Does anyone else refuse to read books with AI-generated covers?

[ownedbycats]

I do. Figure that if the cover is generated, there's a good chance the text is too. No thanks.

[DNSB]

Cover artists are a moderately expensive option. Generally, if I think the cover used AI, I will download a sample and then decide if I want to read the book.

OTOH, I've seen quite a few covers generated using images from the Internet with text overlaid. Do you also refuse to read those?

[Sirtel]

No. I don't think the entire book has been generated by AI just because the cover is. And frankly, I don't even pay enough attention to the cover to notice how it's been generated.

The same overused images on different book covers annoy me more, but I don't refuse to read them either.

[haertig]

A good book cover will attract me to a book. But a bad cover will not repel me from a book however.

If I rejected books based on their covers, there are a ton of thrillers that I would have never read. Do you know how many thriller books have a cover of some person in the foreground, in silhouette, facing or running away from the viewer, heading towards some building/landscape/object in the distance?

Geez, if I had to reject all these books with those similar lame covers - I wouldn't have anything to read. Doesn't really matter if AI did the cover of some inexpensive artist who has mastered the silhouette (seems easy enough, since you don't have to draw any details) did it. All things considered, I would rather have a good cover if possible. Those look better all lined up nice and pretty in Calibre.

Here's the cover of a book that I just read. I really liked the book. But I consider the cover rather unimaginative. Hey look! - There's that same guy in silhouette standing there!

[varia]

I'm in the "read a sample" camp. Many authors are now using AI for cover artwork, editing, and text to speech narration (the latter of which is beneficial for the hearing impaired community). As long as they are up front about AI use for those purposes I wouldn't necessarily hold it against them.
I think it helps when authors make an effort to connect with their readers, if gives the readers confidence in what they are purchasing.

[DiapDealer]

I don't look at a cover long enough to know whether it's generated or not. Nine times out of ten, I only see thumbnails of covers. On smaller mobile device screen to boot.

[theducks]

A cover can suck me in to opening the book (or the ad/blurb).
I am not sure how to tell the diff from an AI cover or an author with limited art skills
What does annoy me is when READING the book, that the cover contains elements that are contrary to the story.

And I see no reason for HiRes covers as long as it is at least 50% of my screen resolution (scales up decently).

[Karellen]

I am a sucker for a good cover. I will stop my scrolling at an interesting cover and read the blurb on the book, then read the sample if I liked the blurb, then buy the book if I liked the sample.

I think many authors don't realise how important a cover can be in attracting attention.

A cover should be representative of the story.

I was browsing imgur looking for examples of bad covers and came across this. I wonder what this book is about...
https://imgur.com/gallery/case-you-m...ay5OI#/t/books
(imgur so some may not see the image)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I was browsing imgur looking for examples of bad covers and came across this. I wonder what this book is about...
https://imgur.com/gallery/case-you-m...ay5OI#/t/books
(imgur so some may not see the image)

I took a look at the cover and felt no urge to purchase the book though I admit the author name did cause me to look twice.

[theducks]

WHY! the redundant subtitle?

[JSWolf]

A bad cover can turn me off if I've never read or heard of that author. A good cover can get me to take a look at the book.

[Sirtel]

For me the cover often indicates a subgenre I might want or not want to read. Half-naked male torsos on the covers of romance novels turn me instantly off and I won't buy it (I do read romances occasionally). A cover indicating a cozy novel or a harem/men's adventure novel usually makes me scroll on, although there have been a few exceptions. A generic mystery (yes, these silhouettes )/fantasy/SF cover and I usually read the synopsis.

As to the quality of the cover, I don't much care unless it's egregiously bad (in my opinion, of course). I do read the synopsis sometimes even then.

[Yapyap]

I try not to judge books by their covers too much but I also do appreciate some genre-specific approaches that tell me instantly if the book is a genre I might like or not - like the above-mentioned half-naked male torsos, which I appreciate in the sense that I know I’m not the target group. (I don’t mind some romance in my books and I don’t judge people who like bodice-rippers or smutty romances or books where romance is the focus and the point of the story; I’ve read my share of M-rated shippy fanfic in my time, but romance-focused stories of that sort only have the possibility to appeal to me if I already feel invested in the characters.)

One big exception is the sort of covers Baen goes for - as I read a fair bit of SF & adventure, I always feel like some of their authors might be to my taste but then I see their covers and I’m just instantly put off. There’s something about their house style that is the very opposite of appealing to me. Maybe because I’m a woman, or because I obviously didn’t grow up with the 1950s sort of pulp fiction, so there’s no nostalgy factor, but it’s just .. repulsive, heh.

As for AI covers … I can’t necessarily tell immediately if a cover is made with the help of AI or not, unless there’s some obvious indicator like extra fingers or arms growing out of a torso etc, but I do in general dislike the idea of that (using AI instead of hiring a cover artist, no matter how formulaic the house style) happening at least for mainstream traditional publishers.

With self-published authors, especially those new to the scene, I understand that hiring a cover artist is an extra expense out of pocket that they may not even recoup, and with good prompts and thoroughly checking the result, AI can generate decent-looking images at this point after all. I still don’t like it but .. again, if it’s done well, I don’t usually spend time analysing book covers in detail and will likely not notice.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

One big exception is the sort of covers Baen goes for - as I read a fair bit of SF & adventure, I always feel like some of their authors might be to my taste but then I see their covers and I’m just instantly put off. There’s something about their house style that is the very opposite of appealing to me. Maybe because I’m a woman, or because I obviously didn’t grow up with the 1950s sort of pulp fiction, so there’s no nostalgy factor, but it’s just .. repulsive, heh.

Same for me. OTOH, while I might dislike their covers, I've read some very good books from Baen (the Miles Vorkosigan series was one, for example - written by a woman, in fact. With really offputting covers.)

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Same for me. OTOH, while I might dislike their covers, I’ve read some very good books from Baen (the Miles Vorkosigan series was one, for example - written by a woman, in fact. With really offputting covers.)

I vaguely recall I read the first of those books some 10+ years ago and Goodreads tells me I liked it well enough at the time (at this point I don’t really have any memory of it at all to be honest - it was a time when I read a lot of books, and mostly forgot about them 2 minutes later), but I guess that in the end I didn’t really click with it enough to continue. Maybe I should make a note of trying to read some more some day!

So yes, in general, I have no doubt that some of the books they’ve published would work for me.

It’s just that .. I’d need a lot of motivation to even try, heh, and there are so many other books around with blurbs that make them sound worth trying, and much nicer covers...