Do bad book covers influence you

[dustinzgirl]

From a branding perspective (ha ha I could pull out all my book notes here but I won't) images have a huge impact on perceptions, thats why companies spend billions developing brand images. Ever notice how ALL of Stephen King's books or Frank Herbert's or Harlequin Romances have similar covers to their pre/sequels? This is because of brand recognition...people are more likely to recognize an image associated with a product than the actual product itself. They associate a feeling with the brand image. So for the general public, book covers are very important. If you want to sell millions of copies, you better have a really recognizable book cover.

However, there is always the purist perspective, which as shown throughout this whole thread has a huge impact on choices in sf/f. I think this is a little different, but not too much in marketing a book by its cover. Purists want something not because of its brand image, but because of its characteristics. You know, a lot of high tech guys I know won't even buy an iPhone because they have really junk functionality, or car guys who will buy a car thats all original but rusted like nobody's business, the same is true for sf/f purists, the niche market isn't as worried about brand image as meeting the needs of the purist.

Personally, I don't even look at book covers as part of my buying experience, I'm more interested in the middle pages. I read the blurb, first page, middle page, and then make a buying choice. Of course, I haven't been able to get to the book store in about a million years, so I rely a lot more on amazon.com's statements than anything else, in which case I still don't worry about the book cover.

[Lady of Winterfell]

I have to admit that covers do influence me somewhat. I don't make my decision based solely on the cover, but a bad cover would definately deter me from picking the book off the shelf to find out more.

[Damiynn]

Thanks Caibaxx, I think. I will though soon have the opportunity to change the cover on my book when the second comes out soon, for that I think I will be grateful.

[manephelien]

I don't really worry much about covers, although blurbs do put me off buying a book more often than they convince me to buy it.

[Clansman]

With the advent of fora (let us not digress into the debate about the proper latin plural for that word again) like this one, and review sites like www.fanlit.net, book covers are becoming less important. It used to be they would have a major impact, as almost all book shopping was done in a store. A lot of my book shopping, at least the browsing part, is done on-line, and I have been given great intelligence on what great books I should be reading and what bad books I should avoid. I never pay attention to amazon reviews, because anyone with an axe to grind can post. It is good to have some editorial control on reviews (at least a little).

I still like to order through my FLBS (Favourite Local Book Store), because they are nice folks and I like to support them.

Still, a good cover both speaks to the story inside the book, and entices the reader who might be interested in that kind of story. A bad cover may prevent be from opening a book for a while.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Clansman

With the advent of fora (let us not digress into the debate about the proper latin plural for that word again) like this one, and review sites like www.fanlit.net, book covers are becoming less important. It used to be they would have a major impact, as almost all book shopping was done in a store. A lot of my book shopping, at least the browsing part, is done on-line, and I have been given great intelligence on what great books I should be reading and what bad books I should avoid. I never pay attention to amazon reviews, because anyone with an axe to grind can post. It is good to have some editorial control on reviews (at least a little).

I still like to order through my FLBS (Favourite Local Book Store), because they are nice folks and I like to support them.

Still, a good cover both speaks to the story inside the book, and entices the reader who might be interested in that kind of story. A bad cover may prevent be from opening a book for a while.

I can copy almost that post and post it as mine.

I dont care about covers at all , do my browsing online 99 % of the time. When im sure which books i want i go to my favorit local bookshop and support them. They even started calling me by my first name since im there so often


Only time i buy books by browsing the shelfs are when i find books of my favorite authors that i wasnt planning on getting this month. When the book reader in me get too gready


The blurbs have much more power for me than the cover. A good synopsis online sells alot books to me.

I dont even blink at the covers most of the time.

[BookStop]

Nah - covers aren't that big a deal to me. i suppose as an author, you'd want the cover to represent your idea of the book inside, but quite honestly, makes no difference to me. I can only picture about 5 or 6 covers of my 2000+ books.

[Ice fyre]

Some covers can influence me, It wont stop me from reading it if the synopsis catches my interest. It is funny how a lot of covers bear absolutley no relation to the book that they are protecting. A bad cover does put my wife off though, which is amazing to me. She read the Assasins apprentice trilogy almost purley for the cover art.

[murphy]

Originally Posted by Ice fyre

Some covers can influence me, It wont stop me from reading it if the synopsis catches my interest. It is funny how a lot of covers bear absolutley no relation to the book that they are protecting. A bad cover does put my wife off though, which is amazing to me. She read the Assasins apprentice trilogy almost purley for the cover art.

In other words, she likes the art of Michael Whelan, as do I. I picked up the book because of his artwork. Was disappointed that he only did the first two in the series. However, I continued reading the books because they were good.

[Hedrigall]

I thought I'd just throw in that my favourite cover artist is Edward Miller (AKA Les Edwards) - seen on the covers of China Mieville's books (see my user icon), the Lies of Locke Lamora, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, and dozens of other fantasy books lately.

Here's his website: Edward Miller Fantasy Art :: Homepage

[Clansman]

Originally Posted by Ice fyre

It is funny how a lot of covers bear absolutley no relation to the book that they are protecting.

This is very true, and except for the richest, best-selling authors, it is the publisher who often decides what goes on the cover. I often suspect a cover artist only reads the synopsis before painting, or pulls some piece of crap out of their closet that they haven't yet managed to sell.

If a book is art, then it should by necessity include an appropriate cover. I remember Terry Goodkind freaking out about the cover of Wizard's First Rule (and rightfully so, as the dragon on the front filled about three pages of the whole book). Then again, Goodkind freaks out about nearly everything. Steven Erikson has had some awful covers for the Malazan books, and I am sure that the artists did not read them (if they had, the figures on the front would never have looked so darn sexily heroic, like a romance novel).

One of the reasons I love Janny Wurts books is that she does her own covers (except for her first novel, Sorcerer's Legacy, and alas, it shows). This is a link to the cover of her latest, Stormed Fortress,

Wars of Light and Shadow 8: Alliance of Light 5: Stormed Fortress

which I think is a great cover, because (a) it is well painted, and (b) it relates directly to the subject matter inside the book. She has done different covers for UK and US editions through the whole series (UK gets landscapes, US gets characters). This newest cover is part of a repackaging of the entire series of books, and the look is really crisp.

Though book covers matter less nowadays for selling books (in my view), they are important to the entire artistic process involved in creating a book. In many ways, the cover is as important as the title. The old adage still applies, however, about not judging a book by its cover. A lot of good books have had really, really bad covers.

[The Procrastinator]

Covers have never mattered much to me, because so often they don't have much bearing on the contents. (I'll agree with you, Clanny, about Wurts' books, though - they fit nicely with her stories, as they should). I'm much more likely to pay attention to the title, and if it intrigues me, I'll read the blurb and see if it still intrigues me, and then I'll think about buying it.

One of my favourite books I picked up 2nd hand somewhere despite the cover - it was a godawful thing with a sexy mysterious looking woman in a scanty gown (how surprising) and a skull and candles - quite vomitous. But the title sounded cool so I read the blurb. The actual story turned out to be about alien contact, the meeting of two civilisations, ours and these hairy natives - very anthropological, absolutely wonderful (the hairy people were great) and not a single image on the cover had anything to do with the story whatsoever.

Having said that, I also started reading the Discworld series purely because of the cover of the Light Fantastic, the blurb didn't do much for me at all (I was and still am suspicious of comic fantasy in general) but I could not resist that cover, and in the end I gave in and bought it.

[scifi_vision]

Book covers influence my buying decision very much. In a way the cover sets the feel of the whole book for me. And for me covers are very personal thing. They don't have to look great at all. In fact I often found myself liking poorly executed covers that were genuine or had something original in them that captured my attention. Being an artist I can often see when the cover was quickly done in a hurry (just get it over with attitude) vs a work from the heart perhaps by an inexperienced artist who did the best he could with his lacking skills.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by The Procrastinator

One of my favourite books I picked up 2nd hand somewhere despite the cover - it was a godawful thing with a sexy mysterious looking woman in a scanty gown (how surprising) and a skull and candles - quite vomitous. But the title sounded cool so I read the blurb. The actual story turned out to be about alien contact, the meeting of two civilisations, ours and these hairy natives - very anthropological, absolutely wonderful (the hairy people were great) and not a single image on the cover had anything to do with the story whatsoever.

Same here Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein is one of the best books in my collection the cover is so awful and has nothing to do with the story.

One of the worst covers i have seen. Its one of the newest editions too.

I will get later a collecting version hardcover,hardback not only collection reasons in this case...

[scalem X]

Sometimes you just go for the author. When I browse though, I tend to be attracted to both the horrible ones and the really cool ones. After all a horrible cover makes me think: damn, it's on the shelf and it's not because of the horrible cover.
A cover is bad if it shows unprofessionalism or doesn't draw the attention.