Do book covers make a difference?

[soulfuldog]

Buying a book by a known author, then no, the cover is almost immaterial (though I would notice if it was terrible).

If I'm just browsing, then yes it does help in the selection process. Browsing a page that shows thumbnails and titles of books, the difference between a well designed cover and a poor one can be the difference between clicking on one book or another to read the blurb and ultimately buy it.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I would never buy a book whose cover features a mostly naked guy with great muscles. Experience has taught me that these just aren't my kind of books. And books that feature a courtroom or a gavel or Lady Justice on the cover aren't either. Covers make a difference but for me it's mostly in the negatives.

If a book has an acceptable cover than I read the blurb, maybe some reviews, a synopsis of the story.

I avoid covers that look scary or have alot of blood on them. I don't read thrillers or anything gory. I don't need the nightmares.

[John Carroll]

I avoid covers that have video game models in them.

[theinfamousj]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you mean the book cover is in 3D? How have they done that?

I would buy a Magic Eye book cover for sure!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Nah. I'm too nice and I have two brothers. One who is into hot rods. My Dad is a mechanic. I grew up around those type posters hung everywhere.

I know the type of posters. The type where if you notice the vehicle, have eye problems.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Yes.

I wasn't speaking of displaying the cover on an e-reader, or of buying books by an author already known to you; I was talking about browsing for a book. A cover image conveys a lot of information that tells me instantly if I want to take a closer look.

I don't browse for a book by looking at the pretty pictures.

For example, I've signed out more than a hundred ebooks from my library over the past couple of years. Not once did I browse aimlessly through the library's selection. I accessed all those books by searching for an author or title that I wanted. I find books through research and reviews and recommendations. This forum is a great resource for that, I get information about books without any covers (I have blockers on my browser so no images show in posts).

I don't particularly notice covers when I click on a page at Amazon or anywhere else. I scroll straight past covers to the description or review. I bought an ebook a couple of days ago and I don't have any idea what the cover looked like. When I checked in calibre just now, it downloaded with a generic white cover with the title and author name. I don't use the cover view in calibre and I don't replace generic covers.

I did specifically say in my earlier post that I'm not typical, but it shouldn't be that big of a stretch to understand that not everyone cares about book covers.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

My favorite illustrator, Chris McGrath has a web site I browse every once in a while. His covers make me drool, as they seem to be a slice out of time in a story I want to read. Because if it's half as good as the cover it'll be a great buy.

Chris is the one who draws covers without actually having read the book. Take a look at his covers for The Dresden Files series. All wrong. Harry does not wear a hat and early on, his cloth duster was changed for a leather duster. So on most of the covers, we have Harry wearing a hat with a cloth duster. That's wrong. It just doesn't work. I'm sorry, but when the illustrator gets such simple details wrong, it's not a sign that the illustrator actually cares.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you mean the book cover is in 3D? How have they done that?

The cover is not 3D. The cover is just a film poster (well, the new cover) and the movie does not need to be in 3D. It's just a gimmick to be able to sell higher priced tickets. Plus, I'm not a fan of wearing sunglasses while watching a movie.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Synamon

I did specifically say in my earlier post that I'm not typical, but it shouldn't be that big of a stretch to understand that not everyone cares about book covers.

It would seem it's nigh on inconthievable.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by readingaloud

The original cover art for The Great Gatsby was done before the book was finished, and Fitzgerald claims to have written it into the book. In at least that case, the cover does matter.

Covers are a factor in my buying decisions, but they're not the only factor. When I bought an e-book version of The Great Gatsby, I ended up choosing an edition with a cover I don't much like but with many explanatory notes. The notes helped me better understand all the cultural references, and were ultimately more important than the cover in this particular case.

I greatly prefer the blue cover for its haunting and mysterious quality.

[corroonb]

I like a nice cover design and a bad one can really put me off a book even by an author I like. I'll often try to find a nicer cover. This is a lot easier with ebooks as you can simply replace the cover.

We often forget that books are objects. Although we read them for their contents, we can still take pleasure in a well-designed cover and well-bound (or formatted) book. I love Folio Society books because they have unique cover designs and are better bound and crafted than any mainstream paperback or hardback.

[GeoffR]

A nice cover is one positive factor (DRM-free status, ePub format, no geographic restrictions are others) that I take into account. It doesn't affect whether or not I ultimately buy the book, but they may affect how much I am willing to pay, whether I buy the book now or leave it to sit in my wishlist for a while, and which publisher's edition I choose.

[BeccaPrice]

I'm with Harry. I don't know that I pay much attention to covers when I look at Amazon pages for books (although I'm sure that a lousy cover will jump off the screen at me), and I have my kindle to display list views, so I don't really see the covers at all anymore. I'd be tempted to have the cover display as my screen saver like I have set up on my Sony 350, except that I have one of the wake/sleep covers for my Paperwhite, and so would still never see the covery anyway.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

The New York Times recently had an article about the competing book covers for "The Great Gatsby": the original blue cover with the disembodied face, and a movie tie-in edition featuring the cast from the new Baz Luhrmann film.

This got me thinking: do book covers make a difference, especially with e-books?

Despite the saying that "you can't judge a book by its cover", I find myself doing that. When I see a cover that looks as it took all of 30 seconds to design, it makes me wonder, perhaps unfairly, how carelessly produced the contents are if so little attention was given to the cover. And I wonder about that even in the era of e-books, when covers are less visible than before.

What are your thoughts on this?

It is every bit as important as on music albums. maybe more so in ebooks than in a paper based Brick and mortar bookstore. Think about how we shop for books, both online and in person.

Online, when we browse we see the cover (or a grey rectangle) with the name and a bit of exposition about the book. That bit of catalogue that represents someone's book is displayed in a long list of books with maybe similar titles and maybe similarly named authors depending on how we sort.

A good cover can make a book stand out in a crowd of rectangles and tiny fonts.

But in a Brick and mortar store, the books are divided up by genre and placed side by side with often just the spines showing. I would suggest the title and spine decoration is more important in such a situation than the cover (though I wouldn't minimize cover art too much, once they pull a book, they need to be encouraged to open it.)

Good cover art is good business and more fun for browsing regardless of the situation.

[tompe]

Covers help me remember the book better.