How important is a good front cover?

[I, Brian]

Here's something to think about -

- there's a lot of good sf/f artwork out there - - - and a lot that is pretty poor.

In the higher bracket of covers you have the lush paintings of the Peter F. Hamilton and Raymond E Feist covers...and going down the scale I'd say we're into the first Wheel of Time book, where a man simply standing in a white shirt is supposed to be evocative of a great fantasy epic (hey, I'm a critic!).

But how many people actually care for the cover design - are you more interested in what's on the pages inside? Or does a cover have to draw you in? Do you judge a book by it's cover when browsing in stores - and if so, what draws you in - something enigmatic or great landscapes?

[littlemissattitude]

Titles influence me much more than cover art when selecting books. Especially browsing in the library, I've picked up lots of books just on the strength of them having an interesting title. That's how I started reading Kage Baker, for instance, and Tim Powers, just to mention a couple of authors I've discovered in the past two or three years.

Then, after titles, the flyleaf blurb, or the blurb on the back cover of a paperback - the sort of publisher's come on to read the book - often influences whether or not I'll read a book. This is true to the point that I have sometimes picked up a book with an interesting title, but put it back on the shelf if it didn't have a descriptive blurb, but only presented quotes from reveiws or from other authors about how good the book is or how wonderful the author's other work is. I want to know something about the book before I start reading it, and if the publisher is not willing to give up a hint I'm not sure I want to read it. It's kind of like films that the studio will not show to reviewers before the date of opening - I tend to suspect that if they don't want to give some indication of what the book is about, it might be that it's a really boring book. Obviously, I probably miss some good books this way, but there are more books out there than I will ever be able to read, anyway, so this is as good a way as any to whittle down the list of those I will actually read.

I also sometimes will read a book based on reading a good review of it. This is the case with the book I am reading at the moment, "Pattern Recognition," by William Gibson. I read a review of it when it came out earlier this year and thought that it sounded like an interesting read. So, when I found it on the shelf at my local library last week, I remembered that review, remembered thinking that I might like to read it, and picked it up and checked it out. I'm about halfway through with it, and I am enjoying it immensely.

That was a long way around, I guess, to saying that cover art doesn't influence very much at all the books I buy or check out of the library.

[Gnome]

I'll agree with Li'l Miss. The title and a brief description are what sells to me. Sometimes the illustration will cause me to put down an othewise interesting book because it either makes it look like a romance novel or the characters illustrated look too durivitive or uninteresting......Art can really kill a book for me......unless it's comprised of enigmatic elements (such as the logo of this forum.

[jerchar]

Unfortunately I have been lured by an interesting cover, as well as the resume, I read 3 chapters of this book called The Runelords and now it's ready for my next yard sale. I think that one really has to be careful when looking at a book it's a knife with a double edge, it can really influence you the wrong way. I found out, that the best way to get worthy books is to pick out names in a chat (I have already a list of 15 authors that were talked about on this site and who seem very interesting to me), another way is the net of course, if I have a name I go and check first.
I must say that when I make a spontaneous trip to the bookstore, that's where I am in peril; you see I easily get caught with beautiful paintings starring especially dragons and magicians so I am an easy prey. To avoid being unprepaired I always carry a list of names in my purse (just in case), that way I don't spend my money on bad books.

[dwndrgn]

When I was a teenager - definitely! I always picked up the books with the beautiful art first. I would never buy it unless there was a blurb that told me something about the book and it was interesting to me, but the cover art could draw me to a book I might not have picked up otherwise.

Lately, this is rarely the case as often I'm either browsing the library by spine (which means I'm only going to see the title) or I'm browsing online by subject, author, title etc.

So, while if I'm in a B&M bookstore I might pick up the pretty ones first, they have to pass further inspection before they are purchased.

I am a big fan of beautiful cover art - I would love to have a collection of some of my favorite ones in full-size with frames etc. to be hung on the wall. Of course, that is on my list for when I win the lottery .

Kind of funny that you mentioned this here now as the current book I am reading (Mad Maudlin by Mercedes Lackey/Robin Edgehill) mentions a children's book artist/illustrator and fantasy cover art being used to decorate a room.

[Brechje]

If the cover is cheesy, I'm not buying

...taking a firm stand there

[Crimson.King]

I am drawn in by an interesting brightly colored cover, but whats inside the book matters most to me. I'm not going to buy a book just because the cover looks really cool. But if u want people to look at your book, authors, then you need to make the cover pleasing to the eye, or people might just pass it up. Hype is also a determining factor in buying a book. If a book like say, Harry Potter, gets a lot of hype then i might buy it, or check it out in the library. Personally I dont think Harry Potter is that good, but it gets so much hype you are drawn in to buying it.

[I, Brian]

Yes, hype is a good marketing tool.

But it can backfire by raising expectations too high.

[dwndrgn]

Oh definitely. Manufactured hype tends to be the worst. The best thing to do is get good word-of-mouth hype going.

A good cover will help a book out especially if the author is not well known. A browser is much more likely to pick up a book with an interesting title or an interesting cover. But if the cover isn't done well - new readers may be turned off an unknown author because of cheesy cover art, or they might just pass over it and not even read the synopsis since their eyes weren't drawn to the book itself.

These days it isn't as marked since a great deal of people buy books over the internet at places like Amazon. Their recommendations, what other buyers bought and lists help a reader find new titles without ever having to see the cover. But, while there still are B&M stores out there, the cover art is still important.

[Sleel]

Unfortunately, cover art has influenced me in the past, and may nail me again sometime in the future. I have picked up trash just because the cover was well-done. I have passed up good books--that I later read and enjoyed immensely--because of poor art or bad layout on the cover. There are books whose covers are so terrible I have had to specifically warn people about the cover when I recommend them.

Recent offenders are the King's Blades series by David Duncan. They look like romance covers. Bad romance covers. Catherine Asaro's "Ascendent Sun" or "Quantum Rose" look like Fabio could have been one of the models they used for the cover. These are good, solid Fantasy and Science Fiction novels with covers that would turn away most serious SF/F readers if they didn't already know the authors' work.

[Hypes]

Book cover is reasonably important for me when I'm standing in the shop, looking for new material to read.

[Lacedaemonian]

The best authors have the best artists usually. I stay away from anything looks remotely like Dragonlance/Terry Brooks art work. If I see some quirky style of artwork I am also drawn to look at the book. The title and character names are also important. I vaguely remember picking up A Game of Thrones and reading the character name Robb and putting the book straight back down on the shelf. It turns out that was a poor judgement call on my part, as it is one of the all time great fantasy works.

[erickad71]

I have definitely been swayed by cover art. Especially if I don't have something particular in mind when I walk in the bookstore. It doesn't hurt if you have a great looking cover, it draws me in and makes me pick the book up and check out what the synopsis says.

[tonic]

Nicely drawn cover art draw me like a moth to a flame but never buy random books that I pick up. No matter how beautiful or trashy the cover looks I will always check reviews by friends or soemone who ahs the same tastes in books as me and figure idf it's any good. I hate wasting my time by startinga series and it turning out to be trash. The inside of a book is what get's me not the cover though that's an added bonus. Though i have to sayt here's some pretty ncie cover art out there. Fool's fate for example is magnificent cover art with the dragon stuck in the iceberg. on ther other hand there are some of the WOT books that have dreadful cover art.

[Michael]

I love a good cover myself. But all the Dean Koontz books I've read have simple designs on the cover and they apparently sold very well. Not to mention I liked a few of them myself (especially *Midnight*).