love them!) and I am generally put off by straight photographic or ‘collage’ style covers. I am also often put off by the cliché painted fantasy/sci-fi scenes simply because they are predictable and boooooring.
But it is very hard to explain what works for me and what doesn’t – a good cover should appeal to my sense of aesthetics, should somehow be relevant to the book, should have a clearly legible title and author name (and not much else in the way of text on the front, thank you). Exceptions would be collections or series that all have a similar or identical cover so as to make them ‘belong’ together.
June 10, 2013 — 10:07 AM
James F. Brown says:
If you want to see what DOESN’T work, go to LousyBookCovers.com. It’s one of my daily morning fixes, along with Terrible Minds. Not only is it instructive about cover art, it’s also a real howl, including the snarky comments people (myself included) leave. Many of these covers are, um, mind-boggling, to say the least.
June 10, 2013 — 10:22 AM
Mike Berkey says:
Okay, LousyBookCovers.com is the funniest thing I’ve seen in days. I’m kinda tempted to buy some of those books just on sheer WTF value alone.
June 10, 2013 — 10:29 AM
randaness says:
I’m laughing so hard I’m crying. Or maybe I’m just crying, and also laughing.
June 10, 2013 — 2:43 PM
Cheryl Martin says:
In YA, “the girl in a big dress” is the trend that people love to hate. It’s beautiful, but normally it has nothing to do with the plot of the book.
June 10, 2013 — 10:31 AM
KOD says:
An original and practical cover is WHY KNOT? How to Tie More than Sixty Ingenious, Useful, Beautiful, Lifesaving, and Secure Knots! by high wire artist Philippe Petit. (Abrams Image, 2013)
In the “O” of Knot is a little red cord, tucked into the front cover so the readers can immediately try the knots in the book!
June 10, 2013 — 10:32 AM
TheWife says:
I could write a dissertation on covers (after nearly 4 years of posts about bad covers, you might say I already have). But the one bit of advice I’ll give? AVOID YELLOW. Seriously, if you have yellow on your cover, everything looks sallow. More than that, though — if you have any person on their cover they will look completely jaundiced. That’s *always* the case. PLEASE STOP USING YELLOW!
June 10, 2013 — 10:35 AM
UrsulaV says:
So once upon a time, in another life, I was a freelance cover artist.
I wasn’t GOOD, let me get out there. I make no bones about it. But I was pleasant and fast and and I made deadlines with time to spare and I kept the art director in the loop every step of the way, and these things, as it turns out, are way more important than “good” for a lot of art directors. You might get a mediocre cover out of me, but you would have it three days early and you would be able to make changes at any stage of the process. And the great truth is that art directors would rather have a serviceable cover on-time than a brilliant cover six weeks late.
Ya know who I hated working with?
Writers.
God help me, at least half the time we had a writer closely involved, it turned into a nightmare. Long flowery passages completely devoid of useful content. (“She’s gazing wistfully inward, across the ages, her eyes bright with hard-won knowledge.” I can do NOTHING with that.) I had one woman who was so upset that we couldn’t match her mental image (which she couldn’t convey) that she tried to get the cover scrapped two days before deadline, because the last one (which I’d also done) had been so PERFECT so why couldn’t this one be perfect too? (Well, the first one had been a piece I’d done years before that the company had licensed, not a gruesome collage put together by committee, that’s why.)
Plus writers who expected I had read the book, and got annoyed when I hadn’t. (Incidentally, this varies wildly by publisher. Do not assume that your artist has read the book. It’s entirely possible that she’s gotten a description from the art director, no more.)
So, I beg of you–if you’re working with an artist, bear in mind that A) she cannot read your mind, you must speak very clearly and lucidly, B) hair color is more important than wistful-inward-gazing-memory, C) there are stages where you can make changes and they are not two days before the deadline, D) the fewer characters on the cover, the better it will probably look, and E) something can be good art and a bad cover, and vice versa.
And you will be much happier if you don’t go in with a hard image of What The Cover Should Look Like Or You Will Be Sad. And the climactic scene that looks really cool in your head will probably make your book look like a D&D supplement. And…never mind, I’ll shut up now.
(I did work with some very good writers. They all said “This, this, and this,” and then stood back and let me work. Those people were awesome. Micromanaging, not so awesome.)
Not long ago, one of my other books got published and the small press had art done for it by someone else. They asked if I wanted approval. I said no. I knew the artist, I liked the artist, and I have had my arm joggled too often to ever do that to another living being.
*pant, pant* Sorry. I feel better now!
June 10, 2013 — 10:36 AM
terribleminds says:
Haha. This is kinda awesome. Because we writers are such jerks sometimes with stuff like this.
Still! While I like to have some input on things like this, I also recognize that It Is Not My Area Of Expertise, and I think for things like this it’s very important to let the Experts drive the car long as I get to ride in it.
— c.
June 10, 2013 — 10:42 AM
@luisishere says:
Can this be its own blog post? I feel like the world needs to see this.
June 10, 2013 — 10:51 AM
Jenn Lyons says:
In my other life, I too was an artist, although not book covers. I’ve known a few cover artists and honestly, I have nothing but respect. I can only imagine the fresh hells you must go through when dealing with something so emotional to your client. Bridezilla on steroids, In fact, the more I work on the cover of my own book, the more I start to think that writing the book was the easy part.
June 11, 2013 — 4:59 PM
@luisishere says:
Covers that only show the back of the subject’s head drive me bugfuck. It’s not like they are looking back at something. I get what they are trying to do, but the notion is so played out that I cringe every time I see it.
June 10, 2013 — 10:39 AM
lindseyjparsons says:
I mostly don’t like people on the covers of books and am easily put off by the classic two lovers entwined look or the seductive woman’s back, no matter how arty her tattoo is! I was determined not to have any characters on my book cover, but then I worried that I’d made a mistake by not following the flock. Maybe I have, but I don’t regret It after reading this and other post on the subject. It seems I’m not alone in not liking all the samey type covers we keep seeing everywhere.
I like covers that aren’t too busy, simple pictures that reflect at least some aspect of the story and the title of the book in decent size font so you can tell straight away what the books called. I don’t like it when the authors name is massive and you’re searching around trying to find out what the name of the book is. I also like it numbered if the book is in a series or it at least has some reference to which number it is, so I know instantly where in the series it belongs. So often I find I’m guessing as to whether I’ve picked the right next book. And I’m definitely with Mozette on the spider thing, I would find it very hard to read a book if I had to keep touching a big hairy spider on the cover!!
June 10, 2013 — 10:51 AM
ajsinnz says:
As a reader of mostly horror or other kinds of darker fiction, covers are important to me. Back in the day the B&N I used to frequent had a horror section, and I loved it. I didn’t need to know an author to still see a cover and decide to at least check out the book and possibly buy it. When they merged horror w/ the rest of the fiction books, I was bummed!
Obviously if I know the author, I’ll get the book no matter what the cover is, but yeah, I love a good book cover.
BTW, BLACK BIRDS & MOCKINGBIRD…great, great covers!
June 10, 2013 — 10:51 AM
Wesley says:
I too read mostly horror. There was a Barnes and Noble only a six minute drive from my home. I went there so often that I didn’t even look at the displays I walked past anymore. I only really lifted my head and focused on the books in front of me when I got to that back left corner because that was the horror section.
One day I walked in, got to the corner and looked up and didn’t recognize the area. The word “Horror” wasn’t printed on the plaque at the top of the shelf. I went to a counter and asked where they’d moved the horror section to and I was told it no longer existed. My response came out a little too loud. I said, “Well how the fuck am I supposed to browse for the kinda books I like now?” I felt so betrayed and so fucked with that I ended up firing off a tirade at some poor clerk. I was too stupid to take into account that she very likely had no power over Barnes and Noble’s business policies.
In the end I was escorted out of the store by security. I wasn’t dragged kicking and screaming or anything, but I did cause a bit of a scene and probably fucked up an innocent person’s day. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I’m sorry.
June 11, 2013 — 4:31 AM
louisesor says:
Ebook covers don’t do anything for me. I judge an ebook by the sample chapters and don’t but trad paper books anymore.
Although, I don’t like the cartoony smiling covers on some witch stories. But if the story is good, (that is, if I like the story) I buy it.
So I do like an artistic cover, but that’s not what makes me buy an ebook. (I have bought paperback books for the cover artwork alone, even tho I didn’t like the story.)
I don’t browse amazon looking for books to buy, I go there in response to a link on twitter, generally tweeted by some author I follow. This is another advantage to following the people who follow you.
On average I read about 20 samples for every ebook that I do like and buy.
And, like trad pub books, when I find an author I enjoy reading, I tend to buy more of their books.
The other comments here are interesting and informative.
Good topic, Chuck.
June 10, 2013 — 11:12 AM
louisesor says:
make that ‘don’t BUY trad paper books anymore.’
June 10, 2013 — 11:13 AM
marlanesque says:
I had a copy of DOOMSDAY BOOK where the cover looked like a Fabio romance novel. It is the only time I have defaced a novel by tearing off the cover just because I couldn’t stand to look at it when I read it.
June 10, 2013 — 11:35 AM
Tia Kalla (@tiakall) says:
I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, and one trope I notice a lot is generic hero, holding genre-appropriate weapon, set against genre-appropriate landscape, possibly facing genre-appropriate enemy. That cover does nothing for me – if I’ve seen the cover before, I’ll feel like I’ve read the book before, too. When it comes to colors, my favorite is actually a monochrome – black/white/gray. It doesn’t work for all books, naturally, but it’s a style I don’t mind seeing more of.
The title is important, though, especially as the spine is often all you see from the bookshelf. So an intriguing title is a must for me. Also, as a non-typographer, I can’t offer specifics, but font really does matter – it has to stand out from its fellows, but still be plenty readable. I’m nearsighted even with glasses and if I have to bend over and squint to read your title, I’m not going to.
June 10, 2013 — 11:57 AM
neomachina2011 says:
I’m one for good artwork. If the cover looks like it was done by my 6-year-old niece during nap time after a bowl of mac & cheese, then I won’t give the book a second glance. Sometimes, I’ll buy a book strictly because the cover is freakin sweet…
True story – I bought Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind because of the cover. I saw it in Borders one day and thought, “That’s a freakin sweet cover! I’m getting this book!” I didn’t read the synopsis or anything, just took it to the counter and plopped down about $30 for it.
June 10, 2013 — 12:15 PM
Gabryyl Pierce says:
Perfect timing–I’m rather thankful for genre trope covers as I’m currently organizing all of the various e-books in my household in the Calibre program and covers are really coming into play. Many of these were given to me on various e-readers over the years and I will never read many of them so I’m using cover view to give a quick idea of genre, Any book with spaceships or other hardcore sci-fi is an automatic delete (not my thing), any cutesy cartoonish mystery cover is a keep (my mother loves cozy mysteries).
A cover won’t make me buy or not buy a book but it might draw me to look at a book. For me it’s the blurb that does or doesn’t cut it.
June 10, 2013 — 12:16 PM
Miranda says:
I don’t think that book covers ever turn me OFF, but a clever cover or a cool hardback book can definitely make me more interested in making a purchase. I do try to avoid books with pictures of movie adaptations on the cover, though.
June 10, 2013 — 12:40 PM
Fritz Freiheit says:
I find that I’m turned off by covers using CGI people that fall in the “eerie valley” (like _Polar Express_).
June 10, 2013 — 2:19 PM
Marsha says:
Book covers will get me to pick up the book, but not necessarily buy. I looked up the last 4-5 books I’ve read and found that each cover either had face-obscured person on it, a shadow/silhouette, or a body part like an arm/hand. I didn’t realize that was something I was being drawn to, but ok.
I don’t like the overly sexual covers and I don’t like the model-y covers. When I think of book covers, I do think “art” so covers that are more like a photograph get little interest from me.
The cover art/picture and text have to catch my eye, but it is still the blurb or first 5 pages that decide if I buy or put it back.
June 10, 2013 — 7:51 PM
Lindy Moone says:
As an artist/author who makes her own covers (yes, I went to art school; can’t you tell?), I feel like a spy in the enemy camp. It’s been enlightening. Good intel. I will use it all against you…
June 11, 2013 — 3:36 AM
Wesley says:
I agree like a sonuvabitch with linderan up there at the top. I absolutely hate graphically explicit or exhaustively detailed images of people on the cover. It takes away the thing I love most about books: that the experience is tailor made by my imagination. Those sort of book covers look you right in the eye and say, “Fuck your imagination. THIS is what the characters look like. THESE are their body types and bone structures. THIS is how they dress. And if they look like spoiled moody trust fund douchebags to you, then it’s just too damn bad!”
Of course the cover art should be a depiction of what’s inside. Why wouldn’t it be? But I like it more when it’s somewhat abstracted or if the art implies or suggests. Just off the top of my head, Bentley Little wrote a book called “The Policy.” It was about an insurance company that was literally evil with supernatural qualities and everything. The cover art shows a dingy yellowed sheet of paper with a jar of ink and a fountain pen resting on it. That’s it. The ink is a deep red suggesting that the ink is blood. The cover art doesn’t give away anything at all and it suggests the sometimes intimidating weight of commitment felt when signing a legal contract to pay strangers money to keep your family healthy. It shows you nothing, but expresses so much.
Finally, just being sentimental here. I miss all the gaudy horror paperback covers I saw in the 80’s. Even in the checkout line at the grocery store there were these displays of paperbacks with skulls and skeletons and drops of blood on them. With hair, without hair. Human skulls or skulls with fangs and horns. And then there were the ones that had windows. They’d be a little bit creepy, but then you opened the cover and saw the whole picture and it was horrifying. I’d see that shit everywhere back then.
June 11, 2013 — 3:55 AM