How important is the book title and cover?

[gary compton]

I just wondered how important is the title of a book, will it add to or deter sales and also is the book cover important?

[BookStop]

The title of the book is very important, initially at least until it takes off in sales according to its own brilliance. I don't think cover work is as impt, however I've also picked up many a book just because it's pretty.

[Mark Robson]

I would say that the cover art is even more important than the title. The artwork will attract the initial interest. When I changed the artwork on the Darkweaver books I sold as many books that year as I had in the previous 4 years! Don't underestimate the power of a good cover.

[Anthony G Williams]

Covers are important to people who browse in bookshops, but much less so to those who learn about books on-line in forums like this one and then buy them on-line as a result.

I have to say that I've never been that bothered about covers. The only time I noticed them was when looking for SF books in a public library in the 1970s; those plain yellow Gollancz covers stood out from yards away, which was a great help!

[Tirellan]

Apocryphal hearsay information - putting a dragon on the cover improves sales of fantasy books

[John Jarrold]

The last market research I saw in the UK said that 50% of paperbacks are bought becuase of the cover. Every publisher spends a great deal of time having meetings about the covers of every book they publish. As a publisher I always involved the author from day one, discussed ideas, artists, and what would work for the sales team - when they take covers to W H Smiths head office, for instance, it may be that the cover will decide whether or not WHS take a new writer at all in their 300-odd stores.

And yes, the dragon quote is apocryphal! If there is a dragon (or dragons) in the book, use them by all means, but not otherwise!!!

[Mark Robson]

Originally Posted by Tirellan

Apocryphal hearsay information - putting a dragon on the cover improves sales of fantasy books

I can vouch for this saying to a degree. I've had several people approach me at signing events to tell me that they only bought Imperial Spy for the dragon icon on the front. They did go on to tell me how much they'd enjoyed the story, which was a relief as there are no dragons in it! However, this did very much shape my thinking when I pitched my current dragon series at S&S ... and they agreed that dragons sell books. There is a very big dragon following out there.

[John Jarrold]

Oh, dragons do sell, for sure (but a new writer's book won't sell just because it has dragons in it!).

But after fifteen years of cover meetings, the one thing I recall from all three companies is the belief that the cover should reflect the book, and its place in the market! Icons can work separately from a descriptive cover artwork, in all genres and sometimes they are the way to go.

But not always...another point where I repeat: there is no template.