How important is the right cover image?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Sure, if you've heard about a book at Goodreads, or here, or "around," that won't push you in one direction or another. but if you're simply browsing, conan50, I think you are dismissing the power of the First Impression.

But do we have a good idea of how much book buying is done by simply browsing alone? I'm certain it's considerable, but I'm also fairly certain word of mouth (or hype) book buying would be at least comparable.

I guess my point is that while a pleasing cover might tempt some (even many) people to look/buy. It's still not going to tempt people to spread the word about a book that sucked (or was mediocre). And with no word of mouth, a great cover will never (in my opinion) push a book from slush-in-the-pile to putting-dinner-on-the-table.

Sure, no one should slap an ugly cover on their hard work. That's common sense. But the idea that an indie author needs to pay visual consultants and hire professional artists for any chance at success smacks of the very elitism and good-ol'-boy pay-to-play mentality that was keeping them from ever being published in the first place.

And yes. I know I'm being very idealistic.

[ChantellG]

Yep, the covers speak volumes. Forget that old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" - because we do! It needs to be something that catches our eye. We may not even know what that book is about but it will certainly draw our attention to the next step of reading the burb and in my most recent case, it did exactly that, to the point of actually reading the book! ... and being pleasantly surprised too. I love my erotica books and am always buying ebooks for my Kindle but so many of the covers are the same! Boring and typical guy/woman or guy/guy or woman/woman standing half naked on the front. The one I found had brightly coloured sweets and chocolates. Firstly, there are not many woman who don't like those!...second, I thought it was quite good for a cover for an erotic book - discreet yet enticing.

[Deleted - MODERATOR] . I loved this book - well, novel really. It's fresh. Very natural. The writer, whilst not the best out there...and not even close to some of the better authors, appears to be very normal, very down to earth and honest. Well that's what I can tell from her style of writing anyway. And it's what I like the most about this book really; well apart from the story of course.

The sex scenes, whilst well described and quite raunchy make me wonder if she actually experienced all those, errr...experiences herself. Hmmmm. In fact, I do wonder if such a place exists! If not...it so should!

Never heard of [Deleted - MODERATOR], nor have I seen any other books written by her so she may be quite new on the erotica scene but for a first time writer - if that's what she is, then I'm quite impressed - although I am easily pleased I guess. As I said, her style of writing is like any one of us talking to our mates. And the sex scenes can get quite hot! They certainly sent my hands wandering beneath the sheets during my bedtime reading. What? I needed the de-stress from my long-assed, hard Monday...and Tuesday, and Wednesday...well you get the picture.

The book's main character is a hardworking, bullsh*t-taking, gossip hating, foul-mouthed everyday typical 30 something - I think - year old woman. She's bored of her bog standard life, sh*tty job and lack of sexual excitement. That's until she randomly gets handed a highly confidential and exclusive invite to a members only event...so to say.

After completing the most awkwardly personal questionnaire about her most intimate sexual desires she ends up spending just under a week in sexual heaven where she gets to be her true inner, sexual self. Well that's once she gets past her feelings of guilty sluttishness, then begins to explore not only herself but a few other guests too.

All this quite timeously before finally meeting the guy for her.

Easy reading. Enjoyable. Sometimes funny, sad and sexy!

[DiapDealer]

See? If good covers were so magnetic, there'd be no need for drive-by promotional spam/sock-puppetry.

(Though I will grudgingly admit that a whole paragraph dedicated to the topic at hand before launching into the advertisement went above and beyond the call of duty. But the segue needed a little work. Too abrupt.)

[ChantellG]

Hi DiapDealer - thanks for your note but to be properly understood, I was actually explaining my experience and full background to a point made initially in that covers are important. I've gone on to suggest - based on my own personal feelings and experience as to why they are important to me and show you just how much of an impact they can sometimes have. Was never meant to come across as advertising as I benefit nothing from it. Was just sharing as this is after all, a mobile read forum on which we can share our thoughts on mobile reads. So where better - in case anybody on the off or very likely chance so happens to be interested - than to mention a good or even bad book? Or have I got it all wrong? Having said that and having re-read my post again - because I do tend to go off on one when writing about something - I admit it does seem to come across as advertise-y but never intended.

[JSWolf]

We get shown covers of books we never asked to see when we do a search. If we make a typo, we get a list that may not include what we were looking for. So we see covers of books we may known nothing about. We see the books we asked about and then we see more books.

When Kobo sends out a coupon that goes with a specific list of books, one of the first things we see is the cover then the title and author.

Overdrive defaults to thumbnail view where the first thing we see is the cover. When we browse newly added eBook to our library, we see the cover be it in thumbnail view or list view. Are you going to read each and every description in hops that the cover you don't like is for a book you might like? I don't think so. You'll look at the cover and the title and the author and go from there.

If you are looking in say Barnes & Nobel, you see book cover first. Have you ever gone over to look at the book because the cover caught your attention? Of course you have. We all have. Have you looked at a book and the cover didn't catch your attention yet you went over to find out more about the book when you didn't know of the book and the author? Not likely. We are more likely to go over to pick up a book when the cover is interesting.

When was the last time you saw a book with a cover you didn't like, knew nothing about the book from the title and knew nothing about the author? Not very often if at all. There are too many books out there to spend the time reading every single blurb to find out if it's a book we might like.

A good example of a bad cover is the new cover from Penguin for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I would not be picking that up if I saw the new cover and knew nothing about the book. The cover doesn't go with the book and it's a creepy cover. So I'd just pass it up even though I would like it otherwise.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When was the last time you saw a book with a cover you didn't like, knew nothing about the book from the title and knew nothing about the author? Not very often if at all.

To be perfectly honest; I can't remember the last time I took any notice of the cover of a book that I knew nothing about (title/author) ... period. I'm not a window-shopper.

I know we're talking about the public at large, here, but you asked the question, so I felt compelled to answer.

[dickloraine]

Maybe Covers are now more important to sell a book, then they were. Remembering the old times, when I was browsing books in real bookstores, I mostly just saw the spines of the books. Sure, some lucky (or more likely paid) exemplars showed me their cover. But most stand spine by spine in long bookshelf. I had to hold my head in a strange 70° angle to even read the titles and authors.

If I now browse for books online, I always see at least a thumbnail of the cover. Not that I choose many books to read this way myself, but for many people this should have an impact, so I think.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ChantellG

Hi DiapDealer - thanks for your note but to be properly understood, I was actually explaining my experience and full background to a point made initially in that covers are important. I've gone on to suggest - based on my own personal feelings and experience as to why they are important to me and show you just how much of an impact they can sometimes have. Was never meant to come across as advertising as I benefit nothing from it. Was just sharing as this is after all, a mobile read forum on which we can share our thoughts on mobile reads. So where better - in case anybody on the off or very likely chance so happens to be interested - than to mention a good or even bad book? Or have I got it all wrong? Having said that and having re-read my post again - because I do tend to go off on one when writing about something - I admit it does seem to come across as advertise-y but never intended.

It comes off as "advertis-y spam" because while you (very briefly) mentioned covers, the rest of the post had absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. Nobody else discussed the interior of a book the story, or presumably, how much they "loved" the characters' adventures--again, utterly unrelated to the covers.

If you want to recommend books to read, there are suitable and appropriate threads. The MR forums are pretty religiously, rigorously and scrupulously moderated for this type of activity. As you are new, you couldn't have known--you may wish to read the FAQ's, stickies, etc., here so you don't run into further issues.

Hitch

[JSWolf]

What I find silly is when a book has a good cover and it's changed for a poor cover. Like a book made into a movie and the book's cover is changed for a movie poster.

[conan50]

Good points. But I'm trying to think of any use case personally where the cover becomes most prominent. 90% of the time I read a book on recommendation of others. When I get burned, and I have several times in book purchases, is when I see a very cool cover, a decent synopsis, and I take a gamble on the unfamiliar author, only to be completely disappointed by the book.
The other time the cover matters is the case you mentioned using Overdrive. Covers have misled me so many times regarding books there that I almost always just check out familiar authors now so as not to waste my time or the library's funds. Truly, book covers are by all means the worst way to choose a book IMO. Recommendations are the best IMO. Better than 70% of the time when I pick books based on the cover it's a terrible disappointment.
Anyone with cash can hire a great graphic designer and have an awesome book cover, but not just anyone can write good or even readable novels
PS--I think because of experiences like mine, that over time more readers will become increasingly wary no matter how shiny the cover of a book may be. What I have begun to do recently is to take a look inside and read enough to get the feel of whether or not I would like the book. That look inside feature at Amazon is priceless, and is becoming my new best friend :-)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by conan50

Good points. But I'm trying to think of any use case personally where the cover becomes most prominent. 90% of the time I read a book on recommendation of others. When I get burned, and I have several times in book purchases, is when I see a very cool cover, a decent synopsis, and I take a gamble on the unfamiliar author, only to be completely disappointed by the book.
The other time the cover matters is the case you mentioned using Overdrive. Covers have misled me so many times regarding books there that I almost always just check out familiar authors now so as not to waste my time or the library's funds. Truly, book covers are by all means the worst way to choose a book IMO. Recommendations are the best IMO. Better than 70% of the time when I pick books based on the cover it's a terrible disappointment.
Anyone with cash can hire a great graphic designer and have an awesome book cover, but not just anyone can write good or even readable novels
PS--I think because of experiences like mine, that over time more readers will become increasingly wary no matter how shiny the cover of a book may be. What I have begun to do recently is to take a look inside and read enough to get the feel of whether or not I would like the book. That look inside feature at Amazon is priceless, and is becoming my new best friend :-)

+1

You took the words right out of my fingertips: both the LITB and the free sample are the savior of many a poor reader!!!

Hitch

[crich70]

Ah but even if it doesn't influence a given reader's choice to read this or that book I imagine knowing such information about how to make a good cover for their book is a help for the fledgling writer who might otherwise make a costly mistake that results in fewer sales of their work.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by crich70

Ah but even if it doesn't influence a given reader's choice to read this or that book I imagine knowing such information about how to make a good cover for their book is a help for the fledgling writer who might otherwise make a costly mistake that results in fewer sales of their work.

Oh certainly. Nothing at all wrong with being informed. I just don't think they need to dwell on finding (or paying someone for) the magic color, the magic font, the magic image content to make the impulse buyer pull the trigger and purchase their book. A) because such archetypal magic influence doesn't exist. B) "Not-ugly" is cheap and easy to accomplish (and very likely has comparable results to "pretty"). And C) If their book is good; I want them focused on the sequel/followup rather than futzing with fonts, looking at swatches and interviewing artists.