Book Covers

[pwalker8]

Over in the audiobook, I read a review of an audiobook that sounded interesting, so I checked it out in the kindle store. It was the 5th in a series, so I went to the 1st of the series. It's a Tor book, but didn't really ring any bells. Looking at it, I realized that the style of the book cover was a style that I associated with a type of book that I've tried in the past but didn't like, so I had just glided over it.

That got me to thinking. In the genres that I read, most imprints tend to have a unique style of cover art for most of the books published by that imprint during a certain time period. Perhaps it's because they had an artist they used for most of their covers, but if you put out all the SF&F books published in 1990, you could likely sort them out by imprint just based on the cover.

Back in the good old days, when I went to books stores, I would scan the new books and much of the time, the first thing I noticed was the book cover. I would think, "that looks interesting" before I had actually picked up the book and looked at the blurb on the back.

I do that now with ebooks. As I scan the SF&F books in the Amazon list (or Apple for that matter), if the book cover is Manga inspired, I just skip past it. That implies a style of indie that I just don't find interesting. If it's a picture of the author's girlfriend dressed up as a character in the book, well forget it.

I think that if I were an indie, I would definitely budget money to get a professional done cover rather than some guy off the internet who will do it for $250.

So what say you? Are book covers the first thing that catches your eye? Do you categorize books based on their cover?

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

So what say you? Are book covers the first thing that catches your eye? Do you categorize books based on their cover?

I usually find new books by looking through the my library's new Overdrive listings. The cover is not the first thing I look at but it is one clue as to what's inside. My favorite genre is mysteries the cover art can be an indicator as to whether the book is a cozy, thriller, etc. For example, cute picture of a little shop? Cozy.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Are book covers the first thing that catches your eye?

No.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Do you categorize books based on their cover?

No.

[DiapDealer]

Same as j.p.s.

I'll glance at the cover. Other than that, though, it's not really a factor. Most of the cover thumbnails I see when browsing are too small for me to notice whether they're hideous or not anyway. And once my interest has been piqued enough to go to the details page of a book, the cover may as well not exist for all I care about it.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Same as j.p.s.

I'll glance at the cover. Other than that, though, it's not really a factor. Most of the cover thumbnails I see when browsing are too small for me to notice whether they're hideous or not anyway. And once my interest has been piqued enough to go to the details page of a book, the cover may as well not exist for all I care about it.

Was that the case in the good old days before Amazon when you went to book stores?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

So what say you? Are book covers the first thing that catches your eye? Do you categorize books based on their cover?

The cover is the first thing that catches my eye. If I see a bare-chested hunk on the cover, for example, I'll know it's a romance and I won't look at the details. Once I've read the synopsis, I don't much care what the cover looks like. But yes, I'm more likely to read the synopsis the better the cover is.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

My favorite genre is mysteries the cover art can be an indicator as to whether the book is a cozy, thriller, etc. For example, cute picture of a little shop? Cozy.

Yes, exactly.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Was that the case in the good old days before Amazon when you went to book stores?

Yep. The book stores/libraries were primarily presented spine out and I was looking for specific titles/authors anyway. I was a card-catalog junkie. I can't remember a time when I was browsing for books by looking at covers. There may have been such a time when I was really young, but I realized early on that there was rarely a connection between me liking a cover and me liking a book (and vice-versa). I never really did get the connection between artwork and book-writing/reading. Maybe if it was an book of art, I'd feel differently.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yep. The book stores/libraries were primarily presented spine out and I was looking for specific titles/authors anyway. I was a card-catalog junkie. I can't remember a time when I was browsing for books by looking at covers. There may have been such a time when I was really young, but I realized early on that there was rarely a connection between me liking a cover and me liking a book (and vice-versa). I never really did get the connection between artwork and book-writing/reading. Maybe if it was an book of art, I'd feel differently.

Yeah...sometimes I didn't even look at the covers in the library or bookstore. I would look at the title on the spine, then pull the book out and look at the description on the back (or inside the front cover for most hardcovers). Even now, I don't recognize book covers of books I've read before as much as I recognize the title.

Shari

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

...My favorite genre is mysteries the cover art can be an indicator as to whether the book is a cozy, thriller, etc. For example, cute picture of a little shop? Cozy.

I remember when the covers would inevitably have a skull somewhere in the cozy scene. In needle work, or on a teacup for example.

Is that still common?

Example

[JSWolf]

If the cover is rubbish like a lot are for self-published books, I will go right past. Covers that look to my like someone is trying to do fantasy but really it's romance, I will go right past. Most books that have a bare chested man on the cover is romance and I'll go right past. The cover has to catch my eye unless it's a book I am looking for or an author I know of.

Have a look at this sight for some pretty lousy/funny covers. https://lousybookcovers.com

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I remember when the covers would inevitably have a skull somewhere in the cozy scene. In needle work, or on a teacup for example.

Is that still common?

Example

Not from what I've seen by browsing the libraries Overdrive collections.

[ZodWallop]

I do use the cover as at least some sort of guide. If the cover is slapdash and poor, I wonder how much effort has gone into writing and editing the book.

Look, with a title like Time Ninja, it has to be the greatest book of all, right? But that cover is warning me away.



Call me shallow.

[Apache]

Covers have never influenced me into picking up a book. Title and author are the first things that key me into delving deeper into a book. After that it is the info blurb that used to be in the back and inside the front jacket.
Apache

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Apache

Covers have never influenced me into picking up a book. Title and author are the first things that key me into delving deeper into a book. After that it is the info blurb that used to be in the back and inside the front jacket.
Apache

How do you ever find a new book?